LOFOTEN RAID

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 109, 10 May 1941, Page 10

LOFOTEN RAID

AUCKLANDER PLAYS PART

SENIOR LANDING OFFICER

An Aucklander, Lieutenant N. J. C. George, R.N.V.R., was senior landing officer in the Anglo-Norwe-gian raid on the German-controlled Lofoten Islands on March 3. Although he had his hands frostbitten, Lieutenant George wrote to relatives in Auckland a few days later describing the raid and his part in it. The letter was received yesterday bv his sister. Miss M. George. "My word, didn't we clean up things a treat," he wrote. "You should have seen the Boche run. Those who wouldn't stop we machinegunned. It was terribly cold, four l'eet of snow down to the water's edge, and the spray froze on everything, icicles all around one's tin hat. .

"I got my hands frostbitten as I had to take my'gloves off to hold my revolver when nearing the shore-, but did not need to fire. We made some great blazes. I don't know what a lot of us will be doing after the war. Every big factory one sees one will be scheming to blow it up. "Most of the volunteers had only a few seconds to make up their minds to come, and came away with what they stood up in," Lieutenant George continued, referring to loyal Norwegians returning to Britain with the raiders. "We brought away eight girls for nurses. Language was a handicap. However, we managed to make them feel happy. Fancy women on board a warship in action!"

An old boy of the Auckland Grammar School, Lieutenant George is a former commodore of the Royal NewZealand Yacht Squadron, and owner of the A class keeler Victory. A prominent Auckland yachtsman, he is a partner in the legal firm of Lovegrove and George. He was rejected for naval service in New Zealand, but paid his own passage to England in April last year, being accepted for service there, and later appointed to a naval ship. A single man. and holder of a yachtmaster's certificate. Lieutenant George is a brother of Captain G. M. George, of Auckland.