TRAWLERS v. U-BOAT

Grey River Argus, 13 October 1941, Page 2

TRAWLERS v. U-BOAT

STORY OF FIGHT. [British Official Wireless]. RUGBY. October 10. The story of the fight betwen the 470-ton trawler Lady Shirley and the 1000-ton U-boat was told to-day by Lieut.-Commander Calloway. "We were several miles away. We steamed full speed towards the submarine and saw it dive. Immediately we reached the snot we dropped depth charges. A bare two or three minutes afterwards, we saw the periscope and knew the U-boat was surfacing. She was 500 yards away. We turned to port ready to attack with gunfire, or ram her. We learned from the crew afterwards that she had been badly, damaged and was leaking, with the machinery out of action. As soon as the conning tower opened, we swept it with machinegun fire. W P could see men falling before the hail of bullets. We saw nren rushing to man the gun on deck, but they never reached it. Just as wd opened fire with our forward gun, a machine-gun oegan to fire from the conning tower of the submarine. Our first two rounds missed, but after that practically evejy shell hit the submarine. One burst on the conning tower and another penetrated th e hull and exploded inside.

“After our first three rounds, our seaman gunlayer, pizzev. was killed by machine-gun fire. Immediately Lieut. French, in charge of the gun, leapt into his place, and with the gun crew working: heroically, in spite of the hail of machine-gun bullets sweeping the entire length of the ship, we' kept up such a hot fire that the machine -cun was silenced, and n.on P of the Germans could bring their four points Ven gun into action against us They ran away from the gun. We could see them running along the deck of the submarine holding their hands above their heads in token of surrender, and and shouting. We ceased fire, but kept our guns trained on her. She was badly down in the stern, and the crew wearing lifebelts began to jump overboard. When she plunged down stern first, we cheered, and then set about the business of picking up th P survivors.”