DARING DESTROYERS

Patea Mail, 26 March 1941, Page 2

DARING DESTROYERS

DARCY HEENEY’S VIEW

“Believe me, 1 did hot know what a thrill was until I joined the service. I have been aboard the Ark Royal for some weeks now, but I do not think my taate of destroyer life did me any harm. They are little marvels and there is something cheeky and daring about them that gets you," writes Engnitrooiu A“i:f.c.cr Darcy Heeney, in a letter lo h;s parents in Gisborne. “I had a few hair-raising experiences before I joined the Ark Royal," he adds, “and I can assure you that these daredevils stop at nothing destroyers certainly go right into trouble and run from nothing, irrespective of the number and size of the enemy forces. How they get away with it is, I beeve, one of the seven wonders of the world. “One night we engaged four much bigger destroyers than ourselves that tried to get through and we (turned them and chased them off. We also got more than our share of enemy submarines and off one we got 59 survivors, who were only too pleased to give up when our depth charges got on the job.

“Consider me fortunate in getting drafted to the finest ship in the British Navy, the Ark Royal. I suppose you are saying, like Ithe jokes they have over this side of the world, ‘Where is the Ark Royal?’ ‘Of course on paper, we have been sunk many times. ’*