RETURNING CONVOY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 227, 26 September 1942, Page 5

RETURNING CONVOY

NAZIS CLAIM MOPE SUCCESSES London, Sept. 24. A special German communique stages that U-boats attacked a convoy between Spitsbergen and Iceland as it was returning from Russian harbours to British and American ports. The convoy was composed of more escorts than transports. “In hard fighting, which lasted for several days,” the communique says, “we sank three destroyers, one auxiliary cruiser, and five merchantmen.” Berlin radio said that, including the success reported in the . special communique, the Germans this month have sunk 132 ships, totalling 849,000 tons.

NAZI TORPEDO-PLANES ATTACKERS’ HEAVY LOSSES (Recd. 10 p.m.) London. Sept. 24. Admiral E. K. Bodarn Whetham, commodore of the British, American and Russian ships which recently arrived in North Russia, estimates that British fighters and anti-aircraft batteries destroyed 50 or 60 enemy torpedo-carriers, says the Moscow correspondent of The Times. The Germans lost so heavily in the early stages of the eight-day battle that the violence of the attack diminished. The convoy never scattered. Torpedo-carrying planes, 50 strong, attacked several times daily. Divebombing and machine-gunning by low-flying planes riddled the ships’ bridges. There were simultaneously shoals of German submarines about, many surfacing 10 miles distant. Russian destroyers and Hurricanes came out to meet the convoy as it neared porL