BATTLE WITH U-BOATS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 October 1943, Page 3

BATTLE WITH U-BOATS

IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC THREE ESCORT CRAFT LOST INCLUDING CANADIAN DESTROYER ANTI-SUBMARINE MEASURES . HIGHLY EFFECTIVE LONDON, October 1. Survivors from Allied merchant ships have landed at an East Coast Canadian port after battling their way through the first big German U-boat pack encountered in Atlantic waters in nearly four months. A Canadian destroyer of 1190 tons was sunk, with the loss of 146 lives. The Admiralty also announces the loss of a corvette and a frigate. It is stated that the anti-submarine measures were highly effective. The Admiralty announces that the frigate Itchen was lost.

NIGHTMARE FIGHT

ON RIM OF ARCTIC CIRCLE AT LEAST ONE U-BOAT DESTROYED (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) MONTREAL, October 1. The loss of convoy escort vessels reported in an earlier message occurred on a nightmare sea fight which Mr Churchill mentioned when addressing the House of Commons on September 21. ■ A long running battle occurred in the Atlantic, on the outer rim of the Arctic Circle, when an Allied convoy encountered r pack;,: of U-boats, with the loss of the Canadian destroyer St Croix, and several Allied merchantmen. At least one U-boat was destroyed. Eyewitnesses said it was one of the starkest battles of the war. They told of ships breaking in half, as torpedoes ripped their hulls and of injured and dying men struggling for hours in icy, oil-thick water. A survivor from an American merchantman, with an allnegro crew, watched a U-boat being blasted from the water, after being caught in the beam of a warship’s searchlight. “It was the best fireworks I have ever seen,” said the negro. He added that a shot must have hit the Üboat’s magazine. There was a tremendous blast of flame and the U-boat sank. The sinking of the St Croix, of whose crew of 147 only one was rescued, is described as the heaviest single loss the Canadian Navy has suffered thus far.