RAIDER’S GUNNERY

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 January 1941, Page 5

RAIDER’S GUNNERY

KOMATA MAN’S ESTIMATE. [per press association.] CHRISTCHURCH, January 15. The German raider which sank the steamer Komata by shellfire, missed several times at a point-blank range of,about a quarter of a mile, according to a member of the crew of the Holmwood, Mr P. J. Stiles, who returned to his home in Lyttelton today. Mr Stiles saw the sinking from the deck of the German raider. He said that he had served as a gunner in mine-sweepers during the last war.

“My opinion of the German gunnery was not very high,” he said. Though the prisoners were not able to see the armament of the raider, Mr Stiles formed his own conclusions about it. He also heard some account of her speed, and of the duration of her voyage, from a member of her German crew, with whom, he said, he became “very chummy.” “The Manyo Maru, I should say, carried about eight or more heavy calibre guns —probably six inch, said Mr Stiles. “I think she had at least four torpedo tubes, and a number of small calibre guns. The prisoners were taken on deck to see the sinking of the Komata, hesaid. He could , see guns firing aft. They were using shells of a kind that he had never seen or heard of before. , , . “Someone who knows may take me for a greenhorn, he lemaiked, “but the shells looked like red hot balls flying through the air m the daylight. There seemed to be two of them together when the gun was fired—there was a small one on top, and a big one about six feet below it. The top one seemed to go indirectly, but they both seemed to hit the ship together with a white flash. What seemed to him most strange about these shells, he said, was that their flight could be followed with the eye through their whole trajectory “We could trace the shells as easily as that,” he added, making a sweeping movement with a salt cellar and a pepper pot, one in each hand. “I was a gunner myself in the Navy, but this was something I never saw before,” said Mr Stiles. Timebombs and both small and heavycalibre guns were used to sink the Komata, he added, the raider steaming round her,, and finally raking her waterline with* about 25 rounds bf heavy shells. “Even then they missed her several tirpes,” he said. “The gunners was not remarkable.