GRUELLING TIME

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 14, 17 January 1941, Page 8

GRUELLING TIME

SPIRIT UNDAUNTED

THE BRIDGE SHATTERED '

LONDON, January 16,

Fighter planes took off from the Illustrious and engaged and temporarily forced off the German bombers, but they returned within an hour, diving in through the great barrages of fire.

Scores of bombs fell round the ship, while machine-gun bullets spattered on her decks. There were some near misses by huge bombs, which shook the ship so violently that it seemed as if at any moment the blast would overturn her. One bomb tore a hole in the carrier's side, and the blast from another struck a gun crew. *

One explosion shattered the captain's glass-enclosed bridge. Officers assisted in carrying the wounded over the flight deck to the madical stations, and some pulled survivors from the wreckage and then dashed in to get others.

The engine crew kept one turbine and then another operating, and then resorted to steam pressure, keeping the Illustrious forging ahead. When she was nearing port the German bombers again dived in just before dusk. A column of smoke poured from the carrier's flight deck.

•Through the action the captain shouted orders to his aides while bomb splinters and machine-gun bullets were peppered about him. The Illustrious came -into port with the spirit of the officers and men undaunted. The ship will soon be cleaned up and made ready for sea again.

A small fire in the interior was quickly extinguished, while shipwrights have plugged the bomb holes.

• The carrier's dead have been taken out for burial in the sea near the spot where they fought so valiantly.