GALLANT FIGHT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20659, 9 January 1942, Page 5

GALLANT FIGHT

LOSS OF ALTKi AND BOMBER WAVES DEFIED AUSTRALIAN SHIP’S PART CAIRO, Dec. 16. Details have now been made available of a gallant action in which the Australian escort vessel, Parramatta, played a conspicuous part. The action, in which the escort vessel, H.M.S. Auckland, was lost, took place some Lime before the Parramatta was herself sunk. During the . siege Of ,Tobruk the Parramatta grid,,Aririkland were escorting a merchant ship witli a cargo of. petrol, for th'e, .garrison. Hours after an enemy reconnaissance aircraft l.rfd been driven off, 48 Junkers ,ombers roared out of the distance in three formations. As they worked round. to dive out of the blazing sun, both ships opened a heavy barrage.

The Auckland, sneaking ahead between huge columns of water, was suddenly obscured by thick brown smoke. The whole of her stern section above water had been blown away. With her guns still firing and wheel jammed hard aport, she managed to continue at about 10 knots. Terrific Explosion

With every gun she could fire still blazing at the diving aircraft, the Auckland was hit again by three bombs simultaneously. Yet she kept up her tire for 15 minutes until the enemy had dropped all their bombs and flown away. In the meantime both the Parramatta and the petrol carrier had escaped. The Parramatta closed to windward of the sinking Auckland, and dropped whalers, skiffs, lifebelts and floats. Suddenly there was a terrific explosion, and the Auckland’s back broke as she was lifted about six feet iri the Mr. A, few moments later she rolled over rind sank Before the Parramatta could do much rescue work the enemy, was back —a low-level bombing attack by six Savoia 79’s, with heavy fighter support circling above. The. Parramatta escaped \ylth several near misses which seemed to lift tlie ship from the waitrir'. The aeroplanes then concentrated on the petrol carrier, which zig-zagged frantically and also escaped. Sky Alive With Aircraft The bombers swooped down on the survivors of the Auckland and machine-gunned them as they struggled in the water. Clinging to a float, the commander of the Auckland hailed the Parramatta and told her to remain at a distance until nightfall, and trie boatloads of men were instructed to spread out.-. . . .

Before darkness could cover the sea,, the. sky became alive with aircraft again. According to one man in the Parramatta, there was always one formation diving a'nd another moving forward into a position of attack, and a third approaching. The Parramatta tried to turn beam on to each successive attack, firing continuously arid doing considerable damage to the enemy. At least two machines received direct hits Lorn four-incri shells, and were blown to bits. For about.an hour, ; arid a-half the attacks went on, until, as the sun touched., the horizon, the enemy at last drew off. Trie Parramatta steamed toward the open boats in which were the survivors from the Auckland. Then; to the great .relief of .all, they suddenly, sighted two destroyers. The picking up of the survivors was quickly accomplished, arid with 162 of them on board the Parramatta returned to port... while a . destroyer took the damaged..merchant slip in tow and delivered Per safely at Tobruk.