MAN RESCUED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 March 1941, Page 6

MAN RESCUED

WITH SPORTING CHANCE OF LIFE AFTER BEING UNDER WRECKAGE FOR 71 DAYS. REMARKABLE ENDURANCE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 12.45 p.m.) RUGBY. March 21. The endurance of British civili.I ans under the wanton German air bombardment was typified by the ' example of Frederick Clark, aged 32 years, a war reserve police constable at Clydeside, who was res—cued, with “a sporting chance to i live,” after being trapped for 71 days under the wreckage of a tenement. i While workers were removing a woman's body from the wreckage, they heard moaning, tunnelled furiously and soon got within crawling distance of Clark, who answered shouts by moans. For throe hours doctors and first aid workers stood by while the rescue squad dug carefully and injections were given. Clark's first words to a fellow human being for 180 hours were spoken when a woman doctor crawled into the hole and gave an injection. The doctor said: "That wasn’t bad. was it?" To her amazement. Clark opened his eyes and said: “No, not so bad." He was kept under observation by doctors for three hours, while, piece by piece, wreckage -was removed. He managed to sip three drinks of tea and when extracted nodded his head, as though in thanks, and dozed off. Special arrangements were made at the hospital and he is now undergoing treatment.

The leader of the rescue squad said: “Clark has the physique of a lion and the heart of a lion. He is a real hero. Throughout the operations he kept assuring us that he was all right and helped with instructions as to how to relieve him."