GERMAN TANKER SUNK BY BOMBERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 137, 12 June 1941, Page 7

GERMAN TANKER SUNK BY BOMBERS

CHANNEL ATTACK

Docks At Zeebrugge Again Heavily Raided. British Official Wireles*. Rec. 1.30 p.m. RUGBY, June 11. An Air Ministry bulletin states that Blenheim bombers of the Coastal Command, escorted by fighters, on an offensive patrol, attacked a 5000-ton German tanker in the Straits of Dover late this afternoon. They dropped ten heavy bombs and scored seven direct hits and three near misses. At the end of a minute the tanker was on fire and her decks awash. She was listing heavily. The pilots told how they came across the tanker with two escort vessels steaming through the straits in clear water. All the bombers went straight into the attack, and each of them scored at least one direct hit. on the ship, two of the Blenheims scoring two direct hits. According to an Air Ministry bulletin, it is probable the German antiaircraft batteries at Zeebrugge brought down one of their own fighter aircraft during an attack by R.A.F. bombers this afternoon. As the R.A.F. bombers turned away for home they saw two enemy fighters come up. One of them,* a Messerschmitt 110. suddenly dived steeply towards the sea with smoke pouring from it. Shipping in the harbour at Zeebrugge bore witness to previous R.A.F. attacks. In the middle of the harbour itself a ship lay sunk, and another, which was alongside the mole, was listing heaviry. An Air Ministry communique says enemy activity over Britain to-day has been slight. Late this evening a small number of bombs were dropped op. the south-west of England, but no details have yet been received. Other German Ships Destroyed At daylight to-day aircraft of the R.A.F., besides bombing the Mole at Zeebrugge and the docks at. Yrnuiden, also sank a small vessel off the Dutch coast and shot down an enemy plane into the sea. Details of last night's R.A.F. activities, issued by the Air Ministry News Service, disclosed that off the Norwegian coast Beaufort aircraft launched a torpedo which struck a 2000-ton enemy supply ,«hip amidships. The explosion sent up a column of steam and a spout of water rose as high as the mast. The ship appeared on fire as the aircraft flew away. Enemy-occupied aerodromes at Mandal and Stavanger were also attacked by Coastal Command aircraft. Bombs were dropped on the docks at St. Nazaire, an occupied port on the Bay of Biscay. One aircraft had just turned away after the attack when an anti-aircraft shell burst close by. The force of the explosion turned the aircraft completely over and temporarily stunned the pilot and the observer. When the pilot recovered the aircraft was in a "screaming dive" between 500 and 1000 feet from • the ground. The observer recovered consciousness at' the same time as the pilot, and he struggled to bring the aircraft under control, but it went into a series of switchback movements. Finallv it became stable again and climbed cautiously. A course was set for the base. The explosion had blown back the hatch cover. Everything was loose inside the aircraft—the navigation instruments, the parachute packs, and so on—and disappeared as the aircraft flew back to its base A gale was raging inside the fuselage, but it landed safely.