The relentless German advance into The USSR continued throughout September with Kiev falling to them on the 18th and the Crimean Peninsula being cut off from the rest of the country two days later. The heaviest fighting, however, was in Leningrad, with great air battles in the skies overhead as street-by-street fighting raged below. The RAF had its first engagement in Russia, flying aid into the city.

In Germany itself, this was the month in which a decree came into effect forbidding all Jews over the age of six from appearing in public without a yellow Star of David stitched to their clothing.....

Distributed with this issue:

THE BIBLIOFAN #(-) - ed. R.G.Medhurst - 4 pages
FAN DANCE #2 - ed. C.S.Youd - 2 pages
TIN TACKS #8 - ed. Don Doughty - 2 pages
STAR PARADE #6 - ed. Ken Bulmer - 18 pages

The British Science Fiction War Relief Society is rapidly becoming an accomplished fact Looking after this side of the Atlantic are Julian Parr, and Edwin Macdonald; respectively English and Scottish representatives, & the American end is of course in the capable hands of John M Cunningham. The first bulletin of the British end is as follows; Further to the preliminary notice (Aug Fido) it is proposed that the following plan be commenced, subject to alteration according to circumstances

British collecting fans who wish to be included in the scheme are to give their names & addresses to their representative who will then send a list to USA. They will then receive in rotation, parcels of 3 US Pro-mags of various titles & issues. Upon receiving his parcel, each fan will immediately send back to J. M. Cunningham a service charge of a shillingsworth of British sf or fantasy, in the ToW, Fantasy, 6d or 1/- novels, books etc. The fan will at the same time send a p.c, with a list of mags received and sent to his Rep who will keep a record of transactions. In cases of extreme difficulty, the fan may send a P.O. for l/6d to his Rep, who will arrange to buy and post the material for him. To join the scheme apply to S-on-T Science-fiction Club, 26 Edward St, Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, or Edwin Macdonald, 25 Dochfour Drive, Inverness, Scotland, who will answer queries and suggestions. ___________________________________ ANOTHER FAN CALLED - UP ! ! ! Fellow Fido-Collaborator and editor of "TIN-TACKS", Donald J. Doughty of Downham Market, Norfolk; joined the Navy on September 17th. Don, who is now stationed at Skegness, managed to rush off a final issue of TT before he departed for his new life. He says that should he get a chance, spasmodic issues may appear in the future, but "it all depends". In the last nine months or so, Don has rapidly come to the front as a "top" fan, and was one of the most active members of the coterie of new enthusiasts. We all certainly wish him the very best of luck, and are sorry to miss his effusion in future editions of the Fido mailing. For the present, will pen-friends please write to him c/o his home address

_____________________________________________ LONDON LETTER Some London fan has recently sold all his collection, to judge by the stocks of old Amazings, Wonders,Unks etc in Charing X Rd bookshop t'other week Come on, own up; who's let the side down? That'll be a day when Snaghurst sells out - and gets ten bob for the lot. Bent, not broken..... Ted Carnell tells the story of how he spent an entire weekend's leave flattening out the Shangri -LA record, & playing it over to get a transcription. He got the transcription but in the process nearly ruined a blitz-hardened households' nerves. Ego Clarke, having completed his RAF course, has left London & should now be reached via his Somerset address (Ballyphants, Bishops Lydeard nr Taunton, Som.) This ends our race to see who can see "Fantasia" the most times. He has declared at 4 not out. Latest arrival at a certain bracing holiday resort is RAF-recruit Eric Hopkins, the man with the greasy letters. Says Eric, exuberating in his new life (the day before his drills are due to start!) "We have H & C water laid on in the bedroom". How uncomfortable. Red-Face Dept; myself , when after fixing up a farewell meeting with Eric t'other Sunday in London, my hitch -hiking thumb failed and stranded me at Reading. Apologies to all who waited for me. Recent press about stratosphere bombers & current articles in "Flight" about rocket boosting for aircraft; lead to thought that possibly by time atomic power is ready for use, stratorocketry will be already there to use it. We'll visit Mars yet, lads! Sidney L Birchby Highams Park, London.

Recently, Universal's latest horror film, "The Mummy's Hand", played at our local theatre. Compared with such films as "The Ape", "Man With Nine Lives" and others of like nature, "The Mummy's Hand" is an astonishingly good attempt at horror without lapsing into the ridiculous. The make-up of the Mummy is realistic, scary enough to get you, but still not silly. The prologue showing ancient Egyptian burial rites, is well done and very interesting. A weak spot is Dick Foran as the hero being rather ineffectual when put up against Peggy Moran as the curvacious girl with woo-woo!

Other Movie Notes: A trip into the future is afforded in a film showing what may happen to Turkey in "Journey Into Fear" .... Paramount horror pic will present Dr. Cyclops in a dual role in "Among The Living" .... "Murder By The Stars" is being made by Monogram and features Bela Lugosi .... "Cracked Nuts" coming out of Universal, a humorous offer about robots .... Universal also filming "Horror Island", and "Black Cat", not the Poe tale as many believe .....Warner Brothers will finish "The Monkey's Paw" and will continue on with Philip Wylie's "The Smiling Ghost" .... "The Boogey Man Will Get You" is a take off on Horror tales, with Karloff and Peter Lorre ....."Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" features Spencer Tracy. In this one, Tracy will have phosphorescent eyes, and the change will be more psychological than physical .... An old time Fritz Lang film is to be released in the US: the hypnotic movie "Dr Mabuse".... A certain studio has appropriated two million dollars to film the Book from beginning to end, in "The Bible".

The End

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Received Recently

The most noteworthy arrival here during this last month, was the souvenir program of the third world Science Fiction Convention, i.e. the Denvention. It is a neat, well-printed booklet of some 16 pages containing mainly an assortment of "booster" advertisements. Other contents include the full 3 day Denvention programme (naturally) a full list of Colorado Fantasy Society - the organisation sponsoring the convention - members; Britishers are Douglas Webster, E. Macdonald, D. J.Doughty and J.M. Rosenblum; and lots and lots of "well wishes". The only other printed item was a complete surprise! Some little time ago, it was announced that the Westwood -N.J. fanzine SUNSPOTS would be discontinued - yet now it pops up in a fine new format with articles by Manly Wade Wellman, Joseph J Millard and N.E. Body. We congratulate the trio of editors. Another trio of editors deserving of commendation are Tom Wright, J.J.Fortier and James Bush of Martinez, California. They have produced a mere 50 page fanzine, using the best possible quality of paper, not to mention a grand assortment of writers and artists. Your Ed nearly had heart failure on taking this copious production from its envelope. Not so much smaller is the third issue of SOUTHERN STAR, edited by Joseph Gilbert and Art Sehnert from Columbia, South Carolina. This runs to 40 large size pages with many good features. We particularly liked "Mumblings" by Bob Tucker, whilst an analysis of the hand-writing of 4e Ackernan and Harry Warner was certainly intriguing, and I believe, accurate.

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You are intelligent enough and lucky enough to be reading FUTURIAN WAR DIGEST, Vol. 2., No.l; dated October 1941 and being the wartime continuation of THE FUTURIAN, and SCIENCE FANTASY REVIEW, two amateur magazines devoted to and dealing with scientific fantasy fiction, and the affairs of the queer creatures interested in this soul-stirring pastime. Published in defiance of all difficulties, by J. M. Rosenblum, 4 Grange Terrace, LEEDS 7 at 3d per copy, 3/- per year (12 issues). Exchange with similar publications welcome. Americans wishing to subscribe may remit in promags.

During a recent wander-round two fairly rare fantasy works threw themselves at me. They were John Kendrick Banks couple of truly fantastic tales of the doings of the departed shades of some of this worlds great men in their afterlife, namely "Houseboat on the Styx" and "The Pursuit of the Houseboat". Both deal with a very wonderful "club" these departed shades have established, meeting in the houseboat in question, and weird and wonderful are the happenings and arguments which take place therein. Of course the books are primarily humorous, and they have given me many a quiet chuckle. Both are published by Messrs. Harpers and have run through several editions, at both sides of the Atlantic . "The Memoirs of Satan" collated by William Gerhardie and Brian Lunn, (Cassell & Co 1932) is a surprising sort of book altogether. According to this, Satan was a collaborator of God, chosen to look after this earth because of his free and independent spirit. Mankind is due to an infatuation of his for a primitive she-ape, and he continually bemoans the fact that he did not choose a more sensible animal, such as the whale, to half endow with his divine nature. Due to his failure with this planet, Satan is finally punished by the All-Highest with the withdrawal of his immortality, and he dies, leaving the notes of his eon-long existence in a Bloomsbury hotel. Have you ever read " The Absolute At Large" by Karel Capek, the Czech master of fantasy (MacMillan & Co. 1927, 2/6). This tale provides another, and highly diverting aspect, of Campbell's beloved atomic energy. In brief the plot is roughly; that everything in existence consists of matter and a little bit of the divine; the dissolution of matter to provide atomic energy therefore releases a portion of God, and these particles of the Divine literally produce Hell on this earth, by "inspiring" all sorts of people to be prophets and so forth. Thoroughly recommended. Another book I have come across again recently is "Purple Plague" by Fenner Brockway - ILP National Chairman, I believe - (Sampson Low 2/6) dealing with the setting up of a miniature ideal state upon a liner, almost permanently quarantined due to the outbreak on board of a new disease. More stf interest is added by the story of the fight against this "plague".
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PERSONAL COLUMN WANTED S.F. pre-35 (Ast pre-38 ) state price or desired exchange to T.Overton, 107 Thomas St. Abertridwr, Cardiff, Glam. Particularly needed. Astounding S.F. for July and September 1937. Dennis Tucker, 108 Abercromby Avenue, High Wycombe, Bucks WANTED "COMET" almost any issue. will swap old ASF & various issues of big three. Write A.F. Williams, 125 Victoria Dwellings, Farringdon Rd. E.C.1. Three new subscribers, and therefore additions to the Fandom GPO idea are R. R. Johnson (Leicester), Edward J Carnell, and Bob Gibson of the Canadian army in Britain. Letters this month just about swamped me and I shall simply do the best I can with them. Some of you may RECEIVE YOUR COPIES OF- (Sorry.) FIDO somewhat late, so that I can enclose some sort of answer to your letters.

TWO BOOKS which have popped up here at a slightly reduced price, recently are The Secret People by John Beynon and The Island of Captain Sparrow by S. Fowler Wright. Both were originally published by Newnes at 2/6 but are now being disposed of as a sort of "new remainder", at 2/- each. The first is a well-written story placed at some 50 years in the future, in which we find the Sahara about to be made into an inland sea; and follow the adventures of a party of people who fall into the clutches of a primitive race existing, unbeknown to civilisation, in caverns beneath the desert. The other ought to be already known to you in its 6d edition.

1) The pages 6 & 8 referred to by Rosenblum at the bottom of page 3 of this FWD were from issues of VoM and have not been included here.

2) Also published this month was Harry Turner's ZENITH #2 (New series), and its letter supplement HOT AIR.