FIERCE ATTACKS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 299, 15 September 1941, Page 7

FIERCE ATTACKS

British Convoy In Atlantic 7 SHIPS GO DOWN U-Boats And Bombers Followed By Gale (British Official Wireless.) (Received Sept. 14, 8.20 p.m.) ( RUGBY, Sept. 13. An account has now been made public of the exceptionally trying experience of a convoy which recently crossed the Atlantic. Two U-boat attacks and a bombing attack were made on it and it encountered a terrific storm and narrowly escaped from a German surface raider. Seven ships were lost.

It was far out in the Atlantic one morning that the first attack was made by a U-boat; Two ships of the convoy were hit and sank in a few minutes. Without thought for her own safety the steamer Brandenburg hauled out of the convoy and went to the rescue. She picked up nearly all the complement of one of the torpedoed ships.

H.M.S. Deptford, the senior escort ship, lowered a boat to rescue the crew of the other torpedoed ship while she herself went on hunting for the Üboat. Later she picked up her own boat and the survivors from the lost ship. Aircraft Swoop Down.

The convoy sailed on. About 12 hours later came an air attack. Six fourengined German aircraft swooped down on the convoy. Although the escorts as well as the defensively armed merchantmen put up a fierce fire the Focke Wulf Condors pressed home the attack. One merchantman was sunk outright and two others were heavily hit and sank soon afterward. The engine room of a fourth ship was wrecked and she had to be abandoned. A fifth ship was hit by a bomb but she sent a signal to say that she could carry on with the convoy. A German aircraft which was reported to have crashed later in the day is believed to have been one of those which attacked the convoy and it was badly damaged by gunfire. Immediately after this attack three ships of the convoy hauled out of line, to rescue the survivors. The destroyer Velox stood by the rescue ships. She later made a report praising the fine work of the boat crews which picked up survivors from the bombed ships. Still the convoy sailed on. It was, early next morning when H.M.S. Velox and the three rescue ships caught up with the convoy. A few hours later came the second U-boat attack. The Brandenburg, which carried out such gallant rescue work at the time of the first submarine attack and had a large number of survivors on board, was hit and sank immediately. Only one mad was saved. Deptford and Velox attacked the submerged submarine and possibly damaged it. Raider Evaded. *

Still the convoy sailed on. A day later came a wireless message showing that a raiding German warship was in the vicinity. It was quite possible that she might appear over the horizon at any moment. The course was altered and Deptford prepared to cover the convoy with a smoke screen while she prepared to engage the enemy should the raider appear. But the raider did not find them. Now the weather was getting bad. For the best part of two days and nights the convoy was hove to in a fierce gale. This was too great a strain for the ship, which had been damaged in the air attack. She began to sink. . Another merchantman stood by her and by an extremely fine feat of seamanship the whole of the crew of the sinking ship were rescued despite the mountainous seas running at the timeCommenting on this the commodore of the convoy said: "How they did it I do not know, but it must have been magnificent work.” After the gale subsided the convoy proceeded to port without further incident. Nazi Exaggeration. Wildly exaggerated Nazi claims of the results of an air attack on a British North Sea convoy are disposed of in an Admiralty communique, which states: “It is now known that in addition to the enemy bomber which was shot down by H.M.S. Vimiera in an air attack on one of our convoys in the North Sea on Thursday night, a second enemy aircraft was damaged. One small merchant ship was damaged, but it is now safely in harbour, and one man lost his life in another merchant ship. “Several attacks were made by the enemy, but the majority were driven off by the fire of the escorts and the defensive armament of the merchant ships in the convoy. “A German High Command communique today claims that the German air force on Thursday night sank three freighters, totalling 21,000 tons, out of a strongly-protected convoy south-east of Yarmouth. In fact, no ship was sunk, and the ship damaged was of less than 3000 tons.”