ARCTIC BATTLE
TIMID ENEMY DESTROYERS (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) RUGBY, May 9. Further details are iiow available of the destroyer actions on May 1, when three German destroyers made five separate attempts to break through the escort of the homewardbound convoy from Northern Russia. This destroyer action was only part of the day-to-day attacks by the enemy on our two convoys in the Arctic. It was.fought among ice floes. The enemy force included two destroyers mounting five five-inch guns, which were heavier than the guns mounted on the British destroyers, but the Germans would not come to close quarters, though they had everything in their favour.
A gunnery officer reports that the Germans repeatedly broke away, and there was no determination in their attacks; The weather was very bad. There was about 20 degrees of frost, and the firing did not even melt the coat of ice along the gun barrels. One near miss from the enemy sent spray over a gun's crew, and it was ice by the time it hit them. "Apart from a couple of dozen splinter holes, we are unmarked," the officer added.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 24912, 11 May 1942, Page 5
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186ARCTIC BATTLE Otago Daily Times, Issue 24912, 11 May 1942, Page 5
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