Hectic Sea Fight; Odds Four To One
(Special) LONDON. June 10. An engagement in which Lieutenant G. J. MacDonald. D.S.C.. of Wellington, took part in a hectic 15-minute action against odds of four to one. A Royal Navy force of speedy gunboats and motor torpedo-boats crept in the darkness, and attacked an outnumbering force of 600-ton torpedoboats and E-boats seven miles from the Belgian coast. Visibility was hazy—about 440 yards. The attack began at 200 yards. The first torpedo from one boat missed a German by 20 yards, but the second scored a hit amidships, causing a vivid flash. The Germans began firing from all angles, killing a 22-year-old English sub-lieutenant, but the force returned safely. A coxswain was wounded by the same bullet, which killed the sublieutenant, and he steered through a hail of fire before collapsing.
The men manning the gunboats and torpedo-boats were little more than boys, the eldest only 25, while Lieutenant MacDonald is the youngest commanding officer in the British Navy. The senior naval officer commanding the base said: “My boys were fine in their job of hunting E-boats and attacking infrequent enemy convoys. Every time they have been* in action, they have been out-numbered by at least two to one, but they knocked hell out of the Jerries.” ..
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Northern Advocate, 11 June 1942, Page 3
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214Hectic Sea Fight; Odds Four To One Northern Advocate, 11 June 1942, Page 3
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