SINKING OF “KOMATA”

Grey River Argus, 16 January 1941, Page 10

SINKING OF “KOMATA”

QUEER SHELLS USED Not Good Marksmanship “HOLMWOOD” SEAMAN'S ACCOUNT

[Per Press Association] CHRISTCHURCH, January 15. The, German raider which sank the steamer “Komata” by shellfire, missed several times at a point-biank range of about a Quarter of a mile, according to a member of the crew of the Holmwood. Mr P. J- Stiles, who returned t o his home in Lyttelton to-dav 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 wer P unable 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 oß'her voyage, from a member of her German crew, with whom, he said, he-became “very chummy.’ “Th e Mariyo Marti, I should say, carried about eight or more 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 wer f . taken on deck to see the sinking of the Komata, he said. He could see guns firing aft. They were using shells of a kind that h e had never seen or heard of before. “Someone who knows may take me for a greenhorn,” he remarked, “but the shell's looked like red hot balls flying through th e air in 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 on e about six feet below it. The top on e seemed to go indirectly, but they both seemed 10 hit the. ship together with a white flash.” ' What seemed to him most strange about these shells, he said, was tnat stheir flight could be followed with the eye through their whole trajectory “We could trac e 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 n the Navy, but this was something 1 never saw before,” said Mr Stiles. Time-bombs and both small and heavy calibre guns were used to sink the Komata, h e added, the, raider steaming round her, and finally raking her waterline with about 25 rounds of heavy shells. “Even then they missed her several times, ne said. “The gunnery was not remarkable.”