BRAVE WOMEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 June 1940, Page 6

BRAVE WOMEN

PARTIES BROUGHT AWAY FROM DUNKIRK EXPERIENCES OF GIRL TELEPHONISTS. EIGHT DAYS UNDER ENEMY BOMBARDMENT. (Received This Day. 12.5 p.m.) By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, June 3. The story of the evacuation of Dunkirk is predominantly a story of men’s heroism, but the continued arrival of small batches of women from the macabre mael strom emphasises that daughters as well as sons of England and France have endured and suffered. Nineteen girl telephonists formerly attached to French headquarters arrived after eight days under enemy mach-ine-guning, bombing and also heavy shellfire for 36 hours. At one stage of their perilous journey to Dunkirk.the girls assisted nurses in caring for the wounded in a large house which was hit by five German shells. The girls escaped and reached Ostend, but there was no boat to take them away, so they went to Dunkirk, where they hid in holes in the beach under German shelling.

LOST SHIPS DESTROYERS & HOLIDAY CRAFT. MEMORIES OF HAPPIER DAYS. (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) RUGBY, June 3. ' The loss, of three further destroyers brings the total of these craft sunk by ene,my action since the outbreak of war to twenty. The Keith and Basilisk were of the Beagle type, and were completed in 1931, the Keith being fitted as a destroyer-leader. The Havant was built for the Brazilian Government and

was taken over by his Majesty's Government.

The names of three vessels announced as lost in the Admiralty communique will be familiar to many British people who knew them in happier times. The Brighton Queen and the Brighton Belle have carried many thousands of holidaymakers across the Channel and for trips along the coast, while the Crested Eagle was one of the most popular ships for trippers to the Belgian coast and Thames ports, from London Bridge.