ARRIVAL IN RUSSIA

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 253, 24 September 1942, Page 5

ARRIVAL IN RUSSIA

BIG ALLIED CONVOY MOST OF SHIPS SAFE LONDON, Sept. 23. Another big convoy has reached Russia and is landing' large supplies of war materials for tho Red Army. The convoy consisted of British, American, and Russian merchant ships and the great majority arrived safely. No escort ship', "was lost.

During the voyage the convoy was heavily attacked by German aircraft and U-boats, and some of the merchant vessels were lost. Though tho British Admiralty is not disclosing the number sunk, it says that the enemy's claims have been more extravagant than usual. For days past the Berlin radio has been talking of the success of the German attacks on the convoy, which it described as the largest ever sent to Russia. To-day it admitted that the ships have arrived. Originally the Germans claimed to have sunk between 30 and 40 ships, {>ut later ." reduced the figuro to nine.

An official German statement claimed that German bombers and U-boats, in an attack beginning on September 13, sank 38 merchantmen in a British Arctic convoy going to Russia. The Luftwaffe also sank one destroyer and two escort vessels. The convoy sailed close to the pack ico south of Spitzborgcn and escorts formed several cordons around tho merchantmen. Tho battle raged uninterruptedly for six days.