Derby is Missing; Mahn Found Safe

Reaching out among the far-flung Harvard alumni, war has been brought a step closer to home recently as the Alumni Bulletin announced that F. Holbrook Mahn '38 has been rescued after a week afloat at sea, and Arthur L. Derby '39 is reported missing in action in the Philippines.

A Pilot-Officer of the RCAF, Mahn was engaged in "air operations overseas." When his bomber was forced down over the Dutch coast Mahn and two others of the crew of four managed to climb aboard their raft. That night one man died, and the other a few days later. Sustained only by rain water and raw fish, Mahn managed to survive the bitter cold of the North Sea with only severely frozen feet, until picked up by a British torpedo boat.

Derby, a Second Lientenant in the Field Artillery Reserve, volunteered for special duty in the Philippines in the spring of 1941.

Except for a brief Christmas cable the last news received was a letter of November 1, in which Derby said "The die is cast--there is now nothing left for us but a job to be done . . . so important that it transcends . . . if necessary even life itself."