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Sailors Tell of Blasting U-Boats Attacking Allied Convoy In AtlanticA BRITISH PORT, Feb, 4— (C.F.)—Depth charges dropped by the Royal Navy frigate Nene and the close-range gunfire of the Canadian corvettes Snow-berry and Calgary blasted to the bottom an enemy submarinestalking a large Atlantic con- ^voy which reached port with only two ships damaged.A day later, HaUS. Crane and H.M.S. Foley were credited with the probable “kill” of another U-boat.So close was the Snowberry that the sinking U-boat bumped against her hull once, said lieut. J. A. (Hamish) Dunn, of Montreal and Victoria, who was relieving Lieut. John (Barry) O’Brien of Ottawa as Snowberry’s commanding officer.Early one Sunday morning Snowberry and Nene together picked up a “very good*’ submarine contact while #en route to join the convoy.“We both, went for it all out, said Dunn., “Nene inadvertently came across our bows in the dark and we had to go full speed astern. Just after Nene’s second pattern went off we spotted a conning tower about 900 yards off. It disappeared and the bows and conning tower appeared.“Snowberry went full ahead and hard astarboard and we immediately opened fire. Our very first shot exploded on the conning tower at 700 yards. Then we came up and passed the U-boat at 150 yards. All our guns were blazing away,” PICKED UP SUB MEN Dunn said Able Seaman Don Vyse, of Peterborough, Ont., kept his Lewis gun trained on the U-boat’s decks and picked off the Nazis whenever they attempted to reach their big gun.“As we were firing away,” said Dunn, “Calgary steamed up with all her guns belching fire. In the meantime Nene was blasting away furiously, so I thought to myself, ‘we better get the hell out of here.’ We moved to a better position.“The Nazis had by this timestarted to abandon ship, so we illuminated the scene with star shell. Out of the 55 in the crew we rescued two officers, two petty officers and seven ratings, while Calgary got three and H.MS. Tweed, another rigate, came along and picked up four others.”By this time the U-boat, out of control, was making about two knots. She began to submerge and after a few more shots had been fired disappeared for keeps.(For Calgary it was the second time she has played a part in successful attacks on U-boats. In May, 1941, while under command of Lieut. Gerald Lancaster of Vancouver, she received credit for damaging \ submarine which she attacked in waters dose to the Canadian and United States coasts.)While the action was going on two other Canadian corvettes, Ed-mundston and Lunenburg, were protecting the convoy on the other side. Edmundston is commanded by Lt.-Cmdr. R. D* Barrett of Victoria.glider bomb battleLt.-Cmdr. Martin Ells of Victoria, serving in another ship, was responsible for the carrying out of attacks against the stricken U-boat. The toll of enemy submarines was probably set at two the night before H.M.CJ5. Prince Robert, Canada’s first anti-aircraft cruiser, had reached the scene and helped fight off 32 enemy planes carrying glider bombs.Crane and Foley, a frigate and corvette respectively, went off to investigate a contact, and when they returned the senior officer informed the other escorts that evidence obtained in the attack was sufficient to conclude the U-boat was probably a “kill.”Officers serving in Snowberry with lieut. Dunn include Lieut. J. D. Taylor, Vancouver.Officers serving in Calgary include lieut. John SBankes, Victoria; Sub-Lfc. Robin Bush, Victoria. and lieut. Stafford Williams, Winnipeg.M F i blSIeiineitls1Phaii
Newspaper Details
Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge, Alberta, CA
Fri, Feb 04, 1944
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Erin M.
CA 06 Feb 2024
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