ARRIVAL IN PORT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24294, 8 June 1942, Page 3

ARRIVAL IN PORT

SHIPS THAT ESCAPED LIFEBOAT REACHES COAST SYDNEY, Jane <i Two merchant vessels, one of which was shelled by Japanese submarines, have arrived at an Australian port after racing for safety. They were within 75 miles of each other on Sunday night when one was shelled, but the other made port without interference. Four shells were fired at one vessel from various angles. Within n few minutes of the shelling an SOS was received from a vessel which was torpedoed, but the shelled ship could give no assistance. With its engines racing flat out, it reached a haven. Showed No Fight The chief officer, who went to the gun platform immediately after the first shell was fired by the submarine, said the submarine would not show fight. The captain manoeuvred his ship into a fighting position, but was given no chance to engage the attacker, which submerged. Twenty-five more men from the cargo ship sunk by Japanese submarines on Wednesday night are safe. They were landed in the ship's lifeboat at a small fishing village on the coast before daylight on Friday. Thirty-seven members of the crew of 49 have now been saved. The men who landed to-day were weary and suffering from 30 hours' exposure in rain and bitter cold. Some of them were clad only in pyjamas and drenched t.> the skin. Some of the survivors believe a second submarine was at the scene of the sinking, and possibly an enemy reconnaissance plane also. Two Submarines Seen After the ship sank the lifeboat cruised around the wreckage and picked up as many survivors as could be seen. Then a course was set by the stars, and the men began to row through a heavy sea. Some hours later the sea abated and the conditions became slightly easier. "We saw an aeroplane three times during our long pull to shore," said a member of the crew, '"but we did not do anything to attract its attention, for we thought it might be an enemy reconnaissance plane. I was on deck as a member of the watch when the submarine was sighted. The alarm was sounded, but before the men below in bed or in the engine room could be warned the torpedo struck. T saw the submarine which apparently hit us, but there appeared to be two of them working together. I saw one submarine signalling to the other." Torpedo Scrapes Keel A torpedo fired by a Japanese submarine scraped the keel of an Australian merchant vessel off the New South Wales coast on Thursday morning. but the ship escaped. The torpedo exploded 200 yards beyond the ship and showered it with fragments. The ship was the third of those attacked by the Japanese off the New South Wales coast on Wednesday. Members of the crew of the vessel said the torpedo was fired at pointblank range. It exploded with .a shattering roar and shook the ship from stem to stern. Bright yellow flashes lit up the scene with a light like daylight. No one was injured, but some of the crew had narrow escapes when one large fragment crashed through a hatch. Seventh Experience One of the men from the cargo ship sunk on Wednesday has now been torpedoed seven times —at Singapore, in the North Sea, in the Channel, in the Indian Ocean, and in the Pacific Ocean. He was drawn down with the ship, but forced his way to the surface and clung to a hatch until he was picked up by a lifeboat. The youngest member of the crew, a 15-year-old deck boy, said he was saved by his mate, the other deck boy. When the two boys got on deck the younger went to one lifeboat and the older to another. The older boy is missing. STUBBORN FREE FRENCH TABLES TURNED ON ROMMEL (Reed. 9.10 p.m.) LONDON, June T A Free French despatch from Libya states that over 1000 Axis tanks, plus hundreds of aeroplanes and scores of guns, were flung against the Free French at Bir Hakeim from north, south and south-west. French "o's captured in Syria last year were proving extraordinarily useful as anti-tank guns. A message from a Free French war correspondent gives some idea of what the garrison has had to endure. Planes, tanks and guns battered almost ceaselessly at the base. The Free French commander received four demands to surrender. Each time he gave the same forceful but unprintable reply. The Free French, by repulsing Rommel's attacks against Bir Hakeim, changed from a defensive role to the offensive, and now constitute a serious striking threat to the Axis forces in this area, and also to the Axis columns attempting to get supplies around Bir Hakeim to the Battle of the Bulge. The total Axis tanks lost so far is estimated at 340. NORWEGIAN EXPLOSION (Reed. •">.•"> p.m.) LONDON, June C> A Stockholm message reports that tremendous explosions shook Stromstad and other points more to the south for 24 hours on June 3 and 4. The cause is unknown, but it is pointed out that Norway's biggest munition factory at Kongsherg is only 80 miles away.