WAR IS AWFUL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 March 1940, Page 6

WAR IS AWFUL

SCUTTLING OF COLUMBUS, STORY TOLD BY CREW. A vivid picture of lhe scuttling of the North German Lloyd liner Columbus was given in Now York by sailors of the U.S.S. Tuscaloosa, which brought the Columbus survivors to New York. The sailors, with an unexpected shore leave, agreed on most details of the event and said their part began shortly before dark on a Monday night when the Tuscaloosa took over lhe convoy of the Columbus from two United States destroyers, which apparently had kept contact with the German vessel from the time she arrived in United Stales territorial waters.

During Monday night the Tuscaloosa stayed within a few hundred yards of the Columbus, which carried but one lighted masthead light. In a calm sea Die cruiser followed the Columbus all Tuesday. Two hours .before dark, Tuesday, according to a rumour which seemed to receive authoritative credit with the seamen, the British man-of-war wirelessed the ■ Tuscaloosa what vessel she was convoying. According to lhe report. Captain Harry A. Badt of the Tuscaloosa sent back "Find out for yourself,” or similar words. About an hour later the British vessel drew up. racing, the sailors said, at her full 30-odd knots. The Tuscaloosa dropped back to a position about a mile astern of lhe Columbus and the British vessel fired at least one shot over the Columbus's bow. A minute or two later four puffs of smoke rose from the Columbus’s decks and the Tuscaloosa picked up speed to approach. As the Tuscaloosa's crow watched, they could see the Columbus’s lifeboats being swung out. but before any of them reached lhe waler a pall of smoke had enveloped the Gorman merchantman.

In an effort to pick up the survivors quickly, the Tuscaloosa dropped its cargo nets and lhe survivors scrambled on to the ropes and were lifted to the deck. They appeared pleased Io be on (heir way to a United States port and many of them, lhe sailors said, expressed themselves as "fed up” with the war. The master of (he Columbus, according' Io the American sailors, was "very democratic.'' He spoke- will) them on deck, and in one group one of the Americans said: "War sure is awful, isn't it. sir?" The captain, they said, looked sadly toward Ills burning j vessel and .-.aid, Il's lhe worst there