NIGHTMARE TRIP
MADE BY MINE-SWEEPERS TO MURMANSK ICE, GALES AND ENEMY ATTACKS. TREMENDOUS DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 12. Groups of whalers in which Norwegian volunteers sailed from the Antarctic to Britain at the beginning of the war, have reached Murmansk for mine-sweeping duties with the Russian fleet. Officers and men of the British Navy who manned them during their two years’ mine-sweeping round the coasts, took the little ships on their dangerous trip into the Arctic waters, and handed them over at an Arctic port. Several of the officers remained behind to. give the Russians the benefit of their experience of Nazi mine warfare. “It was a nightmare trip,” said Lieu-tenant-Commander W. E. Peters, who commanded in the British mine-sweep-er Sumba, “what with ice formation, mist, gales, floating field ice, and enemy attacks. Ice formed so quickly that for several days we were in danger of becoming top-heavy and overturning. Steam hoses were useless, as running water froze before you could direct a hose on more than a small quantity of ice. It was between 3ft and 4ft thick on the decks and wheelhouse. “Spray broke over the bows and seemed to freeze in mid-air. We finally had to turn and run before the wind, so all hands could get to work with pickaxes and hack the ice away. We cleared 40 tons in an hour. It was as hard as concrete.” The ice was not the only peril. The Sumba at one stage became separated from the convoy. Two German planes then attacked, and bombs dropped between her and an armed trawler, which raced back for her protection. Then the Sumba ran out of fuel, and heavy seas made towing by a destroyer impossible, but eventually she refuelled at sea. with great difficulty. When the mine-sweeper rejoined the convoy, it ran into an attack by U-boats and aircraft. A sister ship, the Stefa, shot down a Junkers 88. The escort force of destroyers and armed trawlers safely shepherded their charges through the attack.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1942, Page 3
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337NIGHTMARE TRIP Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1942, Page 3
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