BADLY DAMAGED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1941, Page 5

BADLY DAMAGED

ENEMY SUPPLY SHIP OFF NORWAY BOMBED AND HIT BY HUDSON PLANE. IN SPITE OF HEAVY ESCORT. LONDON, November 11. In daylight yesterday a Hudson bomber on patrol off the Norwegian coast attacked and badly damaged a heavily escorted enemy supply ship. Owing to the necessity of evading gunfire, the crew of the Hudson were unable to observe the effect of a stick of delayed action bombs, but two bombs were seen to hit the deck of the supply ship forward of the bridge, and a tremendous explosion followed. OPPORTUNITY SEIZED AS LINER SOUGHT SHELTER IN FIORD. AIR MINISTRY REPORT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.37 a.m.) RUGBY, November 11. A large cargo liner, steaming slowly into a Norwegian fiord for shelter anchorage, was attacked and at least severely damaged yesterday by a Hudson aircraft of the Coastal Command, states the Air Ministry. The Hudson, which was patrolling the south-west corner of the Norwegian coast, sighted the liner at the entrance to the fiord. It was heavily escorted. The aircraft, which had been waiting for the right moment to strike, went down in a shallow dive and released a stick of delayed action bombs. From his turret the air gunner watched the bombs fall, and he saw two of them land on the ship’s deck, just forward of the bridge. A few seconds later there was a terrific explosion, and sparks and smoke, as the bombs burst, but, because the Hudson climbed into the nearest cloud to escape anti-aircraft fire from the escort vessels, the air gunner did not see what happened subsequently to the liner. FEW SAVED FROM TORPEDOED ENEMY TRANSPORTS. MANY KILLED BY GERMAN DEPTH CHARGES. LONDON, November 11. Two German transports carrying 3000 troops were torpedoed off the Norwegian coast by a British submarine. Only 200 of the enemy soldiers were saved. Enemy torpedo boats ran into the middle of the area in which thousands of soldiers were struggling in the sea and dropped depth charges. Hundreds of the soldiers were blown to pieces. Norwegian eye-witnesses were horrified at the inhumanity of the Germans to their own soldiers.