The Wilmington morning star., 1943-11-11
DESTROYER RAMS
NAN SUBMARINE
Continued From Page One)

Terre Haute, Ind, told today
what became at times almost
hand-to-hand fight somewhere i
the Atlantic after his ship, tryin
to ram, rode up and over the sub
mersible.
eve held him there and startet
shooting with everything we had
said Hutchins. "Some men fire.
shotguns; the executive office.
grabbed tommy-gun and start
ed shooting from the bridge; others
used pistols, one boy even toof
a signal pistol and fired at the
sub.
1.-THE range was so short one gun
couldn't be brought to bear on inc
submarine. So the gun captain
started throwing empty she1-cases
and he knocked one man OH inc
deck of the sub. Another 1ellow
threw his knife. He said later ne q
never been able to stick Knl1e III
the floor before, but this time ne
hit a man on the sub and knockeo
him overheard.
zone other gun crew coulon I
fire because their shield was In
the way. They cut hole IN inc
shield and fired right through IT,
The action with "the biggest
sub I've ever SEEM Hutchins said'
lasted about 10 minutes before inc
U.boat broke loose and attempted
to flee.
HE went into a tight turn and
we couldn't turn close enough to
bring our guns on him." Hutchins
continued. 1--WE attempted to ram
again even though we'd been DAM
aged pretty badly when we ran up
over him. He turned the tables
and tried to ram us, but we fired
a salvo of depth charges and stop
ped him about six feet from our
side"
Hutchins then told of continued
fire at the submarine-one crew
man operated a big gun alone, get
ting the ammunition, loading the
gun, then firing; another gun cap
tain, when mechanism failed, pull
ed the latch by hand to fire his
gun repeatedly despite a recoil
that battered his arm until 1t
was big as his leg"
Then the sub sank right in
front of us and exploded" Hutchins
said.
None of that appeared in. the
brief communique on the sinking,
issued today, which only recount
ed that the Borie, built in 1920,
depth-charged one submarine to
the bottom and, when another ap-
peared, rammed it.
Loss of the Borie was announced
along with that of two other de-
stroyers, the Henley and the Che
Waller, both sunk in the South Pa
cific.
The Navy announced that the re-
port on those two vessels brought
up to date the list Of fighting ships
lost in the war against the jap
anesee, giving the direct lie 10
fantastic Nipponese claims OF de-
struction wrought among U. s.
Naval forces in recent weeks.
The Henley, a 1900 tonner skip
pered by Commander Carlton R.
Adams of Wilmington, N. c., was
announced only as having been sunk
in the South Pacific in October.
The Chevalier, a bigger ship,
was damaged in the night battle
off Vena October 6, and colhded
with another vessel of her force,
breaking in two. She was COM
manded by 1t. Cmdr. George R.
Wilson, (1222 Ocean avenue) Long
Beach, Calf.
The Borie, under Lieut.. Hutchins,
was part of the submarine-fight-
ing force which included the baby
aircraft carrier card and the de-
stroyers Golf and Barry. Their
score was not given in detail in
the unit citation, but previously the
Navy had announced that force
including an unidentified baby flat
TOD had made II attacks On SUBJ
marines, with two definite sinkings
and eight more possibles-
II the forces were the same, the
Borie accounted for both the GER
tair kills before she quit the fight.
Hutchins told of enginerooms
flooded, generators and radio
communications going out aboard
tie Borie.
I'VE had small emergency ra-
do board, but we had run out OF
gasoline to operate its generator.
Sc, we collected all the lighter
fluid aboard ship and got enough
fuel TO use the generator for q
short message"
The Borie was located the next
morning by planes from the Card.
The ship was abandoned and all
but q members of her crew were
picked up by the Golf and the
Barry despite the heavy weather.
The Navy, departing from its
usual restraint Of language, de-
scribed the exploit of the Borie
rs a saga" Of anti-submarine
warfare in statement accompany
ing the communique.
"It is q tribute to the seaman.
ship of the crews OF the Colt and
Barry that all but n of the Borie's
crew were saved" said the Navy
statement after telling Of the storm.
at was a stormy night with the