OFF EASTERN AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 263, 5 August 1942, Page 5

OFF EASTERN AUSTRALIA

Trawler Attacked By Submarine RUTHLESS JAPANESE (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 4. Two members of the crew were killed and four wounded when an enemy submarine recently shelled a small dishing trawler off the eastern Australian coast. The vessel escaped from her attacker and has reached port. This announcement by the south-west Pacific headquarters today is the first official indication of the presence of Japanese submarines off Australia’s eastern seaboard since June 11.

The crew’s first intimation of the attack which was made from point-blank range was when a shell crashed through the superstructure severing the main steam pipe. Shells continued to rain ou the unarmed vessel and then, the submarine, realizing that her victim could not hit back, came closer and. sprayed the decks with machinegun bullets. People ashore who saw the attack informed service authorities. Local police commandeered a small craft .and picked up the crew, including the two men who had been killed. The trawler was temporarily abandoned, but later another fishing vessel took her in tow and brought her to port. “It was cold-blooded murder,” said a member of the crew today. “Our nets were out and we were a sitting shot. We had no weapons with which to fight back and no warning that we were being attacked —and no possibility of escape once the steam-pipe was hit.” Japanese Brutality.

The attack was made in moonlight, the submarine being of the larger ocean-going type. She surfaced close to the victim, the conning-tower hatch opened and members of the submarine’s crew tumbled on to the deck and manned the guns. Though they had the 200-ton trawler at their mercy, the Japanese behaved most brutally. While heavy machinegun fire swept their little ship, the crew could see the glowing cigarettes of the enemy gun crews. Two of the fishermen were killed, their bodies being riddled with bullets as they attempted to launch the ship’s lifeboat. s Watchers ashore 17 miles away saw the gun flashes and gave the alarm. Hours later, another trawler found the damaged vessel miraculously afloat after having been struck by 12 shells and hundreds of machinegun bullets. Today, the two men killed were buried. Among the mourners were those of the crew who were able to walk.