NAZI TRANSPORT SUNK

Taranaki Daily News, 23 September 1940, Page 8

NAZI TRANSPORT SUNK

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

■submarine's success

British Official Wireless. Rugby, Sept. 20. An Admiralty communique just issued states: "It can now be stated that His Majesty's submarine Sturgeon successfully attacked a heavily laden enemy transport off the northern point of Denmark on the evening of September 2. "The "enemy transport was a snip of about 10,003 tons. She was escorted by small naval vessels and aircraft. "The Sturgeon carried out a successful attack in spite of difficult conditions of light and heavy weather. Torpedoes hit the enemy transport, from which came brilliant flashes of flame and a dense column of smoke. A few minutes later the whole ship burst into flames. "When the Sturgeon came to the surface some time later the transport had sunk and the German escort vessels were sweeping the water with searchlights in search of survivors." It will be remembered 'that reports from Stockholm stated that a German transport was sunk by a British submarine off The Skaw on the evening of September 2 and a very large number of German troops was killed. This was denied by the German wireless and official news agencies. The German transport was hit in the deepening dusk during heavy weather at 5000 to 6000 yards. The transport, which was due north of Oslo Fiord, was stated by Swedish sources to have carried 3000 to 4000 men. Officer's Story. An officer of the Sturgeon has told the story of the torpedoing and sinking of the big German transport announced by the Admiralty to-day. He said that in the Skaggerak that morning it was blowing quite hard and they saw nothing all day until an aeroplane came into sight as it was getting dusk. Then the hydrophone operator reported he could faintly hear a ship. They had a look round and saw first one small German destroyer, then another and then an enormous transport. Conditions were not very good and the transport was about 2£ miles away when first sighted. "We went to our diving stations and very shortly afterwards fired our torpedoes," said the officer. As soon as we fired we went down a bit but after two or three minutes we came up for a look round. The transport was still going along with the destroyers escorting her and the aeroplane was flying round. "We waited, and then fired again. Not long after the second lot of torpedoes was fired there was quite a big bang. Then we had another look and saw a gigantic column of black smoke which must have gone 2000 feet into the air. Another Look. "We dived but came up for another look about 20 minutes later and saw the transport, which must have been of at least 10,000 tons, burst into flames. It was a terrific sight. The transport was settling down in the water. She was a mass of flame from end to end. We had another look an hour later and the transport had then gone. The only thing which marked the spot was the searchlights of torpedo-boats obviously searching for survivors. The Sturgeon is of the Swordfish class, of which the Seahorse and Starfish were lost early this year. She is of 640 tons, with one 4in. gun and 6 torpedo tubes. She has a speed of 13 knots and carries a complement of 40. The Sturgeon was built between 1932 and 1933.