RELENTLESS NAZI ATTACKS AT SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 11, 13 January 1940, Page 10

RELENTLESS NAZI ATTACKS AT SEA.

HELPLESS VESSELS. German Raiders Show No Mercy. SAILORS ' MACHINE-GUNNED. British Official Wireless. (Received 1 p.m.) RUGBY, January 12. Typical of recent relentless German .air attacks on unarmed merchantmen and helpless fishing trawlers are stories now available in some detail of the attacks on the merchant ship Jevington Court (4544 tons) on Tuesday, and the fishing trawler Star of Scotland (203 tons). About 11 a.m. on Tuesday, those on the bridge of the Jevington Court heard the sound of aircraft engines. One Dornicr 17 appeared. It was Hying very low and circled round the steamer to make sure She was defenceless. It circled again, and as it passed closer over the steamer opened lire with machine-gun bullets which tore up the deck planking | and splintered the sides of the wheelhouse, shattering skylights and hatches. One bullet went through the engine room skylight and put the dynamo out of action. Another glanced off the bridge rail and carved a long groove in the mahogany chart table. The machine circled again, and this time it also dropped a salvo of four bombs. They fell wide, because the Jevington Court was zig-zagging. ' Again And Again. The aircraft returned to the attack with machine-guns and bombs.** Bombs fell nearer, and their explosion shook the ship but did no damage. In the next attack the aircraft, still raking the deck with machine-gun fire, dropped a further two bombs. Men on the upper deck trying to dodge fclie hail of machine-gun bullets saw.these bombs falling and were certain they, would hit the ship, but the-vessel was | under full helm, and the bombs missed by. six feet. The explosion of them, however, seemed to lift the ship. Everything movable was thrown about, and e\*m the compasses were lifted out of their gimbals and thrown out of the binnacles. The safety valves or tliej. boilers were lifted off their seatings, and the concussions sent up clouds of coal dust through the bunker hatches.

The aircraft apparently thought the bombs had hit, and.the ship was sinking. It disappeared eastwards, flying fast and high.

The crew of the Jevington Court gathered themselves together, shook the coal dust out of their eyes, discovered the ship was virtually undamaged, and continued the voyage. By an astonishing stroke of luck there wore no casualties on the Jevington Court. Trawler's Plight. This remarkable luck did not apply in the case of the Star of Scotland. That trawler was hauling her trawl off the Shetland Islands when a German bomber appeared and machine-gunned her crew. They ran for what shelter they could find.

The aircraft circled and returned to the attack, dropping three bombs. One of these hit and demolished the wheelhouse, wrecking the steering gear, killing two of the crew and wounding two.

The crew then tried to abandon ship. They succeedcd in launching a small boat under lire, and three men jumped into it, whereupon the aircraft machinegunned the small boat, sinking it, and leaving the three men struggling in the water. •

Tlio aircraft then made two further bombing attacks on the trawler without securing further hits, anil flew off eastward. The trawler' succeeded in picking up the three men clinging to the weckagc of the small boat. Then a jury steering gear was rigged, and the Star of Scotland, with- her wheelhouse completely smashed, with a gaping hole in her foredeck, and with the easing of her funnel and the upper works riddled by machinegun bullets, was brought to port with her dead and .wounded.