ATTACK ON SYDNEY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20804, 6 June 1942, Page 3

ATTACK ON SYDNEY

TORPEDOED SHIP STORIES OF WOUNDED SYDNEY, June 3. Wounded men from the depot ship which was sunk by a torpedo fired by a Japanese submarine m Sydney Harbour on Sunday gave vivid descriptions of their experiences when they were interviewed at a naval hospital. _ , , Seaman Eric Davies, Bankstown, said that soon after midnight he went to bed in a hammock on the lower deck of the ferry. He was asleep for about an hour when the roar of an explosion awakened him. It was the bursting of the torpedo. “The flooring of the deck above must have been torn right open, he said. “I was thrown up into a hole in the woodwork, half through to the top deck. I had to struggle to extricate myself from the splinters of timber into which I had become wedged. . . , , , “My back was injured, and when l got free, and was able to regain ray feet, on the top deck, there seemed to be broken timber, dust and terrific din everywhere. “It was pitch dark, but I saw a glimmer of light through one of the windows. I thought I was trapped, but I smashed the glass with my fist. The glass cut my hands and severed several tendons. I was then bleeding pretty badly, and I can just remember being helped out to the sick bay from the water which flooded the lower deck. Explosion Beneath Stern “When the explosion took place my mate, Seaman Charlie Brown, of Broadmeadow, was asleep in a hammock alongside me, but I have not seen him since.” . Brown was also hurled out of his hammock, and is among the patients in hospital. He is too ill to be interviewed. Men who were in the depot ship when it was sunk said that the torpedo did not actually strike her, but exploded beneath her stern. Eye-witnesses said that the vessel was lifted from stem to stern right out of the water. She settled back on to the mud of the harbour very quickly, with all her afterpart shattered to matchwood, and only her upper deck and tall funnel remaining above the waterline. Escapees agreed that a hero of the incident was Bandsman M. N. Cummings, who was aboard when the torpedo struck. He stripped off his clothes, and, although the force of the explosion had hurled him through a glass door, he organised rescue squads to go to the assistance of men trapped in the wreckage. Cummings remained in the water for a considerable period, diving among the wreckage in search for the injured. His mates said that he brought at least three men to the surface and dragged them ashore.