30 CASUALTIES

Grey River Argus, 5 June 1942, Page 5

30 CASUALTIES

On Naval Depot Ship e [Aust. & N.Z. Cable M-m 1 SYDNEY, June 4. The Navy Department has revised the casualties in the naval depot ship as' follows: — Killed 8 Missing believed killed .. 12 Injured 10

Total .. ■■ ; 30 One of the most cheerful of those injured in the naval depot ship sunk by a Japanese midget submarine was Seaman Colin Whitfield, 19, of Dannevirke. “I am feeling fine, because I realise I am lucky to be alive-,” he said. “I arrived in Australia only recently. I was walking along the upper deck or the ierrv when there was a terrible explosion. I thought we were being bombed. Then I felt myself being thrown about among the debris tnat, was flying in all directions. I ducked under a table for shelter. T ' et t I felt the ferry canting over, and 1 thought it was time to make a move. I don’t know how I got through the splintered wood down the sta.rway to the bottom deck. When I got to the lower deck I went up to my knees in water. There seemed to be injured men but there was no panic. Someone pulled me to the jetty, and I was carried to the sick bay. I will soon New Zealander is Petty Officer M. C. Vintener. Naval salvage crews hope to complete to-day the raising of one of the Japanese midget submarines sunk in SU fhe y leader of a Chi £ e ® e t ™ in chm Kv.?ng n Wan^ U £d:%he submarine raid on Sydney harbour seeins have been an attempt to buidd Japanese naval morale after the Coral debacle. Praising the aus tralian Naw for its swift. dstruction of the submarines, Captain Wang, who is a naval construction expert, said’ “It is not an easy mattei to destroy submarines lying at the bottom, even in harbour. This will be a bitter lesson to the Japanese. Four Submarines Destroyed AUSTRALIAN COUP. BIG FIGHT COMING! (Rec. 12.45). CANBERRA, June 4. Four submarines tried to e . nl T r Sydney Harbour on Sunday night, and all were destroyed. Only one was able to make an attack, news was revealed to a cheering House to-dav hy Mr. Curtin. He added: ‘‘Though the Coral Sea naval action .'was a signal success for the Allied forces, averting an immediate threat to Australian territory it was nothing more than the first’ round of a- fight which is going to be long and hard. The enemy submarine attack on Sydney Harbour has emphasised the need for ceaseless vigilance, and it has solved any lingering doubts that any one might have had that Australia is not in the front line.

SALVAGE WORK PROCEEDING.

(Rec. 12.10). SYDNEY, June 4In Sydney Harbour, “the work of salvaging .one of the wrecked midget submarines is now nearing compi tion/ The submarine, with a vicious looking torpedo protruding from a tube in its nose, was brought to the surface to-day. The midget vessel is about forty feet long, with a beam of between four and five feet. On its battered bow are the jagged teeth of a net cutter. The craft is reported as not sturdily built, and the h” is severely dented in several places.