TIME OF PERIL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 258, 1 November 1939, Page 3

TIME OF PERIL

DUTCH AIK HOSTESS HIDES SHOTS FKOM PASSENGERS Air hostess Anny Wynoldt, brownhaired girl of 24, told me at her parents’ home in Hilversum. Holland, how she kept passengers in a Dutch air liner from knowing they were being machine-gunned by a German plane, writes a special correspondent of the Daily Express, London. Gustave Lamm, a Swedish passenger who was sitting in the back seat of the liner, was killed just after the air hostess had been talking to him. She pretended ho was ill, laid him back in his seat, and covered him with a rug. Then she tended the dead man as though he had fainted. Miss Wynoldt said to me; 'T heard rattling on the plane and I. hurried to Pilot Moll to ask him what wzs wrong.

Rattle of Bullets “The rattling was caused by German bullets. More came as 1 was on my way to the pilot, and one of these hit M-r. Lamm. “I gave the other passengers papers and books and talked lo them about everyday things with a smile on my face, but with death in my heart, because I was the only one w ho knew what had happened. “When passengers asked me about the rattling, I said the aerials had got loose. ”1 had a terrible moment when I went into the pantry. There was another burst of rattling, and bullets flew round me. “Some of the passengers smelled burning. I said it was a small defect in of the county chairman, and also to find out the district's need and to inspect land development. “I came here for nothing else, yet 1 am advised by this anonymous scribe not to take part in the contest., and to remember my duties. Fancy some humbug that, doesn't, possess the gizzard of a whitebait, trying to tell me my duty. The people xvho elected me know I know my duty, and I don t want to be advised by an emptyneade-] coward and the quintessence of an unmitigated liar what, to do." Mr. Webb: Make it plain. Bob. Mr. Semple said that he could not find a copy of the letter in his pocket, I which was just as well, as it. might j have contaminated hi.s body. If the writer was present. he should step I forward, so that he would tell the writer to his face that he was al cringing cur to suggest that he was running about taking part in munici- !;. 1 elections. lie had bigger things to do than to worry about the Mayoral contest in Westport. “The editor know that Mr. Webb and 1 had done more than any other two living men for Buller. When wc took office (he district was poverty stricken and] more was spent in the last four years than in the previous 30 years.”

the machine, and nothing to be afraid of. “Nobody else knew that the machine had been struck by 50 bullets. The passengers knew nothing of the attack until we landed. “I have been an air hostess for two months. A plane in which I flew from Greece not long ago was struck by lightning. “Nobody dies before his time. Tomorrow I shall fly to Brussels accordling to schedule. I “I just did my job: but I am very grateful to all the people who have sent me telegrams, flowers and sweets to-day.”