FOUR ATTACKS MADE ON CONVOY

Southland Times, Issue 24227, 10 September 1940, Page 6

FOUR ATTACKS MADE ON CONVOY

NEW ZEALAND AIRMAN’S EXPERIENCE (Special to The Times) AUCKLAND, September 9. “W.e were twice attacked in the Atlantic by submarines and twice by aeroplanes,” writes Sergeant W. Willis, of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, who arrived in England recently, in a letter to a friend in Taihape. “The first attack by the submarine cost us one boat. The submarine fired at our boat (tihe flagship of the convoy), but the torpedo fell short, and the second boat behind us stopped it—just a puff and it was all over.

‘That afternoon an Australian fly-ing-boat caught the submarine. Four bombs were dropped, and brought the submarine to the surface. As soon as she started to come out of the water and the men were opening the hatches the pilot dropped another four bombs and scored a direct hit. There were only three survivors. “The second submarine attack was off Scotland, but the destroyers picked up the sound and drove off the submarine with depth charges,” adds the letter. “Next came a Dornier bomber. This time we were on guard and had charge of an anti-aircraft gun on board. The Dornier attacked from the rear, but a hot barrage was put up, and the bomber withdrew and came in just behind us. We fired three shots, the second of which burst on his tail, and we thought that we had him, the way he wobbled, but he side-slipped away and did not come back. He was ‘sit-ting-out’ on the horizon when three Spitfires came out, and that was the end of the Dornier. , “At 10.30 the same night three bombers appeared at about 10,000 ft and dropped a salvo of bombs, but missed, although one ship behind us had bombs all round her. The aeroplanes then attacked a convoy about 12 miles behind us, but three Spitfires again appeared, and two of the bombers were brought down, but the third escaped in the clouds.”