SUNK BY SUBMARINES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24945, 18 June 1942, Page 3

SUNK BY SUBMARINES

TWO AMERICAN SHIPS ANOTHER VESSEL DAMAGED (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 16. A Norfolk, Virginia, message states that a submarine torpedoed two large United States merchantmen within the view of thousands of persons at a Virginia beach resort. Bombers, a navy blimp, and half a dozen surface vessels attacked the submarine. One merchantman was sunk, and the other was towed to port. The fate of the submarine was not announced. One man was killed by the torpedo explosion, and 197 survivors were safely landed. The Navy Department announced that a medium-sized United States merchantman was torpedoed in the Gulf of Mexico on June 12. Four gunners and 11 seamen were killed. Thirty seamen were rescued after swimming for eight hours and clinging to bits of wreckage. The Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Globo says that Spanish merchantmen are aiding Axis submarines operating in the South Atlantic, and cites an instance in which the Spanish ship Aldecoa supplied fuel to an Axis submarine on the high seas. The Aldecoa arrived at Rio de Janeiro on May' 27, and is now having difficulty in obtain,ing fuel from American oil companies for the return voyage. The newspaper asserts that a large number of Spanish ships are plying between Buenos Aires and European ports and also many former Axis ships now fly, the Spanish flag.