SCARED AWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 86, 12 April 1941, Page 8

SCARED AWAY.

GERMAN BOMBER.

TROOPSHIP THREATENED.

An attempt by the Nazis to bomb a convoy in wiiicli there was a vessel bi inuin,: invalided soldiers from a British port to New Ziialand was described to-day bv a member of the Second Echelon who has arrived in Auckland as one of a party of !>8 noii-commU cioned officers and men—the largest party yet to reach New Zealand from any theatre of war.

"It was 011 our third day out and shortly after midday a plane approached two ships 011 our starboard side."' lie said. "We were astonished to notice the sea spout as if a geyser was playing. We then realised tiiat a stick of bombs had been dropped.

"\\ liite pull's of smoke burst round the Dornicr plane as our anti-aircraft guns opened lire. Ihe hurried departure, of the Dornicr was possibly explained •by the arrival a few minutes later of two Sunderland flying-boat*. Their swoop towards us was most reassuring. Anyway, the enemy craft, which wa> evidently operating from the Norwegian coast, did not show up again. We wondered at the time whether the Dornicr was acting as a scout for a Nazi raider."

Destroyer's Mission. Describing another thrill, the soldier '-aid that one night one of the escorting destroyers t-uddenly changed her course towards a column of smoke which was hanging close to the horizon. Naturally, amoiiir the soldiers there was a good dial of speculation as to the destroyers mission, and .having regard to iheir location at the time it was thought that the smoke belonged to an enemy vessel that was trying to run the blockade.

"'Danger about! Sleep in your clothes to-night with your lifebelts beside you! was an order given us that night." he went 011. "Actually we had •been told earlier to sleep in our clothes for the first few nights owing to the possibility of an enemy attack. However. the night passed uneventfully—or

so wc supposed

Dangerous Area.

It was later learned, he added, that many S.O.S. callr. had been received that night. A number of ships that 1m»'1 been somewhere along their course were announced by the Admiralty later as having been lout. Some of the escort destroyers were reported to have been diverted towards vessels calling for help. A special watch for lifeboats and survivors was kept from the troopship and it was reported that one of the convoy ships had sighted a number of empty lifeboats.

Ihe next day all the passengers in the ship were 011 the alert as the result of a report that a submarine had sunk a vessel in the same area the previous day. The soldier remembered havingseen a few floating spars and some dunnage, but at the time had taken little notice. It was in this latitude they were tokl that a German ]<ocket battleship had sunk the Jervis Bay some time previously.