U-BOAT CAMPAIGN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1939, Page 5

U-BOAT CAMPAIGN

THE HERONSPOOL’S BRAVE FIGHT TORPEDO ENDS NIGHT ACTION. • BRITISH DESTROYER SINKS SUBMARINE. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright. LONDON, October 21. According to George Haresnape, radio operator on the Heronspool, who has arrived at New York with other survivors aboard the President Harding, the submarine sank the Heronspool only after a four-hour night fight. “A few hours after leaving the protection of the convoy 300 miles off Ireland we came upon a submarine sinking the French tanker Emile Miguet,” he said. “She was firing shot after shot into her. We started running, hoping to be unnoticed. However, the submarine started for us. We had only one gun and fought back as best we could. The submarine came to the surface and fired continually. I think she wanted to save the expense of a torpedo. We zigzagged for four hours in the darkness. The submarine failed to land a single shell. “At 12.45 a.m. the commander must have tired, for he let go a torpedo and the fight was over. The torpedo struck us so unexpectedly and we abandoned ship so quickly that we had no time to send an SOS. The submarine cruised round the bobbing lifeboats for an hour until the President Harding was sighted.” A London message states that Antonio Cutajar. a Maltese fireman on the British Trader, bound from Bristol to South America, who had returned to Cardiff, related how the British Trader bi ought a gun to bear when the Üboat attacked her. holding the enemy as a British destroyer steamed at fullspeed to the scene and finished off the U-boat, which was unable to submerge. The Independence Hall has arrived at Bordeaux bringing survivors of the Yorkshire and City of Mandalay. Hundreds of .people gathered on the pier on which ambulances were waiting and sang British and American national anthems.

They cheered the Independence Hall's master. Captain Mackenzie, who, in describing the torpedoing, said: “I received an SOS from the Yorkshire and hurried to the scene. I found the City of Mandalay standing by. The Yorkshire suddenly broke in two and sank in nine minutes. The City of Mandalay founded in 40 minutes. The U-boat captain came close and thanked me in English for saving the victims." COMPELLED TO CHEER CREW OF TORPEDOED BRITISH STEAMER. (Received This Day. 10.45 a.m.) LONDON. October 22. Upon their arrival at a British port aboard a Belgian tanker, the crew of the British steamer Sneaton. sunk in the Atlantic, said that when they took to the boats the attacking submarine drew alongside. The young commander in the conning tower brandished a revolver and the U-boat's gun was trained on the boats, after which the commander ordered the crew ol the Sneaton to wave and cheer while the U-boat photographed them. One survivor said: “You can realise we had no option, but it was a most half-hearted cheer. A British warship arrived later and picked us up.''