SEA LOSSES

Grey River Argus, 31 July 1940, Page 8

SEA LOSSES

British Destroyer SUNK BY BOMB. LONDON, July 29. His Majesty’s destroyer Wren nas been lost, through enemy action. The Admiralty announced: H.M.ii. Wren wa s hit with a bomb, during an action between British patrolling destroyers apd enemy planes. The Wren subsequently sank. H.M.S. Mintrose shot down two bombers in this engagement. The destroyer Wren was completed in 1919. She had a displacement of 1,120 tons, and a speed of 34 knots Her main armament was four 4.7 inch guns, and six torpedo tubes. TRAWLER MINED. [British Official' Wirelessj RUGBY, July 29. The Admiralty announced that His Majesty’s trawler Staunton has been sunk by an enemy mine. The Admiralty announced that there wer e no casualties in tne Montrose. OTHER SINKINGS. BERLIN, July 29. A communique states: A U-boat sank 18,750 tons out of a strongly protected convoys Another sank a 6000-ton vessel off the British coast. Sinking of Meknes SURVIVOR’S REPORTS. LONDON, July 25. General de Gaulle to-day visited survivors from the Meknes, which wag torpedoed last week when taking back to France Frenchmen who had decided to withdraw from the war. They confirmed the earlier reports that the ship was fully lighted, and that the attacking German vessel machine-gunned the decks, damaging the life-boats. Many of the Frenchmen who were on the vessel are now waiting to be passed as lit before joining General de Gaulle s force of free Frenchmen. They are being cared for in a British naval camp. . ~ One of the Frenchmen said that when he came on deck it was too dark to see the attacker, but all t';e lights wer e blazing, and searchlights were shining on the French colours painted on each side of the ship. Machine-gun bullets swept the deck, and all the boats on the port side except one were damaged. Shells from a small calibre cannon gun aiso struck the boats, followed by tne torpedo which sank the ship. None of the starboard lifeboats was caneaged. The men were in the boasp from 11 p-m„ when the ship was torpedoed, until, they were picked up by British naval units at 7.30 a.m. On behalf of the. survivors, another Frenchman expressed deep gratitude for the hospitality of the British seamen in the ships that picked them up. They were given hot meals and dry clothes, and were most kindly treated, he said.