Sep 03

A NEW ICE ‘AGE’ IN EUROPE 13 Feb 1940. A great ice claw stretching from the Arctic to the Black Sea and westward to Holland is again clutching Europe. Germany is suffering acutely. A serious influenza epidemic has broken out in Berlin. The ground is too hard for burials, and the mortuaries are crammed with bodies awaiting the thaw..

A NEW ICE “AGE” IN EUROPE (1940, February 13). The Newcastle Sun (NSW : 1918 – 1954), p. 8. Retrieved September 3, 2024, from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/167524499?searchTerm=new%20ice%20age%20coming&searchLimits=#

(‘Newcastle Sun’ Cable)
LONDON, Monday.
A great ice claw stretching from the Arctic to the Black Sea -and westward to Holland is again clutching Europe.
It has already caused hundreds of deaths, spread epidemic of influenza among thousands, immobilised sea and land transport and intensified the food and fuel shortage.
Experts predict that conditions may become worse than last month.
A violent snow-storm combined with a heavy gale swept the ice bound Kattegat, heralding new suffering for Northern Europe.
Temperatures in Denmark are the lowest since 1895. Two Danish Ice-breakers were trapped while endeavoring to free 12 ships which were carrying urgently-needed coal.
Twenty-five Swedish tourists laden with luggage skated from Sweden to Denmark across the sound, which was frozen for the first time in 700 years.
The Danish Government has forbidden householders to use hot water. The King personally turned off the hot water system in the palace as an example to the nation.
Scores of people have fainted from cold in the streets of Copenhagen, and others were taken to hospital suffering from frostbite.
Germany is suffering acutely.
A serious influenza epidemic has broken out in Berlin. The ground is too hard for burials, and the mortuaries are crammed with bodies awaiting the thaw.
The shortage of vegetables is serious. Dynamite has been employed to blow potatoes from the frozen earth.
Thousands of deer, sheep and wild game have been frozen to death. Rail and road chaos has increased, and communications with Denmark are cut off.
Norway’s winter is the severest for 60 years. Fifty ships, eight of which have cargoes of coal, are ice-bound in outlying ports.
Hot water in flats and public and private buildings is permitted only once in every three weeks.
Schools in small towns are closed, electricity is restricted, and several mills have closed down.
Holland is enduring the bitterest weather in her history. The Waal River is a foot higher than it has ever been before and its menace becomes more serious every hour.
Riverside inhabitants are being evacuated.
South-eastern Europe is held in snow and ice. Vast tracts formerly flooded in winter are frozen hard.
Fifteen people have died in Yugoslavia and eight have been frozen to death to Hungary.
In Montenegro. Bosnia and Southern Yugoslavia scores of motor cars and other vehicles have been abandoned in snow drifts.
Packs of wolves are marauding on the Hungary-Russian frontier.