BIG WORRY AT FIRST

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 227, 22 June 1944, Page 6

BIG WORRY AT FIRST

E-Boat Menace Conquered (Received June 21, 9 p.m.) LONDON, June 20. The E-boat menace to the Allies’ erossOhanncl supply lines has been defeated, if only for the time being, though, according to a senior naval officer, it was a big Worry at first. A young British motor torpedo-boat lieutenant-commander described at S.H.A.E.F. how at dusk on the night before D-day, E-boats came out from their nests while motor torpedoboats were protecting the convoy route to a beach-head round the tip of Cherbourg Peninsula. "It was not easy work,” he said. “They are extremely low in silhouette and can make good way through practically anj’ sea at 40 knots. They got a rough ride that night. We gave them a good hiding, often at a range of 50 yards and less.” Practically throughout the first week of the invasion. E-boats came out nightly and made themselves a nuisance, but eventually the motor torpedo-boats’ constant harrying and the R.A.F.’s plastering of their bases proved too much for them. “They used to run a shuttle service from Le Havre to Cherbourg. They just have not done it lately,” said the lieutenant-commander.