U.S. DESTROYERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 92, 15 October 1940, Page 9

U.S. DESTROYERS

MORE ARRIVE IN BRITAIN

ALL JN EXCELLENT ORDER

LONDON, October 14,

More of the 50 destroyers coming to Britain from the United States have arrived here to help the Fleet in its innumerable and widespread tasks.

A British naval officer who came across the Atlantic with the latest arrivals paid a tribute to the excellent order in which the British crews found the ships when they took them over from the Americans at a Canadian port. Not only were the vessels themselves and their armament in first-class order but any slight differences in detail were explained by the Americans. Everything that could possibly be needed on board was ready for the British crews to use.

The officer said that the destroyers met heavy seas on their voyage' across the Atlantic and were as lively as all destroyers are likely to be in such conditions, but they were very dry on deck.

Some of the British crews which brought these valuable reinforcements were men who had seen action at Narvik, Dunkirk, and Boulogne. Some were men who served in the last war, and others had never even intended to go to sea till a year ago. On the way- across the' destroyers rescued some men of the Royal Air Force who had been in the water for 25 hours. Their machine had crashed and they had almost given up hope when they were sighted and rescued in spite of a gale.