NIGHTMARE FIGHT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 7, 4 October 1943, Page 5

NIGHTMARE FIGHT

Survivors’ Description

MONTREAL. October 1. Survivors who have arrived at a Canadian eastern port described the nigutmarc sea fight which Mr. Churchill mentioned when addressing the House ot Commons. on September —l. witnesses said it was one of the starkest battles since the war. -they told of ships breaking in half as torpedoes ripped their hulls, and of injured and dying mon struggling for hours in icy water, thick with oil. A survivor of an American merchantman with an all-negro crew watched a U-boat blasted ’’ from the water niter being caught in the beam of a warship » Se “lt h wa l s t 'the best fireworks I have ever seen,” said the negro captain, who added that a shot must have hit the magazine, as there was a tremendous blast of flame, and the U-boat sank. The sinking of the St. Croix, of whose crew of 147 only one man was rescued is described as the heaviest single loss which the Canadian Navy has suffered. The British Admiralty has announced the loss of a corvette and a frigate. It is stated in London that the countermeasures against the U-boats wcie successful and the action was in no way exceptional. •