NAZI TRANSPORT SUNK

Southland Times, Issue 24238, 23 September 1940, Page 6

NAZI TRANSPORT SUNK

EXPLOIT OF BRITISH SUBMARINE

SUCCESSFUL ATTACK IN BAD CONDITIONS

(British Official Wireless)

RUGBY, September 20. An Admiralty communique issued at 1.45 p.m. states that it can now be revealed that the submarine Sturgeon successfully attacked a heavily-laden enemy transport off the northern point of Denmark on the evening of September 2. The enemy transport was a ship of about 10,000 tons. She was escorted by small naval vessels and aircraft. The Sturgeon carried out a successful attack in spite of difficult conditions. Light and heavy-weather torpedoes hit the enemy transport from which came brilliant flashes of flame ana a dense column of smoke. A few minutes later the whole ship burst mto flame. When the. Sturgeon came to the surface some time later the transport had sunk and the German escort vessels were sweeping the water with searchlights in search of survivors. It will be remembered that reports from Stockholm stated that a German transport was sunk by a British submarine off Skaw on the evening of September 2 and that a very large number of German troops were killed. This was denied by the German wireless and official news agencies. The German transport which was sunk by the submarine Sturgeon off Northern Denmark was hit in deepening dusk during heavy weather at 5000 to 6000 yards, says a later message. The transport, which was due north of Oslo Fiord, was .stated by Swedish sources to have carried from 3000 to 4000 men. SEVERAL TORPODOES FIRED An officer of the submarine Sturgeon has told the story of the torpedoing and sinking of the big German transport announced by the Admiralty today. He said that in the Skaggerak that morning it was blowing quite hard and they saw nothing at all until an aeroplane came into sight as it was getting dusk. Then the hydrophone operator reported that he could faintly hear a ship. They had a look round and saw first one small German destroyer, then another, then an enormous transport. Conditions were not very good and the transport was about two and a-half miles away when first sighted. “We went to our diving stations very shortly afterwards and fired our torpedoes. As soon as we fired we went down a bit, but after two or three minutes we came up for a look round. The transport was still going along with the destroyers escorting her and the aeroplane flying round. We waited and then fired again. Not long after a second lot of torpedoes was fired. There was quite a big bang in the submarine. Then we had another look and saw a gigantic column of black smoke, which must have gone 2000 feet into the air. We dived, but came up for another look about 20 minutes later.

“We saw the transport, which must have been at least of 10,000 tons, burst into flames. It was a terrific sight. The transport was settling down in the water and was a mass of flame from end to end. We had another look an hour later and the transport had then gone. The only thing that marked the spot was the searchlights and torpedo boats who obviously were searching for survivors.”