COASTAL SHIPPING
RAIDED BY GERMAN PLANES SMALL STEAMER & TRAWLER SUNK. ATTACKERS PUT TO FLIGHT BY BRITISH AIRCRAFT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, December 18. Two German planes machine-gunned and bombed and sank the steamer Serenity (487 tons) eight miles off the east coast. Fishing-boats picked up the crew uninjured. Fighters drove off the attackers. An eyewitness declared that one raider was heard from the shore, and eyewitnesses saw a bomber escaping from fighters in the clouds.
Daventry reports that the Admiralty and Air Ministry state that German aircraft made a number of attacks on British and neutral ships. Besides the small ship Serenity, one of three trawlers attacked was sunk. Another trawler was machine-gunned and two of the crew were wounded. When British fighters appeared the German planes made off. The* British ship Tuscan Star and an Italian ship were also attacked, the wireless officer on the Tuscan Star being killed. R.A.F. planes then appeared on the scene, but by this time the light had failed and the German machines disappeared.
AN OFFICIAL REPORT WIRELESS OPERATOR KILLED. (Recevied This Day, 10.10 a.m.) LONDON, December 18. An official communique says German planes made several attacks on British and neutral merchantmen and fishing vessels in the North Sea yesterday. During the morning they bombed and sank the steamer Serenity, and the trawler New Choice. Both the crews were saved. They also machinegunned the Craigielea, wounding two members of the "crew, but made off as British fighters approached. Further attacks were made in the afternoon on the Tuscan Star, and the trawlers Dervish, Sheldon, Arnold Bennett, and Dromio, and also upon an Italian ship, the Valentino Goda. The Germans attacked the Tuscan Star with bombs and killed the second wireless operator, then machine-gun-ned the vessel. The Royal Air Force engaged the enemy in a failing light, fired a number of rounds, and inflicted damage as the raiders disappeared in clouds.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 December 1939, Page 5
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316COASTAL SHIPPING Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 December 1939, Page 5
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