DOOMED U-BOATS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1940, Page 6

DOOMED U-BOATS

FIVE SUNK IN AS MANY DAYS BY COASTAL COMMAND AIRCRAFT. DETAILED PARTICULARS DISCLOSED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, July 5. Several U-boats were attacked by Coastal Command aircraft within five days last month. An Air Ministry bulletin states that the first of these U-boats was sighted in the North Sea early one morning, and after bombs had struck it on the starboard beam, while the submarine was still submerging, two large dark brown oil patches appeared in the water. The aircraft circled 'overhead for three hours, but nothing more was seen of the U-boat. On another occasion, an Australian crew, patrolling in a Sunderland fly-ing-boat, saw a U-boat a mile away. The Sunderland's captain said: ‘‘lt was cruising on the surface and saw us at about the same time as we spotted it. The U-boat dived, but we were over it while it was still at periscope depth. We could see it silhouetted beneath the surface. We dropped six bombs close to the port bow and a mass of oil and bubbles appeared. The bubbles must have been about two feet across. More bubbles came up a few minutes later and- the oil patches got stronger as we circled round.” A third U-boat was sighted from three miles away and bombed while the conning tower was still five feet out of the water. The bombs fell directly ahead of the conning tower. A fourth enemy submarine was attacked two days later, a direct hit on it being scored just as it was breaking the surface. The aircraft dived and two bombs struck the submarine on the port and starboard beam. Two oil patches fifteen feet in diameter appeared on the surface after two minutes. In the fifth case, the bombs began to fall seconds after the U-boat submerged. The pilot could still see the periscope. Immediately after the bombs crashed, the submarine altered its course in an effort to dodge, but the pilot saw its manoeuvre in time and his salvo of bombs fell across the U-boat's bows, a few yards ahead. SOME GERMAN CLAIMS (Received This Day. 11.30 a.m.) ! LONDON. July 5. Claiming that German submarines have recently scored a number of notable successes in fighting on the coast of England, the High Command says a U-boat sank .34,400 tons of shipping, another 21.043 tons, and another 31,100 tons, including five steamers in convoys and speed-boats during operations south-west of Portland. It is claimed that U-boats torpedoed the armed merchantmen Hartlepool and British Corporal and also sank in convoy a tanker and an armed merchantman. "Our patrol flotilla." the report states, “destroyed an enemy submarine on the Norwegian coast."