RAIDER MEETS HER MATCH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 180, 2 August 1940, Page 5

RAIDER MEETS HER MATCH

FIGHT IN ATLANTIC

BRITISH SHIP UNLUCKY GERMAN SHIP ESCAPES UNDER SMOKE SCREEN SEARCH CONTINUING lily Telegraph—Press Association —Copyrig -J Received Aug. 1, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, July 31. It is officially announced that a German raider in the South Atlantic was damaged in an engagement with His Majesty's ship Alcantara, of 22,209 tons, a former Royal Mail Line vessel. The raider escaped alter the Alcantara’s speed had been reduced by a lucky shot. The British casualties were two killed and seven wounded. It is known that damage to the raider affects her fighting efficiency. The Alcantara’s damage is slight and the search for the raider is continuing. Immediately upon sighting the raider, which was a fast converted merchantman, mounting four guns for each broadside, the Alcantara engaged the enemy, which turned away when hit, using smoke floats.

Captain J. G. Ingram, D. 5.0., commands the Alcantara. The Alcantara’s predecessor, in a similar role in the last war, sank the disguised German raider Greif on a northern patrol on February 28, 1916, then foundered herself 15 minutes later. A Rio de Janeiro message says that the British Embassy announced that the Alcantara engaged the German raider at 9200 yards off Ilha Trinidats, 700 miles in an easterly direction from the Brazilian Coast, on July 29. The Alcantara, slightly damaged, was expected at Rio this afternoon.