CONVOYS AT ANTWERP

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 3, 1 December 1944, Page 5

CONVOYS AT ANTWERP

GREAT PORT NOW CLEAR DELIVERIES FROM AMERICA (N.Z., Press Association.—Copyright.) (Special Correspondent.) . (Rec. 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 30. Largo convoys of ocean • going ships are secretly arriving at Antwerp, states the Daily Express. They are filled with guns, shells, tanks, petrol and stores. They can now como straight through tho channel to be delivered direct from America instead of through Cherbourg and Brest. ■ It is pointed out that Antwerp is tho third port in Europe and in peacetime handled 11,000 ocean-going ships, with *23,000,000 tons of cargo, a year. Tho River Scheldt has been cleared of mines. Deep-water quays for largo ocean-going ships, like tho 10,000-ton Liberty ships, stretch for three miles. Their hydraulic cranes and cargo-discharge facilities are almost undamaged. There are also 15 miles of berths in the wet dock, of which threo basins can take Liberty ships. It is obvious that the opening of Antwerp will mako itself felt along the whole of the Western Front and will particularly aid the Allied drive against tho Ruhr. British minesweepers have been sweeping tho Scheldt estuary since November to open the port of Antwerp. The minesweeprs were already off tho mouth of the West Scheldt before the assault against Walcheren Island and started work as soon as they thought the enemy batteries would be too busy to give them unduo attention.

Tho job of sweeping the 75 miles of the Channel from tho North Sea to Antwerp, which was completed a week ago, was particularly hazardous. The Germans had placed in the Scheldt combinations of different types of mines calculated to complicate tho sweepers' task. Very large numbers of mines and other obstructions were destroyed.