SEA VENTURERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 September 1942, Page 2

SEA VENTURERS

NEW ZEALANDERS IN BRITISH

COASTAL FORCES

VISITED BY THE HIGH COMMISSIONER.

STORIES OF SUCCESSFUL ACTIONS.

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON, September 20. . Visiting another coastal forces station, the New Zealand High Commis-( sioner, Mr Jordan went for a short trip in a motor gun-boat, commanded by Sub-Lieutenant J. Mallitte, Auckland, whose first officer was Sub-Lieu-tenant H. G. Duffell-Intemann, Westport. Mr Jordan, standing on the ar-mour-plated bridge, commented on the ease with which the boat worked up to a remarkable speed at which it could be easily handled. He also boarded motor torpedoboats, commanded by Sub-Lieutenant G. J. MacDonald, D.S.C., Wellington, and Sub-Lieutenant Felix Tattersfield, Auckland. Other New Zealanders he met included Lieutenant S. C. Bradley, R.N.R., Sub-L'ieutenants W. C. Drake, H. Warner, all of Wellington, and C. G. Goldsmith, Eltham. All of them have experienced at least one action against enemy convoys and E-bdats. Painted on a lifebelt on the bridge of Mallitte’s boat is a red swastika and a red star indicating that it has accounted for one E-boat and also probably sunk another in a second action. Duffell-Intemann was second in command when the E-boat was sunk during an action three-quarters of a mile from Cherbourg. “We were one of four gun-boats and sighted six Eboats, two trawlers and two destroyers,” he said. "They were waiting for a formation of E-boats arriving from the north and therefore we were able to surprise them. My skipper was wounded by a bullet and 1 had to take command. We saw one E-boat blow up after we had fired two shots.” Mallitte subsequently replaced the wounded captain and commanded the boat during a recent action. “It was very dark when we saw three enemies and fired at the point where their tracers started,” he said. Drake was in the same action. He was in a motorlaunch and saw the action from another angle. Goldsmith was in an action, when another torpedo-boat sank an oil tanker. “We were about two miles away and saw it blow up and burst into flames,” he said. “There was no doubt about that one.” Warner was in a gun-boat which took part in an action lasting 56 minutes. “We numbered three gun-boats and two torpedo-boats,” he said. “We sighted four flak-ships and came on them unexpectedly. The gun-boats dashed up and down their line firing while the torpedo-boats worked round them for position and then definitely torpedoed one, causing a beautiful explosion.” Early one morning, Warner’s boat picked up five survivors of a Stirling aircraft. “We noticed a light when going out on patrol, but wore unable to locate it, so’patrolled over the same spot when returning next morning,” he said. “We found the airmen in a dinghy. They were not the people who had signalled previously, and therefore they were lucky we found them.”

Increasing numbers of New Zealanders are being posted to these coastal forces boats which are certainly helping to singe Hitler's moustache.