HARDY’S EPIC FIGHT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 122, 22 April 1940, Page 7

HARDY’S EPIC FIGHT.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 19. A further description of the end of the battle, in Narvik Fiord in which the destroyer. Hardy played such a conspicuous part, has been given . by one of the Hardy’s men, who said that when the captain (Warburton Lee) was wounded his secretary, Lieutenant Stunning,' took command and kept the guns working, but more shells wrecked the steering gear and the main steam pipe. They were in a had way, and ran into the shallows and grounded on the rocks, 300 or 400 yards from the shore. “Wo got our last order from the ship, and the last order Captain Lee ever gave: ‘Abandon ship. Every man for himself and good luck!’ One man swam with Captain Lee to land through 100 yards of icy water, and then waited 300 yards and got him ashore, hut there was no hope for him, and he died shortly afterward. “We all piled into' the water, under fire all tlie time. Tho Germans fired shrapnel at us. The torpedo officer, Lieutenant Ileppell, was a real hero. He saved at least five men, swimming back and forth, helping those who could not swim. About 170 men got ashore. Seventeen were killed and two are missing.” It was related that the ship finally capsized. The survivors immediately made for three cottages on a cliff, where they were kindly treated and supplied with all sorts of clothing. Then they walked about 15 miles to a village which they readied about nightfall, carrying the wounded on improvised stretchers. As far as is known, there arc no survivors from H.M.K. Hunter, which was lost during the action, hut there is a possibility that some of her crew may have reached shore. A member of tlie Hardy’s crew said that in the battle the British destroyers fired in relays, sinking nearly every ship in Narv.ilc Harbour. “It was a shambles.” he remarked. “We enuld see ships sunk or half-sunk everywhere.”