LOST OFF LIBYAN COAST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24633, 14 June 1941, Page 9

LOST OFF LIBYAN COAST

; BRITISH WAR VESSELS MONITOR AND GUNBOAT RUGBY, June 12. An Admiralty communique states that the Board of the Admiralty regrets to announce that H.M.S. Terror and Ladybird were lost as the result of enemy, action during operations off the Libyan coast. The Terror was a monitor, of 7200 tons, built in 1916, and the Ladybird was a river gunboat of 625 tons built in 1915. , A squadron of dive-bombers swooped on the Terror at dusk and dropped 5001 b bombs. The Terror’s guns put up such a terrific, barrage that the bombs missed, but the blast of nearmisses caused the Terror to crumple amidships. The gunners continued to fire, forcing the planes to sheer off, but the Terror rapidly broke in pieces, and the captain ordered the ship to be abandoned. Only one member of the crew was seriously injured. A warship picked up the remainder. The Terror’s hull was later sunk by gunfire. CREW OF THE GUNBOAT STIRRING DEVOTION TO DUTY ALEXANDRIA, (Rec. 8 p.m.) -June 12. The Ladybird, which was famed for the Panay incident, was a tireless batterer of the enemy on the Libyan coast. She fought until the last of her guns slipped below the waters of Tobruk Harbour. Forty-seven dive-bombers attacked her and other objectives for over an hour. Bombs exploded aft and one cut into the boiler room. The bow lifted and flames and smoke ringed the ship. The sailors and gunners shouted to the commander, “ Carry on, sir, please " * Commander Blackburn, a Yorkshireman. said it was one of the most magnificent displays of devotion to duty ever seen. Six near misses shook the gunboat, in addition to two hits on the magazine, which was likely to blow ,up at any moment, but the men dashed into the inferno in the boiler room to rescue disabled comrades while the guns kept firing, with injured seamen helping to pass up ammunition. Rescue boats arrived from the shore just as the gunboat claimed its second victim among a swarm of raiders. Commander Blackburn estimated the casualties at four killed and fourteen wounded.