END OF A CONVOY

Evening Star, Issue 24008, 6 October 1941, Page 8

END OF A CONVOY

AXIS MEDITERRANEAN LOSSES FULL STORY OF BRITISH ATTACK (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Oct. 4. The full story of the end of the Italian convoy, intercepted on its way to North Africa and wiped out on April 10, has now been told. British destroyers were looking for trouble in foul weather and pitch darkness. Suddenly the weather cleared, the sea fell, and it was a typical moonlight Mediterranean night, and the captain of the llotilla made an unorthodox sighting report: “There the blighters are!” At first the enemy were still smudges on the horizon, but soon they were clearly visible as ships trundling along toward Tripoli blissfully ignorant of their fate. The destroyers manoeuvred into position for an attack at two miles range, while the enemy convoy was silhouetted against the moon. It consisted of five merchantmen in two columns, with two destroyers ahead and one on the near quarter. When the range closed to about a_ mile, H.M.S. Jervis, the leading British destroyer, opened fire on the nearest Italian destroyer, and H.M.S. Janus, the second destroyer in the line, opened fire on the same ship and scored hits with the first salvo. The heavy blows of the Jervis and the Janus were too much for the Italian, which turned over and sank amid clouds of smoke and steam. HEAVY FIRE. Meanwhile H.M.S. Nubian and H.M.S. Mohawk, and then later the Jervis and the Janus, set about the convoy with all the weapons at their disposal, from torpedoes to small automatic guns, with a spectacular and satisfactory result. The merchant ships appeared to be very inflammable and burst into flames with astonishing rapidity. The remaining two Italian escorting destroyers turned and joined in the melee. One enemy destroyer passed close and was engaged by the Janus and then by the Jervis. The Jervis hit her amidships with her first salvo and started a large fire, and also scored a probable torpedo hit aft. The Italian was later hotly engaged by the Nubian and the Mohawk, and she or a similar ship was finally sunk by the Janus. The Nubian fought a duel with the third Italian destroyer, silenced her, and set her very thoroughly on fire. It was during this part of the action that the Mohawk was hit. The first torpedo stopped her, but she continued battering the least damaged of the merchantmen with her forward guns until she was sunk by a second torpedo. The Jervis and the Nubian came quickly to her rescue, and succeeded in picking up 168 survivors. SEA ILLUMINATED. Meanwhile the whole sea was illuminated by blazing enemy shells. When an ammunition ship torpedoed by the Janus blew up, the Jervis was too close to be comfortable, but fortunately she had no casualties. Gigantic flashes and explosions were followed by a blast which knocked most of the men in the Jervis flat on the dock and whipped off the tin hats of officers on the bridge. The resulting conflagration completely enveloped the Jervis, and for what seemed eternity she was the centre of an inferno, with all types of ammunition detonating all around and far above her. Then down came the debris. The whole sea boiled and sizzled as red hot lumps of ship and ammunition came pattering down. A gunner was “ nearly crowned ” hy a piece of boiler plating a yard square, and minor fragments fell everywhere. At last nothing was left of the Italian ammunition ship but a vast column of black smoke rising thousands of feet into the air. The moonlight night by contrast seemed blacker than pitch. PLANE LIFTED 2,000 FEET. Later it was learned that’ a Swordfish aircraft was flying overhead when the explosion took place. She was whirled bodily up like a leaf ■ for 2000 ft, and even then had ammunition exploding all around her. Meanwhile all four surviving enemy merchantmen were on fire. Two sank, a third was seen to blow up, and the last was subsequently discovered aground on a shoal. The entire convoy had been wiped out. . The convoy’s cargo consisted chiefly of ammunition, all kinds of motor transport, and Germans. Later it was found that it contained a large proportion of a German panzer division, with a general staff and many technical exports. There was no doubt of the contents of the first ship to blow np, ami another provided a fireworks display as tracer ammunition made coloured patterns in all directions.