SCORE OF SEVENTEEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 203, 29 July 1941, Page 5

SCORE OF SEVENTEEN

BRITISH SUBMARINE. A VARIED “ BAG.” (United Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 9 a.m.) LONDON, July 28. One of Britain’s latest submarines lias returned to port after “bagging” 17 enemy vessels, rallying- from supply ships to caiques, in two Mediterranean patrols which were recently announced in communiques. The commander narrated an incident before the sinking of the last ship from one German convoy. “I ordered the crew to the boats or I would lire, but 1 had to send a boarding party (o rout them off. A German tried to throw a hand grenade as the men clambered over the ship’s side, but lie was shot before it left his hand Another Nazi tried to kill my No. 1 by rifle lire. He went the same way. \Ve then continued our patrol.” The Italian News Agency quotes a report from Berlin to the effect that llio German Press continues to comment on the great success of the Italian forces iu the Mediterranean as “ail audacious enterprise undertaken by small and rapid units.’’ It unanimously admired “the co-operation, which confirms the glorious traditions of tho Italian navy.”

The Italian newspapers to-day claim that a new type of torpedo piloted by specially-trained “suicide sailors’’ was used in the attack on Malta. The torpedo, they say, is able to skip over torpedo-nets, after which their pilots, wearing bathing suits, cork belts and crash helmets, theoretically detach themselves from the torpedo and return in a tiny boat with an outboard motor which was originally attached to tho torpedo. General Fedrigi (commander of the Italian Mediterranean Air Fleet) was killed in combat over Malta.

Signor Ansaldo, writing in the Telegralo, states tiiat 420 ’planes participated in a three-day action against a British convoy in the Mediterranean.