GALLANT DEFENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 April 1940, Page 5

GALLANT DEFENCE

ACHIEVEMENT OF BRITISH TANKER U-BOAT BEATEN OFF AND PROBABLY SUNK. STORY OF RUNNING FIGHT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright HALIFAX (Nova Scotia), April 1. The crew of the British tanker El Ciervo believe that, they sank a submarine in a running' light off Trinidad on March 4. The submarine came to the surface 40 yards away, and the-tanker increased speed and opened fire. A torpedo passed under her counter, and the submarine then submerged. It came to the surface twice more, apparently trying to unTimber the deck gun, but the El Ciervo’s fire forced the submarine below. The tanker’s sixteenth shell is believed to have struck, but as the submarine was then three miles astern it was impossible to be certain. However,.attacks in this area have not been reported since. The crew heartily laughed at “Lord Haw-haw’s” announcement on the same night that the El Ciervo had been sunk with all hands.” A New York report on March 4 said that the Mackay radio intercepted a message from the El Ciervo stating that she was being chased by a submarine at a position 800 miles east of the point where the Southgate reported that it had been attacked.