The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-08-31
Allen
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Ger ordered the guns to fire.

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Ger ordered the guns to fire.
Tracer shells split the dark
ness as the ships batteries pour
ed streams of explosives into the
sea.
Subsequent details of this en-
gagement were withheld by the
British censor)
Soon after the rise of the sun,
blood red, the Germans launch
ed an attack with more than so
S.ukas, one of the fiercest and
most intensive ever loosed
against a surface craft.
Out of the sun swooped six
Stukas for the first round.
Screeching, they made for this
destroyer like beast after prey.
Pom-pom batteries m chine
guns and turret guns of the des-
troyer were brought into play
and the following warships add
ed t. the defensive fire, but the
pilots paid little attention either
to the guns or the other vessels.
They droned close, then pull
ed out of their dives. There was
the terrifying swish of heavy
bombs. Holing the sea close
alongside the destroyer, the
bombs gave her a huge jolt, but
she plowed on.
Heavier and heavier assaults
came in succession. Thousands
of empty she'll cases Uttered the
deck, gunners were weary and
the superstructure was riddled
by bullets.
The dive-bombers persisted
until the destroyer was we'll
within sight of our home base.
Nevertheless, the lieutenant
commander reported the casu-
alties were slight. / escaped with
cuts, bruises and shock.
There were times I thought I
would never get out of it alive.
It's funny, but once when l
had my face pressed to the deck
little brown cockroach scam
pered before my eyes. My first
impulse was to kill it. But /
knew il wanted to live. flicked
it away.
The dive-bombers came in
teams of skies or tens.
Explanations punctuated the
explosions.
"Stukas! Diving. Aircraft -
range one four zero"
! thanked God at least we
had not run out of ammuni-
ton for il that ever happened
the Stukas might blast the war
ships out of the sea like sitting
ducks in shooting gallery.
Big bombs washed the de-
stroyer's decks with geysers of
water and sand from the bottom
of the Mediterranean.
German shore batteries then
opened fire.
simultaneously. more Stukas
roared overhead. Near misses
rocked the vessel.
Within sight of our home
quay, the axis crews ceased
their assaults.
The launch of Admiral Sir
Henry H. HARDWOOD, commander
in chief of the British Mediter-
ranean fleet, swished toward the
destroyer across the blue harbor
waters and the lieutenant COM
mander reported by megaphone
that the ships casualties were
slight.
Well done, you ALL the Ad-
miral said.
(The German high command
said yesterday that British de-
stroyer had been badly damaged
by bomb hits off Ell Daba and
that IL British planes were shot
DOWN.
Fire control was plotted from
photographs supplied by aerial
reconnaissance camera crews
Naval planes dropped flares over
Sandy hill, a land mark of FL
Daba, and that hill was the aim
ing point for the concentration
of broadsides on the base about
two miles inland.
Their guns spouting flame, the
warships sailed slowly past FL
Daba and then reversed to send
out other salvoes.
There was no immediate re-
Spouse from the Axis shore bat
teries, whose crews were un-
doubtedly surprised, but a few
hostile shells whistled out as the
fleet made its turn.