MURDER AT SEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 January 1940, Page 5

MURDER AT SEA

AIR ATTACKS ON UNARMED SHIPS MORE EXAMPLES OF NAZI SAVAGERY. ATTEMPTS TO KILL CREW OF TRAWLER. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, Janaury 9. The Admiralty announces attacks by enemy aircraft on slow, unescorted merchant vessels in the North Sea today. Reports received indicate that three ships have been sunk: The British ship Gowrie (689 tons), all the crew saved by a Danish ship. The Danish ship Ivan Kondrup (2369 tons), from which 11 survivors were landed by a British vessel; still .10 missing. The Danish ship Feddy (955 tons).

(A later Daventry message states that the two Danish ships were salvaged and taken into port). A Press Association message says that the second engineer of the Feddy died of injuries. A British patrol ship rescued the rest of the crew, nine of whom were admitted to hospital. The story how the British fishing, trawler River Earn, unarmed and devoid of any protection, was brought face to face with Germany’s brutal and illegal, methods of waging war at sea is revealed.

The story begins with the rescue by the River Earn of three, survivors of the Danish steamer Bogo at 3 a.m. on December 18. Men whose flares attracted attention were found clinging to a raft after they had been sunk by a German mine. The Danes were in a dreadful state from exposure and received such attention as was possible as the River Earn nosed her way toward the fishing grounds. That same evening a single aircraft was sighted. She came close, flying low. and had a good look at the River Earn. Those on board the trawler could clearly see black crosses on the wings and fuselage. The aircraft attacked, the trawler and dropped a bomb. This missed and the aircraft flew away. The following day another German flying-boat circed the River Earn, flying very low and very close, apparently to make certain it was nothing more than an innocent fishing vessel. It then dropped a bomb, which fell some yards from the trawler, which, having escaped destruction, continued her peaceful occupation.

Soon afterward two more German aircraft appeared and circled the trawler, flying so low that they were hardly higher than the masthead. The very first bomb, a comparatively small one, scored a hit right forward. The crew set about getting their lifeboat out in order to abandon ship, whereupon the’Germans began spattering the upper deck of the trawler with machine-gun bullets. Two bursts of machine-gun bullets were fired. The bullets ripped open the engine-room casing and ricochetted about the deck, but mercifully no man was hit.

As the crew and the three survivors from the Bogo tumbled into the lifeboat and began to row away the bombing continued. The German aim, however, had deteriorated, and for some time no further hit was registered. One of the German aircraft aimed a bomb at the heavily-laden lifeboat and almost swamped it. Finally the River Earn was hit by a heavy bomb and sank. The Germans flew off, leaving a lifeboat, with 13 men in it a long way from land or shipping routes. The boat was actually rowed no less than 60 miles before its 13 men were picked up by the Swedish steamer Triton. The occupants had to bail as well as row, for the boat was continualy shipping water. The weather was very cold with squalls of hail and snow. For 36 hours the skipper of the River Earn stood at the tiller. There was no room for him to sit down.

It was stated in a Daventry broadcast last night that the attacks had been carried out against small craft, but the German news agency spoke of them as armed patrol ships. The two harmless neutral merchantmen had evidently been lumped into the category of patrol vessels in order to claim success against the British Navy. These air attacks have given fresh point to the warning against complacency issued by the Home Secretary, Sir John Anderson, in his speech at Edinburgh.

U-BOAT FAILURE

SUCCESS OF CONVOY SYSTEM. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. Janaury 9. Authoritative circles in London regard the latest figures of convoyed ships as evidence that the German attack on merchant shipping is being well kept in hand. Of 911 ships, which up to January fi had sailed under convoy, less than one-fifth of one per cent have been lost through enemy action. Similarly, sinkings by* U-boats, which approached an average of 50,000 tons weekly for the first two war weeks, were for the last 12 weeks less than a fifth of that, and it is felt that these figures show that the enemy submarine campaign is increasingly ineffectual. Sinkings caused by enemy action during the week ended January 0 numbered five, representing a total tonnage of 11.143. Two of these five ships were British, namely the Boxhill (5077 tons) and the Ena (81 tons), and three were neutral, namely the Luna., a Norwegian vessel of 959 tons, the Lars Magnus Troz.elli (1951 tons), and the Svarton. a Swedish ship of 2475 tons. Up to date, 5911 British. Allied, and neutral ships, have been convoyed. Of these. 12 ships, representing .2 per cent of the total number, have been lost by enemy action while in convoy. ANOTHER ATTACK THREE MEMBERS OF CREW KILLED. OTHERS SERIOUSLY INJURED. (Received This Day. 10.10 a.m.) LONDON. January 10. Nazi planes attacked the steamer Upminster in the North Sea. killing three members of the crew and seriously injuring two. Eight others were landed on the East Coast.

SUNK WITH BOMBS SPANISH WAR BLOCKADE RUNNER. CAPTAIN FALCONER KILLED. (Received This Day. 10.35 a.m.) LONDON, Janaury 10. Nazi planes sank with bombs the steamer Oakgrove, which twice escaped bombing during the Spanish war. Captain W. Falconer was killed. All other members of the crew were landed at an East Coast port. Three are in hospital. GERMAN CLAIMS EIGHT SHIPS SUNK. (Received This Dav. 10.15 a.m.) BERLIN. Janaury 10. A High Command communique claims that German fighter planes sank eight ships off the English and Scottish coasts on Janaury 9. It states: "Our fighters, during a reconnaissance, sank two armed naval and two merchant ships on convoy, off the Norwich coast. Four armed merchantmen unexpectedly fired, on German planes of! the Scottish coast, and consequently were sunk. Our aireraft suffered no casualties.”