RELENTLESS HUNT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 305, 27 December 1939, Page 5

RELENTLESS HUNT.

GERMAN U-BOATS.

TALE OF PAINTED BUOY.

RUSE OF S.O.S. FLARES

(Special.—By Air Mall.)

LONDON, December 4

A painted buoy bobbing in the swell off the British coast is all that remains to mark the place where a German submarine was lured to its destruction by British warships.

The U-boat, lying in wait for merchant ships, had come up for bearings at night when it was sighted in the bright moonlight by the crew of a fishing smack. At once they slipped away to warn the naval authorities. Soon patrol boats and warships had laid a trap for the U-boat commander. He fell into it.

As the submarine moved forward, confident of finding prey, it was suddenly surrounded at midnight and I attacked with depth charges.

The roar of the explosions brought people from their beds in a nearby coastal town. They stood on the promenade watching in the moonlight as the warships raced to and fro across the water.

I They could even hear the officers of the warships shouting their orders .through megaphones: "Two hundred yards west ... one hundred yards east."

U-Boat Ruse.

German submarines are burning distress flares to trap British trawlers. This was revealed when the Fleetwood trawler Roman arrived back in port. The Roman, commanded by Captain Charles Seeling, was steaming to the fishing grounds when, at 2 a.m., distress flares were seen.

"We had been warned that submarines were about," one of the crew isaid, "but we did not want to desert a ship in distress or leave men to.drown. We steamed cautiously towards the

distress signals, and when we were about 100 yards away the outline of a submarine on the surface came into view. 'We stopped our engines immediately and then the skipper gave orders to steam away in the direction from which we had come. We kept on steaming and for five hours the submarine followed us in the darkness—U-boats won't attack trawlers at night in case they are armed. As daylight came we were approaching an area where naval vessels were patrolling. Rather than meet warships, the U-boat submerged and disappeared. We never saw it "

WOUNDS TWO WOMEN.!

THEN KILLS HIMSELF.

SHOT THROUGH , THE TEMPLE

SYDNEY, December 21

After wounding his wife and mother-in-law with a revolver at Camperdown, Leslie Austin Small, 29, shot himself dead. The wife, Mrs. Eva Mary Small, 20, was shot through the left hand. She had held it out to protect herself. The mother-in-law, Mrs. Veronica Munro, 43 received a bullet in the right arm.

Mr. and Mrs. Small were married six months ago, but separated a month later. Small went to live with his parents in Tebbutt Street, Leichhardt, and Mrs. Small returned to her mother's home in Denison Street, Camperdown. Shortly after six o'clock on the evenin* of the incident Small called at the Munro home and asked to see his wife.

They conversed in the back yard. Small whipped a small, cheap revolver from hia pocket. His wife screamed and flung out her hand. . A shot was fired and the bullet struck Mrs. Small in the palm of the hand.

As Mrs. Munro ran from the house to assist her daughter a bullet struck her in the upper part of the right arm. There was a third report and Small fell, fatally shot through the temple. When found the revolver contained only three empty cartridge shells.

Central District ambulance took the women to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Their condition was not serious.