FINE DISCIPLINE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 218, 13 August 1940, Page 7

FINE DISCIPLINE.

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. TORPEDOED TROOPSHIP. (British Official Wireless.) Received August 13, 9.25, a.m. RUGBY, Aug. 12. The discipline observed by soldiers and naval ratings, who stood shouldei to shoulder at their boat stations in perfect parade order awaiting their turns at rescue as the troopship Mohammed Ali El Ivebir (7290 tons) went down after being torpedoed in the Atlantic, is warmly praised by the officers included among the 740 survivors of the 860 soldiers and naval men and crew on board the vessel. With some boats smashed by the explosion few were left behind, but it was not until ordered to do so that they broke their ranks and jumped into the sea. The attack came at night and the vessel sank in two hours. A nearby ship picked up the survivors and landed them at a Scottish port. The missing are mostly soldiers who were in their bunks when the explosion occurred. Heavy seas made it difficult to launch the lifeboats, and a number of soldiers who jumped overboard when the transport listed were drowned. The rescue ship continued till late in the morning picking up troops who were clinging to rafts and wreckage. Some of the lifeboats were swamped.

William Olley, the ship’s canteen manager, said: “The ship’s doctor and the army doctor showed magnificent devotion to duty, attending to the injured regardless of their own safety. It was an anxious time getting the stretcher cases to the boats. The captain, by his courage and calmness, inspired everybody. He and the two doctors, the chief officer and the chief wireless operator, are all missing.” Many of the survivors, who were almost unclothed, were given new uniforms when they came ashore.