RAIDER VICTIMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 May 1941, Page 4

RAIDER VICTIMS

OVER EXTENDED PERIOD LAST YEAR. SYDNEY SURVIVOR'S STORY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright' SYDNEY, May 11. The sinking or capture of nine ships by a German raider in the Indian Ocean is confirmed by Mr Charles Jeffries, who has returned to Sydney after having shared weeks of captivity with 193 other seamen from the raider's victims. His ship, Hie Commissaire Ramel was sunk by the raider on Septembei 20 last, and three men who were prisoners with' him in the holds of the Nazi ship died later in a prison camp in Italian Somaliland. Mr Jeffries said that the raidei was the Hansa liner Atlantis, of about 14.000 tons. ■ She was disguised as a Japanese trader and used a Japanese name. He confirmed an American report of March 1 that the victims of the raider were the British-owned ships Scientist, Kemmendine, City of Bagdad, King City, Athel King, and Benarty, the French ship Commissaire Ramel. the Norwegian motor-ship Tinnara. and the Yugoslav steamer Durmi tor. Mr Jeffries said that to intimidate their captives the crew of the raider lined them up on the deck and spattered it with bullets from machineguns mounted on the bridge. The prisoners lived on gruel made with flour and water, and each man was given one-third of a cup of water twice a day. The majority of the vessels named were reported sunk at various dates last year up to September. The crew of the Commissaire Ramel were rescued from the prison camp at Mogadishu. Italian Somaliland, at the beginning of this year. 1