SMALL ALLIED SHIP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 January 1943, Page 3

SMALL ALLIED SHIP

SUNK BY JAPANESE SUBMARINE IN AUSTRALIAN WATERS. TWO MEMBERS OF CREW LOST. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) SYDNEY, January 20. A Japanese submarine has sunk a small Allied vessel in Australian waters. Only two casualties were caused by a torpedo attack, and all other members of the crew were rescued. General MacArthur’s communique, announcing the sinking, does not state the date or the location of the attack. It is learned that a large ocean-going Japanese submarine, estimated to be about 300 feet long, made the attack recently at 1 o’clock in the morning. When seen about 300 yards away in moonlight, the submarine appeared to' be camouflaged. It stayed above water for only a few minutes and then submerged. A torpedo struck the ship on the port side, smashing one lifeboat to pieces. Thirty members of the crew, together with two passengers, got into a starboard lifeboat, and they sailed and rowed for 36 hours before reaching safety. The ship sank within an hour of being hit. The men rowed in relays, and about four miles off port were assisted by a fishing smack. “We were hit without warning,” stated the captain on his arrival. “I went immediately to the bridge, and saw the submarine about 300 yards from the ship on the port side. We were listing badly and had some difficulty in launching the lifeboat, but we managed to get away without accident. At dawn we were five miles off, and there was no sign of our ship.” A former navy man who was testing fishing grounds saw the survivors and towed them to port. "I asked them if they wanted water,” he said. “The answer came back: ’No thanks. We will be ashore soon and have a beer.’ ” Allies lo launch a gigantic land offensive in Western Europe. 5. That the North African campaign continues in the hope of causing an Italian collapse, leaving Germany alone on the Continent. All this does not mean that the war in the South-West Pacific and China will be permitted to suffer, the correspondent says, but that the . leaders of the United Nations have decided to concentrate their strength where it will hurt Germany most.