AMAZING EARLIER EXPLOIT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20124, 19 December 1939, Page 5

AMAZING EARLIER EXPLOIT

SUBMARINE FEAT ] THRILLING PATROL SINKING OF U-BOAT CRUISER TORPEDOED SECOND BADLY DAMAGED (British Official Wireless.) Reed: noon. RUGBY, Dec. 18. The British submarine which recently sank a U-boat, sighted the Bremen, and torpedoed at least one German cruiser, had an enthusiastic reception on its return to port. As she entered harbour, sirens sounded on every ship present—among them two destroyers of the Polish Navy which are at present co-operat-ing with the Royal Navy. The patrol from which the submarine returned is spoken of in naval circles as the most venturesome undertaken toy any submarine either in this war or the last. Events moved rapidly from the beginning. The submarine had not long ■been in her patrol area before she sighted a German U-boat of the big ocean-going type moving fast on the surface, outward bound. The British submarine manoeuvred quickly to attack. Torpedoes were fired and in a few minutes there came a shattering explosion. Wreckage was thrown at least 200 ft. into the air. The British submarine made an unsuccessful search for survivors. The next incident to befall this small unit of the British navy was of a different character, proving to the world the scrupulous regard ■ of the British navy for international law. The true story of the sighting of the (Bremen and how she was able to

proceed on her way unharmed would itself make a chapter in the naval history of this war, but the submarine's adventures on this patrol were far from ended.

•Rather less than 24 hours after the (Bremen had passed, she was again cruising submerged, keeping a lookout through her periscope, when ships were sighted. On closer investigation these proved to be two German battle cruisers, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and one of the pocket-battleships with three cruisers in company. Two of these cruisers were the new Bin. gun ships, the Hipper and Blucher. The other was recognised as the Leipzig because of her funnel and conspicuous aircraft crane.

The enemy cruisers altered course so that it was seen that they would pass within torpedo range of the submarine, which fired six torpedoes on slightly different courses. The first torpedo hit the Leipzig. There was a pause of only a minute. Then two more terrific explosions told that two other torpedoes had found tl.eir mark —almost certainly upon the second heavy cruiser ot the Blucher class. The other three torpedoes had obviously passed between the enemy ships.

The submarine, however, could not wait to determine the exact result of the att; ck. She had to dive deep to elude her pursuers by steering a zig-zag course at high speed at a considerable depth. She was hunted and depth charges were dropped for two hours. It was not until after dark that the British submarine returned to the scene. Then she found an area of nearly 4| miles of the sea thickly coated in oil fuel. There was so much oil on the sea that the fumes contaminated the air to such an extent 'hat the submarine had to leave the vicinity and ventilate with clean air before being able to dive again.

It ;s suggested that at least one heavy cruiser in addition tc- the Leipzig was badly damaged, and that, as it was, one of the ship's might v/ell have failed to reach port