ITALIAN CLAIM

Grey River Argus, 28 July 1941, Page 3

ITALIAN CLAIM

EIGHT SHIPS TORPEDOED IN MALTA. (Rec. 2 a.m.) ROME. July 27. The Stefani News Agency reports: A sea raid against Valetta. port of Malta, was carried out with a secret

type of naval assault craft. There were eight British ships torpedoed, causing violent explosions and great flames. REPAIRS SPEEDED UP. (8.0.W.) RUGBY. July 25. Repairs in shipping, both navy and merchant marine, have assumed an importance greater even than in the last war, because of the improvement of technique in shipbuilding. Whereas in the last war, if a ship was hit by torpedo or mine, she was almost invariably sunk, but now in the majority of cases, especially as regards warships, she is able to reach port after such happening, and be immediately put under repair. That th'i Royal Dockyards proceed with such work expeditiously was instanced by the time taken to put destroyers back into service after the Dunkirk evacuation. In all, some 73 vessels received damage necessitating a visit to dockyards. Some of these vessels were only in hand a few days, and all were completely repaired within five weeks. Although some dislocation has been caused by air attacks, the general level speed of the repair has not been greatly affected.

U-BOAT LOSSES. (8.0.W.) RUGBY, July 25. U-boats are suffering heavily from ' the defensiveb'-armed merchant ships which they have attacked. They are constantly taught the lesson that the men of the British merchant navy take to their guns. The captain of a merchant snip, which struggled to port after being torpedoed, described how the crew fought off a second attack by a Üboat while the ship was almost in a sinking condition. “A submarine was sighted on tne surface, approaching at a high speed,” he said. “The ship was manoeuvred to bring the submarine dead astern, and orders were given to fire with the gun on the poop. We fired two shots at the submarine, which then appeared to crash dive, disappearing immediately, so we continued at full speed.” Many British merchant ships are now being defensivelv armed with the Oerlikon guns, which was invented in Switzerland. It fires 600 small armour-piercing shells a minute. Improved in Britain, this gun will add still more to the threats to U-boat crews.

Behind the phrase, and I should particularly like to recommend,” so often recurring in renorts by merchant ships’ captains attacked by the enemy, lie many stories of great gallantrw

One captain whose ship was attacked by aircraft wrote in his report: “I should particularly like to recommend the gunner. After the attack I asked him if he was all right. He said he was. and he insisted bn carrying the chief officer, who was badlv wounded, from the bridge to the deck below. Then the gunner collapsed and died. Only then d'o we real’se that- he had been fatally wounded.”

Another report reads: “The chief engineer, who has been torpedoed three times, climbed on top of the boilers to inyestigate a leak in the boiler-room, although there was a possibility of the boilers exploding beneath him at anv moment.’’ Such reports, among many received and chronicled bv the naval authorities, show how the British Merchant Service is living up to its centuries old traditions.