The Times SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1944. Stories Yet to Come

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 6, 8 January 1944, Page 4

The Times SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1944. Stories Yet to Come

After the war there will be a spate of war literature in the shape of personal experience stories, and the answers to many mystifying questions will then he given. After the last war there was a distinct lapse of time before the war books came on the market. Writers and publishers were at first rather shy of the war. They felt that the public would want to forget it all. But the public, far from wanting to forget, wanted to learn more than it knew already. When an enterprising American named Lowell Thomas, who was always picturesque, if not always accurate, got on the trail of such romantic personalities as Count von Luckner, von Richtofen, and 'Lawrence of Arabia, he opened up a goldmine and others were quick to follow suit.

Some of the war books became best-sellers. In the present war, with such examples to urge them on, journalists and writing men did not wait for 1 the end of the war before getting their stories into print. Already some fine books have come out of the war. Some have merely been slick and topical—good reporting and therefore readable. The talented Mr. Quentin Reynolds was one of the first to profit from the avid public demand for anything that would present the war from a new angle. Nicholas Monsarrat, in “lI.M Corvette,” gives brilliant first-hand impressions of the Battle of the Atlantic. There has been an excellent book written by two English nurses who were captured by the raiders which sank the Rangitane. George Johnston, ail Australian, wrote “Grey Gladiator,” the record of H.M.A.S. Sydney’s service in the Mediterranean.. “Our Penelope” is another good naval book. There are dozens more written about the war on land, in the air, and on the sea, and not least in order of merit come the British Ministry of Information series, which every well-informed person should read.

But over all these books there hangs the shadow of “security.” Things are left unsaid, “for security reasons.” Accounts of the dramas of the war are still incomplete, “for security reasons.” Until that last necessary reservation is removed, the war stories will lack the final touch of inside information for which the public understandably craves. Even now, the appetite is still being whetted by hints and qualified disclosures. Recently an Australian seaman who was taken prisoner in the Indian Ocean by the raider Kormoran has returned to his native soil. The story of his adventures is as fantastic as any fiction. After five months in the Kormoran, he was transferred to a German prison ship. This was torpedoed in the Atlantic —an ironic touch, since it is almost certain to have been torpedoed by a U-boat,

After three days the survivors were picked up by a U-boat which in turn had a narrow escape when attacked by a Sunderland flying boat. In due course, however, it got back safely to Lorient, in France, and the prisoners were then transferred to Germany. Not much has been said in this narrative about the Kormoran, although she will certainly be glamorised in post-war literature, for this was the raider, masquerading as a merchantman, which sank the cruiser Sydney, and was herself sunk in the same action. Some of the German ship’s company got ashore in Western Australia, but not a trace of the Sydney or her crew was ever found. When the full truth can be told, it will be interesting to hear more about the Kormoran, which appears to have operated for months in the Indian Ocean, although, except in her encounter with the Sydney, never with the same spectacular Success which attended the Wolf, the Moewe, the See Adler, and other German raiders of the last war.

Another remarkable story has been told by a seaman who was on board the Phosphate Commission’s steamer Triaster when she was sunk off Nauru Island about three years ago. The Triaster and other ships sunk off Naum, where they were caught like ducks, fell victim to the same squadron of raiders -which sank the Turakina, Holmwood and Rangitane off the New Zealand coast. Two at least of those raiders were masquerading under Japanese names and flew the Japanese flag. It is now revealed that one of them went direct from Naum Island to a Japanese port and there took on supplies and stores. This in itself would not be a breach of international law, but it is improbable that the law was complied with in all particulars, especially since the port of call was on an unidentified island where the raider would be in little danger of being reported.

Lately something has been told of the experiences of soldiers as captives in Germany. They will have some fascinating tales to relate when the veil is lifted. There was a report the other day that a New Zealand officer had been killed in Greece. What a tale of adventure may lie behind that statement! Perhaps the exploits of T. E. Lawrence himself will be overshadowed by those of men who are working and fighting within the shadow of the Gestapo in Occupied Europe. These are tales for the future, and they will be worth waiting for.