RAID ON ISLANDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24603, 10 May 1941, Page 14

RAID ON ISLANDS

THE LOFOTEN EXPEDITION A NEW ZEALANDER'S PART (Special) AUCKLAND, May 9. A senior landing officer in th« Anglo-Norwegian raid on the Germancontrolled Lofoten Islands on March 3 was an Aucklander, Lieutenant H. J C. George, R.N.V.R. Although he had his hands frost-bitten. Lieutenant George wrote to relatives in Auckland a few days later, describing the raid and his share in it. " I suppose you have read all about that naval raid in Norway," Lieutenant George wrote. " I was right in the thick of it. being the senior landing officer of the whole expedition. My word, didn't we clean up. things a treat! You should have seen the Boche run! Those who wouldn't stop we machine-gunned, and didn't they roll over in the snow! It was terribly cold, with four feet of snow down to the water's edge, and the spray froze on everything. Icicles formed all round one's tin hat. I got my hands frost-bitten, as I had to take my gloves off to hold my revolver when nearing the shore, but I didnt need to fire. We made some great blazes." „ . ■ ■• Lieutenant George is a former commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and the owner of the A class keeler Victory.' A prominent Auckland yachtsman, 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.