BOMBED AND SUNK

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21531, 19 December 1939, Page 7

BOMBED AND SUNK

Nazi ’Planes Attack Steamer Raider Destroyed Doited Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received November 18, 11.50 p.m.) LONDON, November 18. Two German planes machine-gun-ned, bombed and sank the small steamer Serenity eight miles off the East Coast. Fishing boats picked up all the crew uninjured. Fighters drove off the attackers. An eye-witness declared that one raider was destroyed. It also appeared that enemy aircraft attacked the minesweeping fleet off the northeast coast. Heavy firing was heard from the shore. Eye-witnesses also saw’ a bomber escaping from the fighters in the clouds. The Norwegian steamer Strindheim was sunk off the Scottish coast by what is believed to be a mine. The captain was killed. Two of the crew were rescued. Eight are missing. The Newcastle steamer Amble was mined and sunk in the North Sea. All seventeen members of the crew were picked up after seven hours in open boats and landed at a coast port. The latest report on the British efforts to clear the seas of German mines describes how a Royal Air Force machine was flying high over the North Sea just before dusk when mines were observed just ahead of some merchant ships. As the failing light made it difficult for the mines to be seen, a minesweeper was called to the scene. Guns were concentrated on the mines which were blown up. An hour later the first of the merchant ships passed safely.