WHAT A FIGHT!

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 215, 10 September 1940, Page 6

WHAT A FIGHT!

CONVOY BATTLE. NAZIS CRY "HALT!" SHIPS SAILED RIGHT ON. LONDON, August 12. Men who took part in the great Battle of the Convoy in the English Channel told me to-day their stories of the fight which began in darkness and continued throughout the day until the Germans— with sixty of their 'planes shot down— cried halt, says a "Daily Express" reporter. The attack began in the early morning dark. The sky was black. There was no moon, and the men in a 490-ton "dirty little coaster" could scarcely see the other cargo ships ahead of her and behind her in the convoy. Suddenly thvre was a crash further Up the line. Captain Guy, of the coaster, said, "What was that? A depth & charge i" Stabs of Flame. In fact, it was a German torpedo finding its mark. A moment later a star shell fired from a German "E" boat fell in an arc over tne convoy, and guns opened fire. From out of the blackness shells spat out. They struck the decks and pinged against steelwork. Aboard the British ships gunners ran to their posts and stood peering, trying to get their eyes accustomed to the blackness. First from one side, then from another—then from ahead and then from behind the convoyed ships— came spluttering stabs of flame. Our gunners fired back at the splashes of light in the darkness. They had no other guide to their target. The lowcut German torpedo boats showed no silhouette against the sky. The men in the coaster heard another explosion ahead of them. In all they heard three. It meant that three British ships were torpedoed. After the first few minutes the star shells went out. Another shot up, illuminating the sea and the convoy— but not the lurking torpedo boats—as it floated down. British escort ships shepherded the convoy and fought the attackers at the same time. Captain Guy directed his men "Hard to port, hard to starboard, hard to jx>rt • • •"—as every other captain in the conjVOy was doing. The men at the heavy hand-steering gear sweated as they spun the wheel over. Everyone took his turn at the wheel. Shells spattered on the woodwork and metal around them. Harry Treadwell, mate of the coaster, came to the wheelhouse. Splinters hissed around the helmsman, 20-year-old John Ward, a gunner boy. The, wheelhouse was lit with the glare of another star shell. Harry Treadwell flung himself on the boy, shielding him from the splinters. Two sharp groans revealed that Treadwell had been hit. The gunner boy was unhurt. Men in other ships in the convoy were being wounded while the battle was at Hs height. Harry Treadwell had three wounds in his leg, and a third man had a seared furrow across the knuckles of his hand.

"Only the Grace of God Saved Us." Henry Nuhrenberg, the cook, started to bathe the wounds of Treadwell. Treadwell said: "I can't bother now— there's work to do." With a handkerchief knotted round his hand he crawled from the galley to •the deck, and was hauled up to" the bridge. Standing on one leg. he took his turn at the wheel. The firing was getting hotter. The gunners on the coaster and the ships they could see near them were firing back desperately against the Germans. The coaster was now being attacked by a number of E-boate—all firing at the same time. Suddenly a torpedo sped towards the ship—and missed by two yards. The cook had coine up "on deck. He saw the white wake of a second torpedo i coming towards the ship. The torpedo was fifty yards away. The cook was twelve yards from the wheelhouse. His voice could not be heard above the firing. He raced to the wheelhouse. '"I lost the race," he said. "Onlv the grace of God saved us. Before I "could warn the captain the torpedo was on us—and missed the stern by not a fraction more than twelve inches. Waiting With Engine* Silent. '•George Smith, a deckhand, saved the ship from the third torpedo. He was the only one to see the white streak of its propeller wake and to hear the 'whoosh-whoosh' sound as it sped towards the ship. "He burst on to the bridge, flung himself on the wheel, and spun it over hard The ship swerved on her course, and the torpedo shot harmlessly hv." "We had run into a carefully prepared ambush," said another of the "men. "It seemed as if thev knew where we should be, and at what time, and thev were waiting for us with their engines silent. There was no way we could fijrht back. We couldn't see what we were fighting. "A ship in front of us had been torpedoed We heard shouts for help, and flung lifebelts into the water, although we could see no one to pick them up" The rest of the convov steamed on It steamed on undeflected—into more trouble. What they had been through, was only the beginning of the battle* 5 «. i bombers swept down out of the sky as morning came—and on their tails came the fighter 'planes of the K.A.F.

Still Ploughing Forward. The start of the battle could be seen irom the shore. A man who watched it through glasses told me "I shall never see agaiS such amazing flying as those R.A.F. bovs put in. It was a lesson to me, a revelation. I saw one fighter make rings around a German he was chasing. First he was 0n «~u tail Piping bullets into it. Then, with a real circus stunt manoeuvre, he dived under it. came up ! m front of it and over it. firing all the time. The two of them disapi>eared into the cloud, with the German heading downwards." ° Beneath the 'planes which twisted and turned—there were over eighty Germans attacking at that time—the convoy was still ploughing its wa,- forwards-still on its course. ]