The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-03-08
GERMAN BOMBER
HITS STEAMSHIP
CONTINUED from Page y


have been liable to seizure.
Sent s. o. s. Message
The Amelia Lauro sent an SOS
message last night saying that it
had been bombed of the east coast.
The italian steamship Titania, 5,397
tons, wirelessed that 1t was going to
the rescue and was launching life
boats. The Titania transferred the
Amelia Lauro's crew to British life
boats, which arrived at a coastal
town with the 20 men. Ambulances
were waiting at a pier for the
wounded.
People in a coastal town heard the
explosion of six bombs and saw the
bomb flashes. Then, they reported,
they heard machine gun fire.
Capt. Lepaci said that aboard the
Titania he heard incendiary bombs
exploding aboard his ship. He be-
lieved that these bombs were small
ones which had been contained in
big bombs.
He said that the German bombs
smashed the Amelia Lauros wire
less aerial but that an emergency
one was rugged up for the SOS call,
and flares were lighted.
Other men in the crew said that
the raiding plane went within 30
feet Of the ships mast.
Eleven Ships Struck
Berlin, March 8-(UP)-German
airplanes sank or badly damaged II
merchant ships, totaling 10000 tons
in the course of reconnaissance"
flights along the British east coast
Wednesday night, the high COM
mand said in a communique today.
The ships were either under Brit
ish warship convoy or were travel
ing along the coast with dimmed
lights, the communique said.
All German planes returned safe,
it was said.
The communique:
with the exception of local ar
tillery fire there were no particular
events on the western front. Sue
cessful penetrations of the English
coast by the air force again &C.
Cured on the night of March 81.
Hereby II merchantmen either
under British convoy or travelling
coastwise with dimmed lights were
sunk or badly damaged despite
staunch defense. All of the German
planes which participated in the &C
ton returned without losses.
zone German plane which en-
gagged in reconnaissance over North
Scotland is missing. On the night
of March 81 single British planes
penetrated Helgoland Blight. With
one exception all turned back before
reaching the German coast. In the
course of enemy flights to north and
west Germany on the night of
March 7-8 Danish and Luxembourg
territory was violated"
British Fly Over Poland
London, March 8 -(UP)- Royal
Air Force planes few over Poland
during the night on the longest re-
connaissance expedition since the
war started, 1t was announced today.
1t was the first time that British
planes had flown over Poland.
Flights had been made over Austria
and Czechoslovakia and for many
days British planes had been max
ing reconnaissance fight sover Ger
many, particularly over the North
Sea naval bases.
An air force communique said:
During the night the Royal Air
Force maintained patrols and recon-
naissances over wide areas of enemy
territory. In course of these opera
tions our aircraft reconnoitered over
west Poland and flew over Posen."
Posen is SO miles east of the Ger
man frontier. A United Press cor
respondent with the British air force
in France revealed that the planes
started from England, dropped leaf
lets on PoSen, and landed at a
French air base early today as
scheduled. The round-trip flight to-
tailed nearly $500 miles.
German airplanes were reported
over an east coast British town early
today but no air raid alarm was
sounded.
London, March 8-(UP)-The adj
miralty announced today that the
5,846-ton German steamship Uru-
quay was scuttled by its own crew in
the north Atlantic after being inter-
cepted by a British warship. The
warship picked up the crew.
London, March 8-(UP)-The ali
aicfn b. H,.sA
ish planes had shot down a German
Heinkel plane, which fell into the
sea off the coast of Scotland.