AUCKLAND SEAMAN'S GALLANTRY REWARDED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 123, 27 May 1942, Page 7

AUCKLAND SEAMAN'S GALLANTRY REWARDED

NAVAL DRAMA

Wounded Officer Saved From Burning Oil

United Press Association.—Copyright. Special Correspondent. Rec. noon. LONDON, May 26. Able-Seaman W. M. Armstrong, of Auckland, who was recently awarded the British Empire Medal, saved a British sub-lieutenant from burning oil when the destroyer Gurkha was torpedoed in the Mediterranean last January. Seaman Armstrong said: "I was for'ard shaving at. /.30 a.m. preparing to start my watch as gunlayer when the torpedo struck the fuel tank aft. I immediately rushed to my action station, but the torpedo hit directly under the gun-mounting, with the result that it became a mass of debris. There was a fierce fire burning, so six of us attempted to put it out. but there was insufficient water pressure. We then discovered that there was someone under us in the officers' wardroom, which was directly under the hit fuel tank. ''I saw an officer who was severelv wounded struggling to the side of the ship. He untangled wires and kept disappearing under the oil tank each time the ship dipped. I tied a heaving line round mv waist and went amidships and dived in. I managed to reach the officer and pull him out. Then my mates pulled us amidships and pot us aboard just before the oil floating on the sea burst into flames. I never realised the ship could carry so much oil. "A Dutch ship picked us up and landed us at Tobruk. Dutchmen gave us all the clothes they had but we were still very cold at Tobruk where we spent two days We experienced an air raid the day we and thorf S ° months at Alexandria and then came to England." u e "??. aman Armstrong is goine to ?hil" q'o Alfred for a commission. Able-Seaman D. Burns and J WalGurkha wlS**? 1 werc in thl tri- ha when she was torpedoed »^ ere P° s ted to different shins 5