ADVICE ABOUT PARATROOPS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 September 1940, Page 12

ADVICE ABOUT PARATROOPS

“DON’T BE HALF-HEARTED” LONDON, July 13. . Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands this week offered some advice to English parashots preparing to deal with German paratroops. He spoke from experience. When German paratroops landed at The Hague a party of them, supported by Fifth Columnists, tried to capture the Dutch Royal Family in their palace. Prince Bernhard got on the '-palace roof and shot them down as they .tried to climb in. Then he and his adjutants went out in the streets and helped to fight the rest. “Well,” said Prince Bernhard, “the main thing is, don’t be half-hearted about dealing with them. Don’t ever forget that these German paratroops are dangerous fellows. They know they’ve got little, chance of getting away alive- after doing their job, even provided they can remain alive to do it. That makes them more

ruthless still than the ordinary Nazi soldier. “Be sure your paratroops really are paratroops. You don’t want' to kill every one who comes out of the sky on the end of a parachute. They might be airmen baling out because their machine is disabled. If they are British airmen you want to help them, and if they are Germans you should try to capture them, which is not so terribly difficult. They don’t carry much in the way of arms. “I’d say it was a fairly safe rule not to- shoot unless you see more than three paratroops coming down together. The German paratroops usually land in a bunch. “But another very important difference between paratroops landing and airmen jumping to save their lives is that the paratroops usually jump from low down—between 600 and 1000 feet. Airmen mostly jump from a considerable height.”