BRITISH DESTROYERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25240, 1 June 1943, Page 3

BRITISH DESTROYERS

WORK IN MEDITERRANEAN ENEMY “ DUNKIRK ” PREVENTED RUGBY,. May 30.. The destroyers of the' British Mediterranean Fleet upset .any. plans the enemy might have conceived for a “Dunkirk” in Tunisia. From the monotonous duty of escorting convoys up to the North African front line ports, these units of the “ forward ferry,” as they are commonly called, Suddenly switched over to a striking force, a role they now maintain. In the last few days of the Tunisian battle a number of destroyers patrolled day and night close in to the beaches of Tunis and Cap Bon., Their task was full of incident. One interrupted its work to pick up Germans from rowing boats ana sent a motor boat over the choppy seas to the Italian hospital ship Virigiiio. The boarding party, which included a doctor, made sure that the wounded and all else were genuine, and heard the Italian commander complain about the lack of beauty among his 20 (nurses. The destroyer returned to >patrol the area to pick up 29''more Germans from their cocklesnell craft. The destroyers did their share in bombarding the enemy along the beaches. Many of the Germans picked up from small craft did not know the route by which they had arrived .at the coast —they hadn’t stayed long enough in each place to learn its name.