Evening star., 1940-04-22

ishment, their destroyers commenced
to blaze away into the skies. be-
cause they thought themselves 50
secure that an attack could only
sconM from aircraft. won't say we
were not grateful. There were no
planes at all.
Well, we put the nearest German
merchantmen to the bottom straight
away and were followed in line by
the Hunter, Hostile, Hotspur and
Havoc. With the Germans blazing
away into the skies, we made short
work of them, sinking all three de-
stroyers and at least seven mer-
chantmen. Fortunately, at the first
sound of battle, the captain of the
German destroyer that was holding
200 British merchant seamen on
board ordered them to be released
and put into boats. They were told
to make themselves scarce till after
the battle and must say they had
nothing but praise for that skipper.
AS we manned the guns we were
slipping about in snow and had to
use ashes from the galley to keep
our foothold. Then some of the
ashes got into our guns with the
ammunition, and I had to get all
the salt in the galley to improve
matters by melting snow which was
icing the breeches of the guns al
most as we fired.
We had sunk all ships and the
pier when Warburton Lee decided
to 60 around again. As we slowed
three Nazi destroyers came from a
creek on the south side of the ford
and then came some cruisers which
we mistook for Birmingham and
Penelope. We signaled a challenge
and got shells in reply. Carrying
on, we were straddled between them,
SO we did all We could by putting
up a smoke screen which screened
our four remaining destroyers.
Got Salvo Of Shells.
Unprotected ourselves, we got a
salvo Of shells, and the first one
hit the gunnery transmitting sta
ton, killing two men. One died as
we got him ashore after we had run
aground. 1t had been his job, an
important one, to ring the gong.
AS he lay dying his last words were,
Il can't reach the fire gong" He
died by the side of his skipper.
I had to take over three guns for
ward. AS I got there No. 2 gun was
blown up, killing four out Of crew
of seven. I then went forward to
No. gun and as I did q shell hit
there, killing one man. The same
shell gave me splinters in my leg.
Gun crew kept in action all the time.
one man short. I went below for
treatment of my splintered legs, but
there were so many being attended
to smacked some bandage on and
came up again. No. gun would not
bear and I found No. 3 was the same
as No. 2. Nos. and were still
blazing away, but our plight was
hopeless. A shell wiped out the
bridge, the wheelhouse starboard
whaler and severed the main steam
pipe.
Capt. Warburton Lee was not
killed outright, though he was
mortally wounded. 1t. Clark, gun
merry officer, and 1t. Cross, signal
officer, were killed whilst Navigator
1t. Comdr. Gordon Smith was in
jured, knocked unconscious, and the
only man who appeared to be alive
on the bridge was Paymaster 1t.
Staining, who had an injured foot.
At the wheel Chief Petty OfIicer
Heal, the coxswain, was killed out
right. As he fell. dead a boy of 40,
Able Seaman Smale, jumped to the
wheel.
Staining, thinking himself the
only man alive, intended to ram one
Of the enemy ships and gave the
order to Smale.
There was steam for the engines
or steering motor, and the wheel had