ATLANTIC ORDEAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 272, 17 November 1943, Page 3

ATLANTIC ORDEAL

U-BOAT CREW IN LIBERATOR RUBBER DINGHY HOW FLYING-OFFICER TRIGG WON VICTORIA CROSS (Special Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) Recd. 7 p.m. London, Nov. 15. The Australian commander of a corvette which picked up the survivors of the U-boat sunk when FlyingOfficer L. A. Trigg won the Victoria Cross has reached England. He is Lieutenant-Commander S. Darling, of Melbourne, commander of H.M.S. Clarkia. The Clarkia was diverted from patrol off the West African coast and instructed to pick up the survivors of the Liberator which had been located by another aircraft. Just before dawn one morning the Clarkia’s searchlights found a rubber dinghy. It contained three German officers and four German ratings from the U-boat which Flying-Officer Trigg had sunk. They had spent 48 hours in the dinghy. An R.A.F. aircraft dropped them food and water the previous day, thinking they were the Liberator’s crew.

The German captain told Lieuten-ant-Commander Darling that Fly-ing-Officer Trigg attacked towards mid-day. The Liberators made two attacks and was then burning arounr the tail. As it approached for the third attack the U-boat’s ack-acks directly hit it. The Liberator powerdived into the sea and disintegrated, but a stick of depth charges exploded around the U-boat’s hull near the batteries. Chlorine gas killed half of the crew of the U-boat, which circled for 20 minutes and then sank. Twentyfour men were left struggling in the sea. One German sighted a small packet half a mile away and began swimming towards it. He reached it half an hour after the U-boat sank, discovered that it was the Liberator’s dinghy, and inflated it.

Then began a tragic, horrifying ordeal. The sea was full of sharks and only seven Germans succeeded in reaching the dinghy, two of whom were bitten by sharks. One had a large amount of flesh torn from his thigh and another an arm lacerated, showing that he had wrenched it. from Ihe shark's jaw's. The last man aboard the dinghy was the captain. The remainder of the crew of the U-boat were either drowned or killed bv sharks.

The men in the dinghy paddled round and round but could not find more of their comrades. The captain was only 26 years of age and the four ratings were under 20. It was on their testimony of Flying-Officer Trigg’s determined attack that the award of the Victoria Cross was made.