NAVAL ACTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23828, 2 December 1940, Page 7

NAVAL ACTION

ENGLISH CHANNEL GERMANS ESCAPE SALVO OP TORPEDOES 11.M.5, JAVELIN HIT By Telegraph—Press-Association—Copyright (Received December 1, 6.40 p.m.) British Wireless LONDON, Nov. 30 An Admiralty communique dealing with Friday's action in the Channel between British and German destroyers states that contact was made at 5.40 a.m., and fire was immediately opened by both sides. The German force, which consisted of at least three destroyers, scattered and withdrew at high speed toward the French coast, firing torpedoes as they went. One of the British destroyers, the Javelin, on board which was the officer in command of the flotilla, Captain Lord Louis Monntbatten, a cousin of the King, was hit and damaged by a torpedo early in the engagement. The Javelin has now been brought safely to port.

Another of the British destroyers chased an enemy destroyer which made off to the westward under the cover of smoke, but lost touch after half an hour owing to the darkness and the enemy's use of «% smoke screen. The remaining enemy destroyers were chased southward by >. other British units. These German destroyers also escaped in the darkness, and subsequent attempts to regain touch proved fruitless. It has not been possible to establish with certainty the extent of the damage inflicted by the British gunfire, but enemy ships were seen to be repeatedly hit. Apart from the Javelin, the British forces suffered no other damage or casualties. The Air Ministry states that, while fighting off a series of German bombing attacks on the Javelin while she was being escorted to port, British fighters without loss shot down three enemy aeroplanes and damaged another. ACCOUNT FROM BERLIN SINKING OF DESTROYERS LONDON, Nov. 29 A German communique claims that in a naval battle in the western exit from the English Channel, close to the British coast, German destroyers torpedoed two British destroyers, while other German destroyers sank two steamers and two smaller auxiliaries off the south coast. The German communique claims that their ships were undamaged. NEW GERMAN DESTROYERS (Received December 1, 7.10 p.m.) BERLIN. Nov. SO A new destroyer flotilla has been commissioned. Hitler named it the "Narvik destroyer flotilla." TOO NEAR BATTLE VICHY OFFICIAL'S DEATH AEROPLANE SHOT DOWN FRENCH GOVERNMENT VERSION (Received December 1, 7.10 p.m.) TIGHT, Nov. 80 It is officially confirmed that the aeroplane carrying the new High Commissioner for Syria, M. Joan Chiappe, to Syria was lost on November 27 with all the occupants. A British fighter machine-gunned it during the Anglo- ' Italian naval engagement midway bel tweon Sardinia and the African coast.

Tlio aeroplane was an Air France liner of the Farm an type. It, sent out an SOS at 12.6 p.m: saving that it had been hit and was on fite. Searches by air and sea proved fruitless. Pieces of wreckage, including an apparently unused lifeboat marked "Air France,' wore later recovered. There was another passenger in the aeroplane besides M. Chiappe.