SUNK IN ATLANTIC

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23780, 7 October 1940, Page 8

SUNK IN ATLANTIC

PASSENGER LINER ATTACK BY U-BOAT SURVIVORS RESCUED FREIGHTER ALSO VICTIM By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received October 6, (5.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 6 A British warship picked up and landed at a northern British port survivors-from the Royal Mail Line's motor-liner Highland Patriot, of 14.157 tons, which was torpedoed in the Atlantic while on a voyage from South America. Twenty-seven officers, 109 of the crew and 33 passengers were rescued. The British warship saw dense smoke on the horizon and raced up, hoping to attack a German raider, but found the lifeboats, from which she embarked the survivors. f lt is reported that three men were killed in the engine-room, and four others were hurt.

The passengers included a number of British subjects who were on the way to join the forces in England. There were also two stewardesses and two women passengers. The U-boat fired two torpedoes. The first set fire to the ship, which blazed for several hours before sinking. The second torpedo narrowly missed the lifeboats, which were manned in seven minutes.

The Highland Patriot in January had a two-hours' fight with a U-boat, which fired five torpedoes before it was driven off by the ship's guns. The Donaldson South American Line's cargo steamer Corrientes, of 6863 tons-, was sunk by enemy action last week. The crew are safe and are expected to land at an American port.

ANTI-SUBMARINE WAR BRITISH NAVY'S SUCCESSES NINE" SUNK RECENTLY British "Wireless LONDON, Oct. 4 The Admiralty announces that in addition to seven German U-boats and two Italian submarines sunk, others were damaged. The communique adds: "It has never been the policy of the Admiralty to announce successes against U-boats when they occur, or at regular intervals, since such announcements would be of operational value to the enemy. Moreover, the moral effect of the disappearance of a U-boat without any indication of the cause of the loss is a potent factor among U-boat personnel." An interesting light is thrown on this communique by a report received from Balkan sources that the published statistics of certain German insurance companies reveal that the average life of an officer or man serving in German submarines is 62 days.

BLOWN TO PIECES END OF A SUBMARINE LONDON, Oct. 6 A Sunderland flying-boat recently destroyed a U-boat in the Atlantic in a minute and a-half. The pilot explained that the submarine was sighted 300 yards to port, and immediately began to submerge. It disappeared but left a swell, in the middle of which a bomb was dropped. It apparently burst just beneath the submarine, and as the aircraft banked steeply and again flew over the spot another bomb rocketed the submarine out of the water, so that for a moment there was daylight between it and the sea.

As the TJ-boat began to go down a third bomb struck it, showering wreckage high into the air, after which oil'appeared on the surface.

SUPPLIES FOR U-BOATS - DISCOVERY ON BRAZIL COAST (Received October 3, 6.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Oct. 2 A message from Bahia, Brazil, says a motor launch manned by Germans, which is Suspected of supplying German submarines in the South Atlantic, has been discovered on the southern coast of the State of Bahia.

CHANNEL GUNS BRITISH CONVOY SHELLED LONDON, Oct. 4 German long-range guns from France ehelled a British convoy in the Straits of Dover at dawn. Two salvoes of three shells each were fired from near Cap Gris Nez, as the convoy, which carried its own ' balloon barrage, ploughed through rough seas swept by a southwesterly gale. Great columns of water shot up. The gunfire shook houses and awakened people living on the Kent cjast.

MODEST AIR HERO CREDIT GIVEN PILOT DEED/ THAT EARNED V.C. October 6, 7.15 p.m.) British Wireless LONDON, Oct. 5 Discussing tlio action which earned him the Victoria Cross, Sergeant John Hannah, the 18-year-old wireless operator and air-gunner who beat out a fire in a bomher which was hit by an antiaircraft shell while returning from a raid, said it seemed to him that most of the credit should go to the pilot, Pilot-Officer Connor. "People do not fully realise that while I was doing my best with the fire he was sitting up aloft, as cool as a cucumber, and taking no notice of the flames, which were only two or three feet away from him, or the sounds of bullets which were either whizzing close to his head or hitting the armourplating just above him," said Sergeant Hannah. "Pilots-Officer Connor, in his broadcast, said he was able to feel the heat of the fire, and 1 am sure he must have done so. It must have been very hot, yet through it all he managed to pilot the aircraft right out of the barrage so that I was able to get on with my part of the job without interference from heavy shells and tracer bullets." _ Pilot-Officer Connor was awarded the Distinguished Plying Cross.