“BOMBED TO HELL”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 May 1942, Page 4

“BOMBED TO HELL”

AND BROUGHT BACK AGAIN AMERICAN CRUISER MARBLEHEAD STORY OF EPIC VOYAGE FROM EAST INDIES. I TRIBUTE TO VALIANT CREW. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) WASHINGTON, May 6. The Navy Department announced that the light cruiser, Marblehead, which the Japanese repeatedly claimed to have sunk, has arrived at an east coast port, badly damaged but definitely afloat. The ship made an epic journey half way round the world —a distance of approximately 13,000 miles——after a bombing attack in which she was twice hit directly, with the result that fiftec< members of the crew were killed and tvventy wounded. The Marblehead was once damaged under water by. a near miss during preliminary phases of the battle in the Netherlands East Indies, when the Japanese were advancing through the Macassar Strait. Torrents of water sometimes poured through the cruiser s sides, in such volumes that a bucket brigade supplemented the pumps to avert swamping. At least 54 bombeis participated in the attack on the Marblehead and four accompanying destroyers. The Marblehead was rocked by the explosion, swept by fire and nearly flooded. Her steering gear was completely disabled, necessitating steering by the engines, without the rudder. The cruiser' eventually reached Ceylon, where some repairs were effected and thence voyaged home via Africa. The Navy Department says: “Her’s is the story of a ship that was bombed to hell and was brought light out again by a crew that doesn t know the meaning of the word ‘abandon.