SURRENDER OF FIVE SHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 65, 14 September 1943, Page 5

SURRENDER OF FIVE SHIPS

RUGBY, September 12. The story of how five of the Italian warships now at Malta got safely away from the Germans was told by a young naval officer who was on board Britain's new battleship King George V. He said that the battleship steamed right into the Gulf of Taranto and within sight of the shore batteries to collect and escort the Italian ships. "It was a tricky moment," said the officer, "and everyone was at action stations. It was not the Italians we were worrying about. We knew they were likely to observe the terms of the armistice honourably and in full measure, but we did not know what the Germans were up to. We had been shadowed all day by reconnaissance planes and we never knew when the Luftwaffe might make an attack. "Shortly after dark we spotted five warshios astern of us. We did not know "what they were, and we challenged them by signal flashes in Morse. Back came a message spelling the letters G.A. Then we knew it was all right. That was the signal Admiral Cunningham had asked the surrendering warships to use." The British and Italian fleets both left Taranto unmolested from the air, though Foggia, the great German air base, is- only 75 miles away. Only one aircraft appeared on Thursday night, and it was driven off by a terrific barrage from the battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. A British correspondent, describing the event, says that five warships, including two battleships, came from Taranto, and 13 others escaped from Spezia. He continues: "The action of the Italian fleet was technically not a surrender; the warships are still flying the red, white, and green Italian flag, and they are still under their commanders. What they did was to comply with the terms of the armistice and sail into the shelter of Allied ports to avoid falling into German hands. The visit by the Italian acting commander-in-chief to Admiral Cunningham yesterday was a formal visit by one naval chief to another."—B.O.W.