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PANIC AND SAVAGERY

ITALIAN AND NAZI ALIENS

LONDON, July 4 ; A hundred and thirty British ! soldiers, struggling desperately on sloping decks to control a screaming mob of Italians and Germans, gave their lives for the prisoners when the 15,000-ton Blue Star liner Arandora Star, which was carrying about 1600 enemy aliens from Britain for internment in Canada, was : torpedoed by a German submarine | off the west coast of Ireland about ■ six o’clock yesterday morning. Scant-ily-clad survivors were later handed from a British ship at a port in Scotland. Hundreds of the Germans and Italians lost their lives in the mad panic which followed the explosion. They fought like wild animals for | places in the boats and some had to j be shot by the soldiers or beaten off | i with oars to prevent them from j swamping the already overcrowded i lifeboats. “If all on board had been British, the loss of life would have been a ! mere fraction of what it was, said a survivor. The heroism of the soldiers, sailors and crew relieves the sordid tale of panic and savagery. Captain Moulton, who commanded the vessel, gave his lifejacket to an Italian and dived into the water at the last minute. He was not seen again. Major Bethel, the military commander, handed his lifebelt to one * of his men and continued to superi vise the lowering of boats until he I went down with the ship, j The two wireless officers, still at I their posts when the decks were j awash, were drowned. A gunner, | who survived, stayed at the gun until it was practically submerged,' hoping to get a shot at the U-boat, i which did not come to the surface. | The Daily Herald says there were 1640 internees on board, and the Germans, who have proudly boasted of the torpedoing, learned only today that 968 of their own people were lost. Of the 250 British troops on board as guards, only 120 were saved. Fifty-nine sailors were rescued from a complement of 110. The ship sank 20 minutes after the torpedo struck her and ripped her open.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT19400705.2.6

Bibliographic details

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21157, 5 July 1940, Page 2

Word Count
352

PANIC AND SAVAGERY Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21157, 5 July 1940, Page 2

PANIC AND SAVAGERY Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21157, 5 July 1940, Page 2