The Advertiser included the stories of five servicemen lost and killed on active service this week in 1941.

Pilot Officer Peter Hogarth, 26, was reported killed during air operations in Greece. A former bank clerk in the High Street branch of Lloyds, Pilot Officer Hogarth was the son of Mrs GD Hogarth of 13 Devizes Road and her late husband.

Mr Hogarth volunteered for the RAF in June 1939 and went to the Middle East in September 1940.

Edward Herbert Henly, 19, was the son of Albert Henly, of Derry Hill, Chippenham. A young despatch rider in the London Auxiliary Fire Service he was killed during Saturday night’s air raids on the capital.

Bombed out of their London home Albert and his wife had moved in with relatives at Derry Hill. Edward remained in London because he was keen on his job as a motorcycle despatch rider.

“He had been in a number of raids and had been commended for his services,” said the Advertiser.

In Wootton Bassett the funeral took place of 26-year-old Herbert Charles Page who died in Yorkshire as a result of enemy action.

The third son of Mr and Mrs JT Page of 15 Springfield Crescent, Wootton Bassett, Mr Page had been in the Pioneer Corps for 12 months.

And Able Seaman Francis Townsend, 22, was reported missing after his ship HMS Rajputana was torpedoed and sunk off Iceland after escorting a convoy across the North Atlantic.

A former milkman with Balch’s dairies, Able Seaman Townsend lived at 17 South Street.

“Francis was a good swimmer,” reported the Advertiser, “and his friends have every hope that they will shortly have news of his safety.”

Engineroom Artificer JT Singer, of 30 St Margaret’s Road was among those reported missing following the loss of the destroyer Mohawk. The destroyer was torpedoed during an attack on an Italian convoy on April 16 near the Kerkennah Islands off the Tunisian coast.

CREECE FALLS TO NAZIS

“With British and Imperial Forces beating off waves of German infantry and hitting back hard on land, on sea and in the air, the titanic battle of Greece is raging non stop,” reported the Advertiser this week in 1941.

Violent assaults on the 150-mile front held by Empire and Greek forces saw the Allies under pressure.

The Nazi army continued to advance despite losses attributed to the delaying actions fought by Australian and New Zealand troops.

But the Greek forces capitulated to the Germans on April 21.

And in the US, Bishop Henry Hobson, of the Southern Ohio Fight For Freedom Committee sent a telegram to the Senate and House of Representatives.

“Unless we throw our full support into the fight the present war will be lost, and a more serious and more devastating war will have to be fought in the future,” he warned.

YOUNG STAR MARRIES

Deanna Durbin, the star of Three Smart Girls, married film director Vaughn Paul in Hollywood on April 18. But there were no big stars among the 800 guests as the invitations went mostly to studio workers.

The 19-year-old actress wore an ivory duchess satin gown with long sleeves and a wide sweeping train.

And, showing at the Regent this week was the teenage actress’ latest film, Spring Parade, in which she starred alongside Robert Cummings.

Joan Blondel and Dick Powell were the stars of I Want A Divorce, at the Empire.

And Wallace Beery was the Bad Man Of Wyoming, which was being screened at the Savoy.

For those who preferred to stay at home radio programmes on the Home Service included The Old Familiar Things with Jack Melford and Betty Astell as the young couple who recalled “some of the things we did before the war.”