SUNK BY BOMBERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 42, 18 August 1942, Page 4

SUNK BY BOMBERS

\. H.M.A.S. NESTOR

ESCORT IN CONVOY

(0.C.) SYDNEY, Aug. 15. How H.M.A.S. Nestor, Australian Tribal class destroyer, was sunk in the Mediterranean on June 15 was told by survivors of the crew who have returned to Australia.

The Nestor was one. of \ an escort for a big convoy which was attacked by enemy bombers, dive-bombers, and E-boats. Three bombs which almost grazed the Nestor sprang her plates and, another • bomb blast .holed the engine-room and later she had to be abandoned. , . ■ ■■ , - ,f ~ The convoy was attacked for two days, and although the escorting vessels hit back they.-suffered casualties. On the second day a sub-lieutenant on the Nestor's bridge drew Commander Rosenthal's attention to an aircraft high overhead. Its position meant bombs somewhere about and in a split second they arrived. One fell on the port side, one on the starboard beam, the third just astern, all narrowly missing the ship. "I hadn't seen that one." Commander Rosenthal told his men afterwards. "I couldn't do anything. I didn't have time even to give an order." The blast of the bombs forced rivets, opened, up plates, and the destroyer began making water, though not fast. More dangerous still was the danger of^an explosion, for the bulkhead over the magazine was ballooning alarmingly. The-'magazine was emptied and the crew got rid of torpedoes and depth charges. THE FATAL HIT. Another bomb hit the mast and was deflected into the water, where it exploded close to the Nestor. The blast holed the engine-room, killing three of the crew and mortally wounding another. Survivors paid warm tribute to Surgeon-Lieutenant S, Watson, of Sydney, who was lowered down on a rope and from the inky, oily depths sent up the men one by one. They were buried at sea that night. With no power, no lights, no steering motors, and listing heavily to port, the Nestor was taken in tow by one of the escort vessels. Even darkness did not bring safety. .About 9.30 p.m. torpedobombers came over again, and two of the four "fish" they dropped whizzed between the Nestor and the vessel towing her. For four hours the tow went on in the heavy swell. Then ,the towline broke. Linked up again, the ships struggled on, but at 4 a.m the towline broke again, and at 6 a.m. the order was given to abandon ship. The Nestor's sides were smashed, her mast tangled, the mess deck slimy where the oil tanks had burst. The Nestor's complement were transferred to the escort vessel that had been towing them, and at 7.15 a.m. the Nestor sank. In the first terrific blast that had lifted her out of the water her back had apparently been broken. .

When they returned to port, the Nestor's crew were keen to be transferred as a unit to another destroyer with Commander Rosenthal still in command, but that was not possible.