DARING EXPLOITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 August 1940, Page 7

DARING EXPLOITS

HOW ROYAL NAVY SAVED DUTCH QUEEN DRAMATIC INCIDENTS DURING EVACUATION. BLOCKING OF HARBOUR Nothing more dramatic has happened in the war so far than the part played by the Royal Navy in Dutch harbours and oil the Dutch coast.

Officers, blue jackets and marines, arriving in destroyers. motor torpedo boats, mine sweepers and minelayers more than justified the historic name of handymen. At the request of the Dutch authoriities they helped to blow up oil depots block (he harbour entrances, rescue hundreds of refugees, British and Dutch escort the Queen and Royal Family to England, and carried out all these activities despite incessant bombing and even more incessant spying and continuous descents by parachutists.

One naval captain, on landing, was suddenly approached by an unshaven Dutchman. He said: “The Queen is coming along. Look, there she is on the jetty." He saw a lady walking along calmly, with great dignity, in curious contrast with hysterical onlookers. She spoke deliberately and quietly. "Can I do anything, ma’am?" asked the officer.

“I should like to go to Flushing." she replied. “Do you know the way?" “Yes, I know the way all right." said the officer!

“Do you know where the minefields are?" “We know where the German ones are, at any rate." The Queen then asked an aide de camp if he knew where the Dutch minefields were, but he was nonplussed. The Queen walked up the gangway in stately fashion and was ultimately landed safely, as all the world knows, not at Flushing, but on the cast coast of England. FORTUNE IN DIAMONDS. One Dutchman with great courage volunteered to go to Amsterdam to bring back millions of pounds worth of diamonds. He succeeded. A British officer also volunteered to go to Amsterdam, almost at the las; moment, and bring back valuable securities. He. too, succeeded.

Also at the last moment a message was received from a British naval attache at The Hague saying he hoped to reach a certain spot in a rowingboat at a certain hour. He turned up at the exact minute. Some refugees had a terrible time. One ship in which they took refuge was mined as she left a Dutch harbour, but they were all picked up out of the water. Though badly shattered, most of them were able to go aboard another ship. Every telephone message was suspect, every official was possibly a German in disguise. All through these operations the bombing was incessant.

"It was brutal," said one officer, ‘and merciless."

Destroyers did amazingly well with their anti-aircraft fire, as their guns were unsuitable for high-angle firing. One salvo of bombs struck the water on the port side of a destroyer - and set cordite alight. It was an anxious moment, but with great courage a catastrophe was prevented though six men were blown over the side, two losing their lives. GREAT TOWERS OF FLAME, Burning oil depots made a magnificent sight. The flames rose to an enormous height, incidentally providing bearings for the British navigators.Such were these conflagrations that 18 hours afterwards great towers of flame could be seen 50 miles out at sea.

A 12.000-ton liner was used to block the entrance of one harbour, but this was done with difficulty as the Dutch had just sunk for the same purpose two of the most powerful tugs in the harbour.

It was a cheering sight, said one informant, to see a stalwart A.B. with two'Small boys hurrying off with apparatus to blow up an iron foundry. One little group, found huddled in a lifeboat off' the English coast, had been without food and water for 12 hours.

A Sapa-Reuter message says that the navy had three objects—to .assist refugees, to lay mines and, where possible, to assist the British troops ashore. British warships dispatched to the Belgian coast immediately the invasion occurred faced a terrific air bombardment. In some cases the gun-crews were firing from dawn till dusk at German aeroplanes. A force of British soldiers was landed to support the Royal Marines and. assist the Dutch to deal with parachute troops and "fifth columnists.” The Germans had been laying magnetic mines at the port entrances and British minesweepers were sent immediately to clear the passages. Minelayers left within two hours of receiving orders to proceed to Holland, and had completed their task within five minutes of the scheduled time. CALL AFTER CALL. The Navy received call after call for assistance. The destroyer carrying Princess Juliana had a narrow escape when a magnetic mine was dropped 40 yards ahead of her. It exploded with a terrific detonation, but the ship was not. damaged.

When the German forces broke across the Zuyder Zee. British motor torpedo-boats were sent on a hazardous journey across the North Sea through canals to the Zuyder Zee.

Machinery was destroyed ant' everything which could be used by the enemy was wrecked before the Navy left. Naval officers saw German-Jewish refugees being bombed and machinegunned by German planes as they were attempting to reach ships.

One officer said he seemed to be surrounded on all sides by spies and parachutists. It was quite impossible to trust anybody.

The report of one of the officers in charge of the operations states: "I was very deeply impressed by the cheerful, calm and confident bearing and conduct, of the personnel, both naval and marine, which was indeed beyond all praise.”