CONVOY FIGHTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 195, 19 August 1942, Page 5

CONVOY FIGHTS

ALLIED SUCCESSES

Loss Of Cruiser Manchester In Mediterranean British Official Wireless Rec. noon RUGBY, August 18. An Admiralty communique states that an air reconnaissance has shown that one of the two Italian cruisers hit with torpedoes by a submarine during the Malta convoy operations last week has' 60 feet of her bow missing. Submarines continue to do considerable execution among the enemy's seaborne supplies, both in the Mediterranean and off the coast of Norway. Large and medium sized cargo ships hit with torpedoes off the Norwegian coast are believed to have sunk.

In the Mediterranean one large supply ship was sunk, and another probably hit. Another submarine attacked and almost certainly sunk a supply ship escorted by three destroyers. A large southbound supply ship was also torpedoed and left sinking. An Admiralty communique states that information received indicates that most of the complement of the cruiser Manchester are safe, although no names are yet available. Three officers and 142 men were picked up by British ships and the remaining survivors are in French hands.

The loss of the cruiser was described to an agency correspondent, who himself had been on the aircraft-carrier Eagle when she was torpedoed on the previous day, by one of the Manchester survivors now at Gibraltar. He said the Manchester was with the convoy for Malta when the ship was attacked by E-boats at 1 a.m. on Thursday last.

"We were about seven miles off the'eoast of Tunisia when the E-boats came in," he said. "It was difficult to see them. Suddenly we saw a tiny light and realised it was an electric torch shining dimly as the torpedo man in the E boat was setting a depth We let fly with a 6-inch high explosive shell and scored a direct hit The boat was blown to pieces. "Another 'E-boat let fly with one torpedo, missed, and slewed round and fired a second torpedo, which struck the ship. A few seconds later, when we were on the quarter deck, another E-boat sprayed the deck with machine-gun bullets and we replied and scored a hit. We abandoned ship. We tried to make the coast of Tunisia in a raft and had been in the sea for eight hours when a British destroyer rescued us. "A French ship came out several times picking up survivors and taking them to shore. As it got light we could see them lined up on the beach. Then we sighted the British destroyer which picked us up and brought us on to Gibraltar." The survivor added that many officers and men reached the Tunisian coast safely and more were rescued by a destroyer.