BRITISH CORVETTE SUNK

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 266, 8 November 1941, Page 10

BRITISH CORVETTE SUNK

(Rec. 7, 12.45) RUGBY, Nov. 6. An Admiralty communique states thal the corvette Gladiolus has been sunk. The Gladiolus helped to sink two German submarines and took a leading part in many other encounters with U-boats. During the night of Uune 30, 1940. the submarine U-26 torpedoed a ship of a convoy which the Gladiolus was escorting. The Gladiolus at ance coun-ter-attacked with depth charges, and U-26 was so damaged that she was forced to the surface, when she was sighted and attacked by a fjying-boat. The Germans thereupon scuttled the boat and abandoned ship. On September 9. 1941, the commanding officer of the Gladiolus, LieutenantCommander Sanders, was awarded the D.S.O. “for enterprise, skill, and devotion to duty in action against enemy submarines.” This time the Gladiolus shared with two other corvettes the destruction of U-556 on June 27, 1941. This U-boat was commanded by Kapi-tan-Lieutenant Wohlparth, who, with 40 of his ship’s company, survived her destruction. This U-boat captain was particularly notorious, since it was a U-boat under his command which, on March 10, 1941, shelled and set on fire the unarmed Icelandic fishing trawler Raykjaborg, killing all but three of her crew. In a subsequent description of his exploit on the German wireless, Wohlparth boasted that “It was a most beautiful sight to see her burning in thp duck.” Altogether, there were awarded to the ship’s company of the Gladiolus a total of one D. 5.0., two D.S.C.’s, and four D.S.M.’s. In addition, six officers and men were mentioned in dispatches.