SEARCHING FOR U-BOATS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10280, 15 May 1919, Page 5

SEARCHING FOR U-BOATS

STIRRING EXLOIT OT. SANDERS, V.O. ' ' “■ 1 , Tress Association. AUCKLAND,-May ’4. An officer who served as first lieutenant under Lieutenant-Commander Sanders, V.C., writing to the father oi the New' Zealand hero, describes how their little sailing ship, in searching for submarines off the south-east coast of Ireland, encountered one of the enemy U-boats, which holed Sanders’s ship in three places on the water line, and set the engine room on fire, while his.“panic party’’ launched a boat and pulled, clear of the shin." ‘“During this trying ..time,’’-the officer proceeds, -‘■‘Sanders was perfectly cool. Occasionally ho crept forward on his hands and knees to pay me a visit at the forward guns, to ascertain how the gun crews, were standing the shell fire. About 9.10 p.m. the submarine commander could see our ship was in a sinking condition, and he ceased fife and slowly approached. Sanders, with unexampled courage and coolness, held his fire until he gob the submarine into such a position that there would be no escape. All this time his gun crews had been lying flat on the deck, waiting the order to uncover the guns. When the submarine was within 80 yards, Sanders gave the order to “open action,’’ at the same time running the 'White Ensign to the masthead. We opened .fire with two. twelve-pounder shots, striking the submarine’s forward gun, j-tgjgng the gun and the gun’s crew jorerboard. The first ten shots from ‘.our guns were hits', while the forward gun also put in some useful shooting. The commander of the submarine started to move away from- us, probablv to ■ finish us with a stern-'torpedo. This was his last order.- for - a second later the .man’s body was hit. A large portion of one of our bursting shells' came in violent contact with the commander and knocked him into the sea. Our twelve-pounders were playing havoc jyith .the..submarine. We played streams of ..b.u] lets; from,, Lewis gun . .mongst the.... submarine -crew, and her decks' being' fairly crowded, we observed the bullets cause a large number of casualties. The submarine steamed away 200 yards from us, when one of dnr shells evidently took effect on her pto pelling machinery. She stopped, fell broadside on to the swell, then gradually settled down by the stem, sinking shortly afterwards.”