TERRIBLE ORDEAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25386, 18 November 1943, Page 6

TERRIBLE ORDEAL

CREW OF GERMAN SUBMARINE SUNK IN SHARK-INFESTED SEA (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) LONDON, Nov. 15. The Australian commander of the corvette which picked up the* survivors of the U-boat which was sunk when Flying Officer L. A. Trigg,won the Victoria Cross has reached England. He is Lieutenant-commander S. Darling, of Melbourne, the commander of his Majesty’s Clarkia. The corvette was diverted from patrol off the West African coast and instructed to pick up the survivors of a Liberator which was located by, another aircraft. - Just before dawn one morning the Clarkia’s searchlights found a rubber dinghy, and it contained three German officers and four German ratings from the U-boat Flying Officer Trigg had sunk. They had spent 48 hours in the dinghy. R.A.F. aircraft dropped them food and water on the previous day, thinking they were the Liberator’s Cf€W. The German captain told Lieutenantcommander Darling that Flying Officer Trigg attacked towards mid-day. The Liberator made two attacks ami was then burning around the tail. As it approached for a third attack the Üboat’s ack-ack scored a direct hit, and the Liberator power-dived into the sea and disintegrated, but a stick of depth charges exploded around tne U-boat’s hull near the batteries. Chlorine gas killed half the crew of the U-boat, which circled for 20 minutes and then sank. Twenty-four men were left struggling in the sea, and one German sighted a small packet half a mile away and began swimming towards it. He reached it half an hour after the U-boat sank and discovered it was the Liberator’s dinghy. He inflated it, and then began a tragic, horrifying ordeal. The sea was full of sharks, and only seven of the Germans succeeded in reaching the dinghy, two of whom were bitten by sharks. One had a large amount' of flesh torn from his thigh and another had an arm lacerated, showing that he had wrenched it from the shark's jaws. The last man aboard the dinghy was the captain. The remainder of the crew of the U-boat were either drowned or killed by sharks. The men in the dinghy paddled round, but could not find any more” of their comr3The captain was only 28 years of age, and four of the ratings were under 20. It was their testimony to Flying Officer Trigg’s determined attack on which the award of the Victoria Cross was made.