MERCILESS SHELLING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24634, 16 June 1941, Page 10

MERCILESS SHELLING

RAIDER VICTIMS RETURN PLUCKY WIRELESS OPERATOR (Air Mail) SYDNEY, June 8. The merciless shelling of the Commissaire Ramel in the Indian Ocean on September 20 last year by a German raider was described in Sydney yesterday by the ship's officers, who were released from a prison camp during the British advance in Italian Somaliland. An earlier message related (he experiences of four Australian members of the crew when the Commissaire Ramel was sunk, and their subsequent ordeal in the prison camp. The master of the freighter, Captain Roderick McKenzie, of Sydney stated that luck was with the German raider. She nearly missed seeing her victim. The first wireless operator, Mr William Brown, however, was of the opinion that the raider had been advised of his ship's whereabouts by short-wave radio or a foreign ship Forty Salvoes Fired Here is Mr Brown's story: "At 0.30 a.m. on September 20 a Morse lamp suddenly shone out on our port beam asking what ship we were. A boarding party came towards us as our ship was searched from bow to stern ; with powerful searchlights. Captain McKenzie ordered me to send the necessary message for the presence of a German raider. I had not been transmitting more than 10 seconds when the raider opened fire. One shell passed through the engine room and killed a man. At point-blank range they just poured them into us They fired 40 salvoes. ' "Something crashed through the corner of the radio room, but did no damage, and I kept on sending. A couple more shells burst round us, and it felt like riding on a rocking horse. There was an ear-splitting roar, and everything went black. When 1 became conscious the room was filled with smoke and fumes. I had a nasty cut over the eye, and could scarcely see. I looked at Chapman, the second wireless operator, who was holding on to the desk beside me, his face covered with blood. There was r. gaping hole above our heads. Operator Worked On *' When the shelling jeased I groped for the key, feeling sick from the smoke and blood. The spark set still worked, but I went on with the message automatically. The shelling started again, and then the whole room seemed to fold on tor. of me. There was a tangle of radio gear, timber, and wires. I don't know how I made it, but I got to the top of th: bridge ladder All firing had ceased, and our ship was well ablaze, lighting up the sea for miles around." Brown described the raider as a very efficient and formidable ship. He said she weighed about 9000 tons, had a crew of 300, and a speed between 23 and 25 knots, carried a scouting seaplane, and was heavily armed with seven six-inch guns, six four-inch guns, one eight-inch gun. and many machine guns and pompoms. •