GRAVITY OF NEW JAPANESE SINKINGS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 108, 8 May 1943, Page 5

GRAVITY OF NEW JAPANESE SINKINGS

•FAIRLY HEAVY LOSSES Survivors' Stories Of Torpedo Attacks N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 2 p.m. SYDNEY, this day. "The sinking of five Allied freighters off the east coast of Australia only begins the Japanese submarine campaign to cut our supply line from America," declares the Sydney Telegraph in an editorial to-day. "The object is to weaken us before launching an offensive, or prevent us building up forces and materials for a counter-offensive." General Mac Arthur's communique announcing the sinkings stated:— "Five Allied merchant vessels, namely, one medium-sized United States freighter, one large and two small Australian freighters, and one .small-Norwegian freighter, have been lost as a result of enemy operations against our shipping indicated in the communique of May 1. The majority of the crews were saved, due to prompt action by our naval patrol craft." General Mac Arthur's communique of May 1 stated that enemy submarines were raiding in "some force" in areas east of Australia. . The American occupation of Guadalcanar is generally conceded . to have frustrated the enemy's first attempts to dominate the sea route between the United States and Southern Pacific, compelling the inauguration of an under-sea campaign which is expected to be maintained and intensified. It is presumed that valuable cargoes were lost with the sunken ships. Three of the masters went down with their ships, on all of which the loss of life was fairly heavy. Only two members of the crew are missing from the one Australian vessel which stayed afloat some hours after being torpedoed, while the entire complement of the American freighters was saved. It is believed this vessel was intercepted by a submarine some time before the attack. The submarine is thought to have followed the vessel, submerging and creeping up unobserved to fire a torpedo at close range. Thirteen Hours on Water Survivors of the sinkings spent up to 13 hours clinging to wreckage or drifting on rafts before they were rescued. Several were naked. Sharks swam among two groups of survivors floating in the water, but did not attack. These sinkings bring the total of Allied shinp announced as being destroyed by Japanese submarines off the east coast of Australia to 10. Submarins attacks have been made on at least seven other vessels. Several New Zealanders were in the crew of one large Australian vessel sunk in the latest series of attacks. The first warning of this attack came from the lookout man, William Jenkins, aged 27, of Opunake, who saw the wake cf a torpedo. After the torpedo struck, many of the crew of 70 dived overboard and clung to rafts and wreckage until rescued. Survivors say they owe their lives to the blowing of whistles attached to their lifejackets to draw the attention of the night rescue ship. William Shand, of Greymouth. spent the first hours of his twentyfirst birthday in the water. "I was in my bunk and immediately rushed on deck," he said. "I had no pants on. and rushed to get them. I dived 40ft off the bow into the water, but was picked up in about 15 minutes. It was a wet birthday party." The youngest member of the crew. Murray Brown, aged 16, of Wellington, said a patrol ship nearly cut him in two. "I pushed myself off its bows, and as I swished along its side I grabbed a line and was hauled aboard," he said. His lifejacket saved a 15-year-old Sydney boy, one of the three Australian survivors" from the Norwegian freighter. He felt down a hold and was knocked unconscious as the vessel was sinking. "The next thing I remember I was in the water and a Dane was slapping my face," he said. "I had gone down with the ship, but my lifejacket had floated me out of the hold and brought me to the surface." The most annoyed man rescued is Chong Kai Gong, a Chinese steward on the American freighter. He was taking a shower when the torpedo struck, and he had no time to dress, brat, ran naked from the shower to a lifeboat. Chong is already planning his revenge and summed up bis feelings in one sentence when he landed at an Austrajian port. "Some day me catchee Jap in shower! he said.

Jap. Claim "A Flat Lie" "The new Japanese submarine campaign against Allied shipping so far has been practically profitless," says a statement from Admiral Halsey's Headquarters at a South Pacific base quoted in a message from New York. Observations made in the statement specifically embrace submarine warfare both in the Southwest and South Pacific Command areas. A Japanese claim to have sunk 50 000 tons in nine days is described as a "flat lie," the statement adding: "They have not sunk that much in the past three months." A slight increase in Allied shipping losses is admitted, but nothing unusual is seen in the Japanese submarine offensive "except an effort to bolster home-front morale."