DETAILS GIVEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 December 1943, Page 4

DETAILS GIVEN

DESTRUCTION OF U-BOATS 9 IN NORTH ATLANTIC BATTLE. SURVIVORS LEFT FLOATING. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.0 a.m.) RUGBY, December 5. In the North Atlantic battle in which at least six U-boats were destroyed by Allied aircraft, one of the enemy craft was attacked by a Hudson. soon after dawn, in the area south of Iceland, but bad weather made it impossible to observe results. Later a Ventura sighted a U-boat on the surface and straddled it with depth charges. The U-boat slowly lost way, settled by the bows and sank, leaving about 30 survivors in the water. Two hours later, a Liberator sighted another U-boat and made two attacks. Depth charges exploded beneath the U-boat, which sank stern first, leaving 20 to 25 survivors in the water. Another Liberator signalled that it was attacking a U-boat, but no further reports were received and this aircraft and its crew are missing. Towards nightfall, a Hudson attacked another U-boat, but results were not seen owing to darkness. Early on the third day, a Hudson sank a.U-boat which left a patch of oil, debris and bodies. On the sixth day a Liberator attacked a surfaced U-boat near the third convoy. The U-boat dived, but an hour later the Liberator again attacked it when it resurfaced, and the submarine went down stern first, leaving wreckage and bodies in the water. An hour and a half later another U-boat was destroyed by four Liberators, the submarine leaving 15 to 20 survivors in dinghies. A sixth U-boat was destroyed by a Canadian Sunderland of the Coastal Command, the submarine leaving 15 survivors and much debris in the centre of a large oil patch.