WAR AT SEA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 15, 18 January 1940, Page 5

WAR AT SEA

SUCCESS OF CONVOY SYSTEM ONE IN A HUNDRED SHIPS ’ LOST ATTACKS OX TRAWLERS SEEN ( AS DESPERATE MOVE [ British Official Wlreles* > RUGBY, Jan. 16. Sinkings through enemy action in I the week ending January 13, com-[ prised 12 British vessels of 34,007 tons. I and four neutral vessels of 7792 tone. The British vessels sunk were: Ced rington Couit 5160 tons, Tovvneley 2888 tons, Dunbar Castle 10,OX' tons, Gowrie 689 tons. Oak Grove 1985 tons, Upminister 3013 tons. El Oso 7267 tons, Granta 2619 tons, Kaynes 1606 tons, Lucida 251 tons, Croxton 195 tons, and William Ivery 202 tons. Oi these live were mined, six bombed from the air, and one was sunk after an explosion. The neutral ships sunk were:-- a Truida 176 tons (Dutch), Manx 1343 ; tons (Norw egian >, Travita 5123 tons j, (Italian', Fredville 1150 tons (Nor- e wegiair. All lour ships were mined. Ihe Danish ships Feddy (933 tons) t and Ivan Kondrup <2369 tons', which _ were damaged as the result ui an air 0 attack on January 9, reached safety. n German shipping losses include: f j Bahia Blanca. 8448 tons, reported sunk o on January 9 off Iceland as lhe re- ° suit of damage by ice. and the Diecrick Hasseldick, 172 tons, biown up on January 7 as lhe result < f either ' an internal explosion or striking a mine. . The total number of ships, British. c Allied, and neutral, escorted in Briti&n convoys up to January 10 inclusive, was 6363, of which only 12 were lost as the result of enemy action, th? I percentage being 1.2. A British captain from the German ; raider Admiral Graf Spee arrived at Tilbury and has gone London un- 5 der military orders. The Admiralty announced that the German claim that Britain had lost 26' tankers during lhe war was more than I I double the real total. Tanker tonnage had actually increased. Not in Convoy. ( lhe Dunbar Castle, reported in j some quarters as having peen in a| convoy when she si ruck a mine ami id sank, was not under escort at. lhe time [a but was proceeding in company with | c other vessels to join a convoy. The William l\e v . was a smab North Sea trawler. She was ma-; chine-gunned and bombed at dusk by ' a German aeroplane which flew so . low that she almost touched the mast, i The crew took to the boats and were picked up six hours later by another trawler. By way of exc use the German news i agenc y describes the vessel as being| "used by the British Admiralty as an outpost boat.' 'There is no frutn whatever in this statement. .. Naval circles in London point out G that the principal event Ja;< week in f the war at. sea has been the attacks t on unarmed fishing ships ana a lignt- t. house ship. When the i'-boal cant- c paign failed Germany adopted ot.n.< b methods to starve out ihe British, t First they laid magnetic mmes —peiicctly I* gal weapon had they been placed in position in a legal way, but ! the Germans failed to notify* th*- i position of such mines, which resulted | in many losses to neutral well as Allied shipping. Later tncy direct opened violent attacks on unarmed fishing vessels ' and finally they attacked a lightship.’| 1 lhe whole world now recognises that 1 German methods were becoming more and more desperate and ir.oie and i more barbaric, it was saiu.