GALLANT EXPLOIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 124, 27 May 1940, Page 10

GALLANT EXPLOIT

DUTCH SUBMARINES

ENEMY MINEFIELD PENETRATED

ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

(Received May 27, 11.20 a.m.)

LONDON, May 26,

The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, and the First Sea Lord, Sir Dudley Pound, in a message sent to the Dutch navy, revealed that two Dutch submarines, the construction of which had just, been completed at Rotterdam, were navigated through a German magnetic minefield and brought to England safely. "It was a particularly desperate and gallant exploit," they stated.

It is also revealed that a Dutch torpedo-boat and a torpedo motor-boat prevented further German troops crossing the river at Rotterdam after the initial surprise. The destroyer Van Galen shelled Waalhaven aerodrome under a heavy and continuous aerial bombardment. The" Van Galen was hit and sunk after repelling 31 dive-bomb-ing attacks. The survivors joined in the fighting ashore, where they suffered severe losses. The gun-boats Friso, Brinio, Gruno, and Nassau repelled German attacks across the Zuider Zee and across a dyke. Enemy planes sank the Friso and the Nassau.