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AP CameraMan Victim(Another Associated Press man— this time one who covers a world at war with a camera—has been the victim of an Axis submarine attack. Tins lime it is Prank E. Noel, 37, veteran photographer who has been covering the Singapore front, who writes a first-hand story of a torpedoing off Sumatra.)By PRANK E. NOELPADA N G, Su mat ra, N e cherlands East Indies, Jan, 20. (AP)—Suffering from thirst and the blistering of a tropical sun, 28 of us out of aship’s company of 77 arrived heretoday after a Japanese submarine sank our India bound ship andspilled us into the sea five daysago.Our ship apparently was the first victim of Japanese submarines operating in the Indian ocean. If, was attacked by torpedo and shellfire about midnight Jan. 14 some 270 miles off the west coast of this Dutch Indies island.The shelling finished off an attack begun when a torpedo scored a direct hit on the vessel's engine room, killing five and injuring fouro£ Ihu crew.Although I suffered leg injuries I got overside in a lifeboat with some of my photographic equipment—most of it and all my personal belongings are at the bottom of the sea.(The Japanese, having reached the strait of Malacca along the Malay peninsula, across from the east coast of Sumatra, apparently have cut off the direct route from Singapore to India and now have put their submarines into the Indian ocean to attack British shipping taking the roundabout but less exposed route west of Sumatra.)The submarine cruised on the surface for half an hour within 10Q yards of our four lifeboats but made no attempt 'to shell 01* ma-chinegun us.Then it fired five shells broadside into the crippled ship and she sank by the stern.Two of the life boats reached shore in the Batoti island group, off the Sumatran coast north of here, yesterday.The other boats have not beer sighted yet, but they are believec to be in the Siberut island area of: the coast.For the first two days all foui boats remained within hailing distance of each other, then higl winds and a rough sea separatee them.The sun broiled us and we suffered from thirst since the lifeboat'; casks were smashed. Natives of 0 small island supplied us with water however.Frank Noel is a native of Dalhart, Tex., and worked on newspapers in Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Chicago. and Wichita before joining the Associated Press, He had been an AP staff photographer in Buffalo, Albany, Miami and Atlanta prior to his present foreign assignment.
Newspaper Details
Pampa News
Pampa, Texas, US
Tue, Jan 20, 1942
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 05 Oct 2020
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