"It is the tale of one of them that I shall relate to you tonight. I do not as yet know whether he took part with his intrepid men in the Lofoten 7 expedition, perhaps as is his want he was active somewhere else and on his own. He has been busy ever since that sinister night in April, and his name is already assured a lasting place of honour in our history. hi 1937 our Navy had three small but modern destroyers added to its strength, Their size was only 510 tons. One of these craft was named "Sleipner" after the eightfooted battle horse of Odin (Wotan) one of ths old Norse gods. A strange and significant coincident, Herr Hitler, one of those Germanic gods you have adopted in lieu of Christianity. nicht war?, "Sleipner" fought, swift and strong and true to its name. For severa] weeks the boat did great damage to the Germans in western Norway, sinking ships and fighting planes. "Sleipner" chjoyed a continuance of luck and good hunting. It brought down 11 Nazi planes and in spite of this was not severly hit in any of its many engagements. At last it crossed the North Sea and put in at Scapa Flow for repairs. But it did not long remain there.
"Flying the Royal Norwegian naval flag it put out to sea again and was &oon back on its old hunting grounds. every nook and cranny of which its commander knew like the inside of his own pocket. We all have our reasons for fighting the Nazis and their Vicious barbarism. The commander of the "Sleipner" has particular and more personal reasons. On a day in May the peaceful and beautiful hamlet of Ulvik in Hardanger was razed to the ground by the protectors! Their mahine guns blazed viciously and indiscriminately end spared none. Amongst the women and children to pay with their innocent lives for your lust and madness, Herr Paper-hanger, were the wife and two children of the "Sleipner" commander. Only his youngest boy escaped. "Sleipner" youngster on board and although it is accordance with naval regulations his father never permitted: his son out of his sight since that day. Tha battle-horse of Odin has its special and brave mascot in this little 6 years old son of a valiant descendant of those who sailed their open, ships westwards and discovered America and fought in many lands and on many oceans—but always fought clean and played the game.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.