CHRISTMAS CHEER

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22790, 14 January 1944, Page 5

CHRISTMAS CHEER

Norwegians Supplied

(Rec. 8.59 p.m.) RUGBY, Jan. 12. Norwegian airmen manning planes of the Royal Norwegian Air Force spent the day just before Christmas flyipg back over their homeland to deliver to their countrymen gifts of cheer in the form of coffee, chocolate, cigarettes and tobacco. The story has only just been released so that the Norwegians have had time to dispose of the gifts. One member of the staff of the Norwegian Information Office, who was in one of the aircraft, said they flew low towards the Norwegian coast. The aircraft were loaded to capacity with sacks of Christmas parcels. They could see people waving to them. In one place two boys in a field threw themselves to the ground as they came roaring over, but when the sacks did not explode they got up and stood with their eyes fixed on the planes until they disappeared. At another place a sack dropped some distance from a woman standing outside her house. A second sack dropped an equal distance on the other side. She ran a few yards towards the first, then changed her mind and ran toward the second, but turned again to the first. The dropping of sacks was interrupted by the arrival of a German plane which was shaken off and the Norwegians returned to England safely.