N.Z. CORVETTE’S FEAT

Grey River Argus, 25 March 1943, Page 6

N.Z. CORVETTE’S FEAT

COMMANDER’S STORY. AUCKLAND, March 17. Describing the part his ship played in the N.Z. Corvette’s Guadalcanar action, Liuetenant-Commander Bridson said in an interview that the first warning they had of the presence of the Japanese -submarine was on their detector gear. I “We made two depth /charge attacks and blew him to the surface, obviously damaged,” he said. “When we first sighted him he was 600yds. or 700yds. away, and we closed the range to get every gun to bear. We decided to ram when we were right on top of him, and at first I thought we had bitten off more than we could chew. “In our first ramming w'e could see we had made a hole, but it was impossible to determine just how much damage had been done. The second attack was a glancing one, but in the third there was no doubt we had made our presence felt. Oil spurted out of the submarine all over our foredeck and spread everywhere—even our mattresses were covered with oil. The concussion of the depth charges had broken all our crockery and glassware, and at the end of the action the ship was not very trim. “When we were actually on top of the submarine for a while I had to shout myself almost hoarse to be heard above’the noise the Japs were making,” he went on. “We had a perfect target when the submarine began to burn and we made our shots count. They did not open fire until they saw us coming in, apparently hoping that they could escape by lying ‘doggo’, but the first round set her on fire. The lads raised a great cheer then. "An amusing incident that occurred concerned the behaviour of two Solomon Islands natives named George and Benny, who were on board the ship. During the action they joined in, handing up ammunition for the guns. When we got back their relatives came on board and, completely ignoring George and Benny, asked me if they had showed fright in front of the Japanese. I assured them they had not, and immediately the pair became the centre of an admiring throng.” Lieutenant-Commander Bridson paid a tribute to his crew who, he said, had behaved throughout in the most meritorious fashion. While on patrol off Guadalcanar they had frequently watched the fighting going on ashore and in the action they displayed keenness and determination of a very high order. Many of them were New Zealanders who had served in England, and, others were trained in H.M.S. TamaW.