MINESWEEPER SUNK

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIII, Issue 23, 26 December 1942, Page 5

MINESWEEPER SUNK

JAPANESE BRUTALITY. SYDNEY, Dec. 25.

Hie Australian minesweeper Armidalc (938 tons) has been sunk by enemy air action off Timor, and 40 of her crew' of 83 are missing. Survivors say Japanese pilots macliinegtinned sailors struggling in the water. The Armidalc was Australianbuilt, being commissioned in June. In her last fight she shot down a bomber fighter, and probably a second fighter. The Armidalc fought off four separate attacks by waves of enemy planes, but nine torpedo-bombers, with a fighter escort, finally sank her. The minesweeper carried a whaler and a launch, and after some days Allied aircraft sighted these small boats and directed naval vessels to the rescue of the 43 survivors. “Twcntv-nino of ua who were in the water after the Armidalc sank found a raft, but it was not big enough to accommodate us all, so for three days we took it in turns to swim in the water and then rest on the raft,” said one of the rescued men, ‘‘The whaler sank with tlie ship, but threo days later it came to the surface. We righted it. and with a small ship’s compass set a course and began to row “With very little food and practically no water, we wore just strong enough to raise a cheer when a Catalina patrol piano spotted us on the eighth day after the sinking. By this time wo had rowed about 120 mites, and were 150 miles from Darwin.” Men who boarded the Armidalc’s launch were machine-gunned by Zetes. Six were hilled and every other man was wounded. After 20 hours tho petrol supply gave out, and the strongest of the wounded men took turns at rowing. They were rescued on the sixth dav. The survivors include tho Armidalo’s captain.