SINKING OF EAGLE

Southland Times, Issue 24840, 4 September 1942, Page 5

SINKING OF EAGLE

New Zealand Pilot Aboard (Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec 11 p.m.) LONDON, September 2. The only New Zealander in the air-craft-carrier Eagle, which was torpedoed in the Mediterranean, was SubLieutenant H. E. Duthie, of the Fleet Air Arm, who belongs to Epsom, Auckland. He was 20 yards from the ship when she went down. He was wearing a Mae West life-jacket and swam for half an hour before being picked up by a destroyer. “I had just gone down to my cabin in order to pick up my gear, because I was about to begin a flight, when four torpedoes hit the ship almost simultaneously with a terrific explosion,” he said. “I remember my mirror breaking. Then I dashed up to the flight deck because the ship listed heavily almost immediately. I waited for a while, hoping the ship was not going to sink, but the list continued so I began to slide down the rope on the ship’s high side into a life-boat, but the Eagle was swinging over so rapidly that the life-boat was lifted up from the water. I jumped into the sea, which was oily, but warm, and began swimming as quickly as possible remembering stories of suction, but there was no suction and I saw two men step off from the rudder as the Eagle sank and swim away.” • Sub-Lieutenant Duthie was with the Eagle during a previous Malta bound convoy, when he was credited with shooting down one and a-half three engined Savoi-Machetti bombers and probably another. “One morning two of us were patrolling when we saw two of these bombers,” he said. “We got both, one going down in flames. I was with the same pilot that evening when we saw 17 Savoi-Machettis flying in tight formation. We both attached the rear aircraft and it went down flaming. The other pilot’s oil-tank was hit, so he left. I used up the rest of my ammunition firing at another bomber and I saw its starboard engine burst into flames. Enemy fighters arrived, so I left quickly.”