.2,. 5, 40 _No-!.-l SH1~~ING THE HONOUR In order that Canada's non-pGPmancnt active militia may share the honour of partici:-Qating in tho national war effort, its units will be grouped with tho Active Service, Force to s~pply overseas reinforcements. Infantry regiments will in consequence be territorially grouped, but the non-permanent units will continue to be known by their existing titles. This scheme, as time goes on, will enable members of those units which have not been mobilised to serve overseas. Gavalry units will reinfoI'ce the divisional cavalry if and when it is despatched, and will me~time provide reinforcements for the infantry battalions from their territorial areas. A similar procedure will be followed with artillery and other units. DOMINION AND COLONIAL AFFAIRS 5/5/40 -No. 2, FRJ:NCH OFI'ICI.AI, GOMHUNI'\UE (l\10RNING) The following conunuriique was issued this morning b~r the French G. H. Q. : ­ Activity of the contact units. ----000--...... A.M. BULLETIN NQ,. 6~. N0'.11 TO BE Pl!f2~I~EE:;~ 1-llT ANY COUN~ BEFORE THE M01fil=1-NG I~;f~~ TS.f?AP.GRS O:? MONDAY~ 6TH Nffi.Y;­194Q~-9JLJ2B.Ql'J2...QA.§.T BLI'ORL 7 A. I1fo ON THA'T"DATE?.. AIR MINISTRY CASUALTY COMMUNIQUE NO., 28 Gt KEJVJPTON 629'791 Aircraftman 2nd Class J·. W. LINDSAY 625870 AiPcraftman lsi; Class Go LUCAS 752319 AiPcraftman 2.nd Class A.qc., MURDOCH 580576 Sergeant I"N,. ROBERSON 741275 Sergeant Po \fv Q SPENCER 565344 Sergeant B.oJ 0 WIIBON 565833 Sergean~; R, E,, PREVIOUSLY REPORTED "MISSING BELIEVED KILLED11 NOVY PRESU~ lfKILLED ON ACTIVE si:Rvf@.::.1, ·---·­ BOREHAM 39650 Pilot Officer JoW~ WOUNDED OR INJURED ON ACTIVE SERVICI~. COATES 650905 Aircraftman 2nd Class E.A~ KENNY 581395 Sergeant A~J.. ORCHARD 41313 Pilot Officer R.E~ TUCKER 70684 Flying Officer J.D. DIED OF WOUNDS OR INJURIES RECEIVED ON ACTIVE SERVICE. FOST.ER 630009 Aircraf'tman 2nd Class L. F • PARKIN 637487 Aircraftman 2nd Class C. PREVIOUSLY REPORTED INJURBD NOW DIED or INJURIES RECEIVED ON ACTIVE SERVICE. ~~~~~~~~­ CARTER 568628 Leading Aircraftman G.W.D. MISSING BELIEVED KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE. OYSTER 751792 Leading Aircraftman K.J. PATTERSON 523326 J~eading Aircraftman G. W.. VICKERY , 566236 Sergeant K"P~ WILLIAMS 42172 Pilot Officer D~R.. DIED ON ACTIVE SERVICE. -~--·~-·a~--· ADAMSON 06175 Acting Squadron Leader B., C11 CLAVERING 528648 Cor~Joral JqMCKo ELLIOTT 973429 Aircraftman 2nd Class L.W. HOYLAND 972385 A:Lrcraftman 2nd Class W,G.A. .KELLETT 743266 Aircraftman 2nd Class w. KNIGHTS 404303 Lc;ading Aircraftman W.R.Co LERIGO 614754 Aircraftman 1st Class A.G. LITTLE 947680 Aircraftman 2nd Class s.K., PUGH 247396 AJ.rcraftman 1st Class H.E., READ 628775 Ai~craftman lst Class J. SMITH 77168 Pilot Officer C~Ro WELLS 953769 Aircraf'tman 2nd Class J.W. Press & Publicity Branch, A~r Ministry, . King Charles Street, Whitehall, s.w.1~ 5/5/yO No. 4. NORViEGIAN tIINISTBRS IN LONDON. The Norwegian Minister :Lor Foreign Affo.irs, Professor Koht, o.nd the Norv7egio.n Minister for Defence, Colonel Ljungberg, arrived at Euston nt 6-50 this morning with Sir Cecil rma. L.'ldy ~·~ary Dorraer, and the wife of the French Minister to Norw~y. They \'Yere met o.t the station on behalf of the SecretP,ry of State by Sir John r;Ionck. The Norwegian Ministers have come here to consult with His Majesty's Goverrunent. FOREIGN OFFICE, s. w. i. NOT TO BE P'QfilJSHEJ?__ OR BRO.ADCAST BEFORE 7 a.m. on MOJIDAY, MA~ PRESS NOTICE The King has been pleased to approve the f'ollowing appointment:­ Rear Adrairal Henr;y: R~ Moore, o.v.o., D.s.o. to be o. Lord Comrnissioner of the Admiral tY and Assistant Chief of Nnval St aff, in succession to Rear Admiral Harold tr. Burrough, C.B., to date 25th July, 1940. Reo.r Admiro.l Moore to be appointed PRESIDENT nddl. f or a.uty inside Admiralty, to date 25th June, 1940. +·:-·+-:--+ ++-l-+++ ADMIRALTY, WHITEHALL~ s.w.1. E . N i-.6_£ ven1nz ...C?•. __ -·" NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN ANY COUNTRY BI~FOREi TifE EVENINe NEWSPAPERS OF WEDNESDAY 9 8TH MAY, 1940, OR BROADCAST BEPORE 7 A.M., ON THAT DAJ'E. AIR MINISTRY WEEKLY NEWS LETTERe ' ' • (Evening Papers) • B~: The information contained in this News Lettev maybe used by the Press without ackp.owledgement. git is desi,red to refer to the Air Ministry as the source of the information, the expression 11 The Air Ministry Announces:-11 is NOT to be used. C 0 N T E N T S. FIGHTER COMMAND SCORES 50 FOR 1. NEW A.c.A.s. IS KEY MAN. LUNAR LANDSCAPE. v.c's OF THE AIR. THEY CAN RUN TOO. "RESPIRATORS NEEDEDtt. CUCKOO! Press and Publicity Branch, Air Ministry, King Charles Street~ s.. w.. 1. Pilots of the Royal Air Force Fighter Cormnand now fly 2,000,000 miles each month to defend the shores of Britain agai:..rJ.st Nazi air attack. This distance is equivalent to 3,333 flightB from London to Berlin. Night and day the Spitfires and Hurricanes of Fighter Corrmmncl patrol a 700-mile coastline to a height of 5 mil es. Durinc; the first month of war, fighter pilots fle-w les s than 200,000 miles. Each month the mileage has incr·easedo Even duri11g the great freeze of January and February, when f'ighter aerodromes lay inches deep il1 snow the i1ilots of Fighter• Cornmand flew 1,000,000 miles. In March the figure was neqrly 1,700,000 miles. Last month it ro.se again. The most trying of a fi.ghter pilot's duties, are the many wearisome hours which he must spe21d ready f or attacks which may develop at any time. For him, every minute is the minute before zero hour. VVhen war broke out, Fighter Comt1mnd plans for the defe:c·.ce of Britain against mass air raids were completeo. Por the time being those plans have been put into 11cold storagell,.. New ones have been adopted to meet a different menace•. In seven months of war there have been no large-scale Nazi raids on land objectives. Even the attacks on S?apa Flow naval base have been made by not more than 30 bombers c..t a time and they have slipped L1 from the sea in twos and threes at a high altitude. Fighter Command, t h erefore, has been faced with three new tactical problems: (1) To i:nter>cept the single recon.naissance aircraft, which seldom crosses the coast: (2) To def end fishj_ng &'1.d. merchant shipping many miles out to sea against bombing and machine...gunning: (3) To in tercept mine-laying seapl anes at night ,., In each type of raid~ the Nazi airmen adopt "tip-·aad-..ru.} __ n tactics, using cloud an.d poor visibility to the fulL Because / these ,. A ni ce 1Jo.1ancu must ·!Je lccpt betv1een aircraft out:put and will largel y-li.C}?·-~110_. I:n 1 91 9 he vrat3 avrar'ded J,1 'i 936 lw joined the Di:r.'cc tore.tc ():pe. l.,8. ·~ i C)l1 D ru1J L1telligonce, ("\ ·(" '·) ~­ 1Jecdmc a.2. Actill.~ Air Vicc-+1a:cs:i:1al. / T~ nc He has d~veloped the mind of a chess player4 For his new job demands foresight above all else. Aircraft production progrrunme s are not planned in a day nor can they be alt.er>ed in a weelc. Pcrbable future developments of the air war n;iu,st be . consid-:-­ered as well as the needs of the moment. .. What this man does today will have repercussions t.v10 years henceQ His rapid promotion brings heavy l;"espon-sibi~~ties : but he can bear th~m with confiden_ceo When called an avi,ation· expert, Air Vice~Marlshal 8aundby becomes deprecatory. But he boldly admits that he :ts.~-e,xpert fly~~fisher. He has had little time to spare :for' ang.ling since the .•'. . outbreak of war put he is ~till· president of1 the Piscator>ial :.aC>oi.ety . . ':'' .. ' . .t'' . ... -Lond~'n''s oldest fishing club. b_UNAR LANDSCAPE. Aircraft of' the Coastal Gonimand ·keep ceaseless. wa-tch cm Norway's west coast•. Night arid da;y in. '1::.;g and blizzard the .R.A•.F .., reconnaissance patrols fly back and, ,forth I'· eporting and' bombing' ' .. ~. :. enemy naval and troop movements. . the· weather When is .f:lne recortn.~• '~ · aissance· over Norway can be almost a ::pieasure· as the fo:l.J;owing account by a ·pilot shows. ! "We start off in the evening, . in daylight:,;' and._;get •to the Norwegian coast about midnight. . · We ~ee the surt s·~t over th~ ' . North Sea and we see it rise again; because we are away .for 1 j 'or ... . . 12 ho-lu·s. By moonlight the coast looks a.s if it has just been lifted up out of the sea. The fjords look desolate and terribly ·.rugged. There i-s snow everywhere. 11Navigation is difficult. You think you're following );he coast, tl~en you find yourself running into . a blanlc wall; ·you 're going up the fjords instead. "We f'ly at such a height that it is not usually .bumpy. But i:f' i.t -is.rough weather, it's hard work with a heavy machine·. /The 5. The controls bucl: and you have to heave an.d turn the wheel baclcwarcls and forvrardso llLately we have been going often on moonlight nights, and it is very beautiful. The last time I was over Christiansand, all the towr1 were lit up except Oslo. Our objectives were shipping o.nd aerodromes. "I am in constant touch with my sergeant observer in the front turpet, because hets got the best view for map-reading. On good nights we don't need to go low: we just continue at the same height and bornb from there. The observer directs me over the target.. As I fly over, he just presses the but·ton to release the bombs and says, 'bombs planted' o The machine lifts a little and starts to gain speed as soon as the weight of the bombs has goneo "Bombing is an abstract business: we don't see any excitement on the ground., We' re ·!.'ar removed from it all" r·t is a relief when you've dropped your bombsll You feel much better: you sit back and take it easy as you make for homeon v.cis OF THE A:Qk. 13~!....-Lleutenant AoAo McLeodo It was late in March 1918 that Second Lieutenant Alan .A1'nett McJ.lleod, a young Canadian airman not yet 19 years old, won the Victoria Cross for his heroic battle against eight Germru1 It was an amazing display of tenacity ancl couro.geo McLeod and his observer, Lieutenant A.W. Hammond, were attacking hostile ground formations with bomb and machine-gun fire. It was a late winter and snovr still lay on tho ground in many parts of the Western F:ront. After an attack on groun.d forces McLeod climbed to about 5,000 ft. VVhile at that height he was engaged by eight Foldcer triplanes of Richthofen's Circus. There have been few more uneg_ual battleso But the two British airmen gave a magnificent account of themselves~ /By By sl~ilf'ul man.oeuvring McLeod enabl ed Hammond to get in bursts of f:i.re ai~ each machine in turnft Harnmond ' E! marksmanship was goodo Three of the eni:;;rry machines went ·uovvn out of control.. But by this iirne McLeod had been. wounded f'iv.e times and a bullet p,3net11 at5.ng ~he petrol tank had set his a:Lrcraft on fire.. Undaunted McLeod climbed out onto t he por·b wing of his a tr·craft and by side slipping st~t~ply managed to keep the fire from spreading and ail the sarne time to lceep the en emy in his obs8rvers iiine o:e fire until the machine hit the ground in No Man's Hamnond had been vroundecl six times c;.nd vras unabl e to drag h imself f'rom the burning aircraf't~ Despite hj_ s own vroui1.ds and machino·~·gun fire from enemy trenches, McLeod pull~d Hammond f ree and staggered with him to wha·;; J.ittle shelter t her e was .. Then he eollapsed from loss of bloodc McX.,eod returned to his home toi;;m~ Stonewall, I!ianitoba, on leave~ when he was co:l.valesceff~.,, But he died of wounds~ Airmen Qan' run as well as fly~ The cross count I'iJ Ghampionship of the Air Component Squadrons, run over a cour se of · nearly ·~hree miles, mainly grass, j_n France, showed that the lads ove::.'"" ther·e are in fine fettle(\ Nearly 200 t urned out to the •, s t arti.ng flag of the A.O~C., Air Vice-Max•shal C..HoBo Blount.. The field included 28 teams (six men,. four counting) and a· few individual entrants.. . Huoph:rey·&i, a De'al (Kent) boy, who has appeared for Lincolnshire in ill'ter-county events, won the individual championship in fine style in thirteen and a half minutes& Second was L.A.C .. Hughes, vrho wa.s Bedfordshire 3 mile cha.'llpion in 1937 and R.A.F. one mile champ'i.on in the same yearo A.. C. Langley, who comes from Sunder-land way, ran ·thirdo Langley also had the satisfaction of leading home the winning team, all lads from the Sunderland area, and r ece iving the / t eam team chicld from the Air Vice~·Marshalo Members of the team were, .A.c~ I1:::1ni:slc;:,r, Corporal Sharpe, A.C. PrGston, A.C. Howells, A.C. Simpson ancl AoC~ Davidson~ 'I'hese IJorthern lads scored 48 i<'.ints, 21;. -tc;ttsr than their nearest rivalso The .second team also hu.ilcd f'i•om the North, Signallers from Leeds, Corpoi... al Bent, 81,[;nol1nex1 Atki.nson, Gibbs, Toalster, Dean and Griffitho R::;gulations concerning the carrying of gas-masks are • s,srictly enforced in the A.A .. SoF. Por at least half an. hour on one day each week, all ranks must wear their masks, as they go a1Jou·S their usual viork, i11, order to get con1.J"':lletely accustomed to thorn~ So rigid is the rule, that on occasion even telepho1w c~onversat.ions are conducted in masks, thG speakers' toi1cs being muffled, but not in.audible" On at least one occasion since the war began there has ~cm~ a real emergency, necessitating the use of gas-masksJ A certain H.. Qo Mess vras quartered at one time in 1r.rhat had. been a small French provincial hotel. Every night after dini1er members of the mess gathr;;red to listen to tho news bulletin on the raclio in rm ante-room.. Ono night the voice of the announcer was drormod in a risi:ng tide of coughing from the listcncrso Tears ran down tho faces of officers as acr'id fumes filled the airo Soon all prese:nt were coughing and choking helplessly. It appeared that the hotel's refrigerator had gone out of action~ and a stream of arnrnonia fu.rnes was spreading from the baso­mento Orderlj_es, attempting "bo approach the rcfrigorator J stagge1,­ed back., Members of the Mess descended, wearing their gas-masks, to supervise repairs and o.rderlies, working in maslrn, managed to ciuell the iigas attack"., /CUCKOOl CUCKOO! ' "0~45 hours.. cu'hkoo heard but not seeno Course and speed unknovh.J.o 11 · This mysterious statement appears ,_l3.t the foot of a bomber pilot's operational reporto ~ The reasonc ~he pilot had just returned from a succBss­ ful raid over ~forwayv He was in good spirits. As he vmlked across the aerodrome he heard the call of,,.a. cuckoo .. . the ipcident should be recorded officiallyo Tho station InteJdi• gence Offi~er agreed. At the end of his official rq.id report he gave the cuckoo 1 s position by C(;l.refully plot':j;i'.hg the po sitiol'). of the aerodrome according to co""ordinates on the Operations Room map. The '.J·!8r Office. 5th i\llay 1940. The ,:ar O:f:fice issues the following communique: Ther e is nothing of i mportance to report from Narvil<:,, ·where operations are continuing. There has be en slight enemy air activity in this areao 5/5/qO •.:. No ...8. FRI!.::NCH OFFICIAL COiAkIDNIQUE (EVENING) The following officiQl corMaunique was issued from French G.H.Q. this (Sund~y) evening ~ During lnst night in the region of the Saar the enemy, suj/:)orteci. b y heo.ViJ nrtillery fire, nttecked three of our outposts with strong :rorces. These outposts, although surrounded, resisted victoriously until our cm:mter-o.ttack, lea. 1Jy li~:ht tmits, drove the enerny uwn;}r. No•..2., The Admiralty announces : The German claim to have sunk a British battleship and a cruiser of the York class in the operations off Namsos is untrueo ++++++++++