PERILOUS DUTY

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 129, 27 November 1940, Page 8

PERILOUS DUTY

AND UNREMITTING

WORK OF THE MINE-

SWEEPERS

DRAMATIC STORY

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received November 27, 2 p.m.)

LONDON, November 26,

A senior naval officer told a Press representative in London today something of the dogged and unremitting devotion to duty of the officers and crews of the trawlers, fleet-sweepers, and paddle minesweepers in fighting the peril of German mines round the coast of Britain.

The work, he said, continued day and night, and the task was complicated by air attack.

The officer recounted how he went with a sweeper flotilla to clear a channel for a convoy. A Messerschmitt swooped down dropping bombs. "The whole flotilla opened fire, and we turned her away at 2000 feet, but not before she dropped two bombs so close that we saw them coming down."

Another danger was that of hitting mines on the bed of the sea while pitching in shallow water.

The officer told a dramatic story of three trawlers —the Cord, Berberis, and Fleming—which set out on a sweeping mission. The captain at the base makes a practice of personally bidding God-speed to the sweepers, and he said, "Good-bye. Bring me back a Heinkel for breakfast."

The Fleming was attacked by two Dorniers, and, receiving a direct hit, sank. Her skipper went to the bottom in the wheelhouse, but smashed the glass and came up. Twenty-four hours after his rescue he was back on duty.

The Be-beris held her fire until one Dornier was very close and then blew it to smithereens. The crew were able to salvage only the collapsible boat. They tied it up and put it on the captain's doorstep next morning, "for the captain's breakfast with the compliments of the officers and crew of the Berberis."

The officer made an interesting point. The man who shot down the Dornier was a wild-fowler in civilian life. Such men should be encouraged for AA squadrons, he said.