Nervous German Destroyers

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 109, 11 May 1942, Page 4

Nervous German Destroyers

AFRAID OF BRITISH AT CLOSE QUARTERS (British Official Wireless) Received Sunday, 9.20 pan. RUGBY, May 9. Details are now available of the destroyer actions on May 1 when three German destroyers made five separate attempts to break through the escort of a homeward-bound convoy from Northern Russia. This destroyer action was only part of the day-to-day attacks by the enemy on our two convoys in the Arctic. It was fought among icefloes and the enemy force included two destroyers mounting five five-inch guns which are heavier than the guns mounted on British destroyers, but the Germans would not come to close quarters though they had everything in their favour. A gunnery officer reports that the Germans repeatedly broke away and the r ? was no determination in their attacks. The weather conditions were very bad. There were about 20 degrees of frost and the firing did not even melt the coat of ice along the gun barrels. One near-miss from the enemy sent a spray over the gun’s crew and it was ice by the time it hit them. Apart from a couple of dozen splinter holes they were unmarked.