JAP. PLANE CRASHED m BLAZING COMET

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 121, 25 May 1942, Page 5

JAP. PLANE CRASHED m BLAZING COMET

ON TO SfflFS DECK

Allied Vessel Lost Off Australian Coast

United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec.jK3o pan. SYDNEY, this day.

Attacked by waves of Japanese bombers«several hundred miles off the Australian coast, an Allied vessel had to be'-abandoned after one plane, hit by anti-aircraft fire, dived like a blazing comet and crashed on the deck. The survivors of the ship's crew, many of them injured, were picked up by an Allied warship and landed at an Australian port. Out of the ship's crew of more than 200, fewer than 100 are believed to have been saved. Practically all of the men on deck at the time of the attacks were killed or wounded by bombs, while many of those below were badly burnt by flame or scalded by escaping steam.

"The Japanese got us with about 10 bombs, apart from the plane which crashed on the deck, but I reckon we got about nine of them," said one member of the crew, who suffered a fractured pelvis and scalds. "The pilot of the plane which crashed on the deck came straight at us in a perfect dive," he continued. "There was an explosion when he struck and I believe that everybody aft was killed. There was just one sheet of fiame across the deck. The ship was well ablaze and the survivors abandoned her."

After drifting on rafts and a lifeboat for several days, the members of the crew were spotted by an Allied plane and later a destroyer rescued them. The ship was beyond salvage and was sunk by gunfire.