BIG CONVOY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 228, 28 September 1942, Page 5

BIG CONVOY

SAFELY IN RUSSIA FOUGHT WAY TO PORT THROUGH GREAT BLITZ (B” Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) London, Sept. 25. The dramatic story has now been told of the passage of the recent big Allied convoy through the Arctic to northern Russian ports. The escort force lost the destroyer Somali and the minesweeper Leda, both of which were torpedoed. Two enemy U-boats were almost certainly sunk and four others seriously damaged. Forty enemy planes were destroyed and a large number of others seriously damaged. The great majority of the British, American and Russian ships in the convoy got safely to port. ROYAL NAVY WARSHIPS CONVOY WELL GUARDED Rugby, Sept. 26. , The disclosure that no fewer than 75 warships of the Royal Navy, of varying sizes, had escorted the recent Anglo-American convoy to Russia, was made by Mr. Anthony Eden, Foreign Secretary, in a speech at Leamington. _ The convoy, he said, had safely delivered in Russia the largest total of munitions yet transported in a single voyage from the United Kingdom and. the United States. The shipment included aircraft, tanks, guns, ammunition and valuable stores of all kinds. “It is good to know that these supplies reached our Russian allies at. a critical time. The battle of Stalingrad is a heroic struggle, and no nraise can fairly describe what, the Russian armies have achieved,” he said. Speaking of the R.A.F. bombing offensive over Germany, he said, it would be a grave mistake to underrate its influence on the course of the war. Our offensive was at last developing weight, and sustained power and.' we intended to keep on increasing it.—B.O.W. EYE-WITNESS’ STORY MAELSTROM OF FIRE I London, Sept. 25. The Commodore of the convoy [ was Rear-Admiral E. K. BoddamWhethnni. D.S.O. In their attacks the U-boats crept out from the Norwegian fiords and concentrations of aircraft, charged with the task of destroying the convoy, flew out from bases in northern Norway. When the first attack was made by 42 German planes, each carrying two torpedoes, guns roared from the outer screen of destroyers. and then the enemy squadrons swarmed over their objectives. An eye-witness on board the cruiser Scylla, the convoy’s flagship, described the battle as a maelstrom of shells, tracer-bullets, brown and grey smoke bursts against a background of roaring propellers. I Plane after plane hit the sea and I sank, but still they came on. twisting and turning on their attacks upon the convoy from mast-height, from I deck-height, while the merchant ships, spitting defiance from their antiaircraft guns, kept steadily on their course, never deviating. The battle took on a new phase. Hurricanes roared up from the flight-deck of the aircraft-carrier and a few moments later there were dogfights up above the clouds and low over the sea. Junkers and Heinkels twisted and dived and climbed and rolled to avoid the relentless attacks of th n Hurricanes. The eve-witness said: “Excitement on the flag deck is intense. The men watch a Junkers streaking up through the cloud with smoke pouring from it. “Lieutenant - Commander McKane. megaphone in hand, wanders from side to side of the bridge watching everything. He is calmness personified.* “A Scots cameraman suspends his shooting for a moment to mutter: ‘I dinna’ ask to come on this party.’ But nothing seems to worry him. “A little later someone announces! ‘Twenty-five more coming in.’ This time two formations appear, but before they reach the convoy Hurricanes sweep into the attack, break up the formations and are dealing with them singly. “A warning voice shouts: ‘Bombers overhead!’ and the Scylla gives the Luftwaffe everything she’s got. Four bombs fall towards the deck, but the captain sweeps the ship round and the bombs fall harmlessly into the sea. The attack fails. “The principal medical officer announces that when every alarm is sounded patients in the sick bay go to their action stations at the guns. When on the next day the aircraftcarrier is singled out she comes unscathed through a shower of bombs and 17 torpedoes. A mine-sweeper I comes alongside, lashes herself to the Scylla, and puts aboard 80 survivors from a torpedoed merchant ship. Many are Americans. “This E’oes on for four days, and the convoy is still in position.”