CHARMED LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24250, 16 April 1942, Page 9

CHARMED LIFE

AUSTRALIAN CRUISER ■ J HOBART'S AMAZING ESCAPES SYDNEY, April 9 H.M.A.S. Hobart (7105 tons) has reached an Australian port after bearing a charmed life in Java waters. In one day 128 Japanese bombers attacked the cruiser and aimed 600 bombs at her without scoring a hit. The heaviest day's bombing was in Banka Strait, east oi Sumatra, which was known in the Netherlands East Indies as "Bomb Alley." Of the 600 bombs dropped that day 74 were near misses. One seaman who, until a week before the war, was a clerk in civil life, said: "That day is remembered by the Hobart boys as 'Black Sunday.' The sky was black with bombers as they attacked us. We shot down six of the bombers and damaged others. At the time we were on our way to intercept a Japanese invasion force. When the aeroplanes spotted us the invaders turned north. Our casualties were remarkably light." More evidence of the Hobart s charmed life was given when, later, she was tied up at Batavia with an oiltanker alongside. "A huge bomb was dropped on the tanker and went clean through it," said a member f of the Hobart's crew. "The explosion was under water and the Hooart seemed to be lifted right out of the water. So was the tanker. Our funnels were riddled with pieces of shrapnel and deck fittings were scarred. Again our casualties were few." _ , Before the Java fighting the Hobart had survived many months of strenuous work in the Mediterranean and the fiercest bombings of Singapore. A sailor said: <( Our skipper, Captain H. L. Howden, is the one to thank for most of our escapes. It was simply amazing the wav he manoeuvred the Hobart out of the path of bombs."