DARING SEA RAIDERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 64, 12 September 1942, Page 7

DARING SEA RAIDERS

MEN OF LIGHT CRAFT

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) (Special Correspondent.* (Rec. 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 11. A new chapter is being added to the history of the Eoyal Navy. It is being written by a group of young men who go out to sea in small, fast launches from the shores of Britain and, under cover of darkness, lie in wait within a mile or two of the enemy coastsometimes actually creeping into harbours and ports—seeking for enemy convoys. No action in Drake's days, no marauding pirates, probably ever experienced half the excitement of these young men. They operate motor tor-pedo-boats, motor-gunboats, and motor-launches. They always expect to be outnumbered at least by 2 to 1, and sometimes by 10 to 1, and they are always outgunned. NIGHT AFTER NIGHT. Yet they go out night after night in small flotillas knowinj that if they do run against a convoy it probably will be a solitary merchantman surrounded by a flock of anything up to 20 E-boats, possibly a destroyer or two and also a flak-ship. ! ' Then it is the job of the gunboats to create a "diversion," attracting and returning the enemy's fire while the torpedo-boats manoeuvre for position to launch their deadly "fish" and then escape under cover of darkness.