THE CHINA MAIL, OCTOBER 29, 1940.
Library, Supreme
Page
Empress Of Britain Was Afire From End To
Nazi 'Planes Attack 700 Miles Off The Irish Coast
SURVIVORS FROM THE “EMPRESS OF BRITAIN”· WHO WERE- LANDED AT A WESTERN ENGLISH PORT ON SUNDAY, DECLARED THE LINER WAS BOMBED 700 MILES OFF IRELAND ON SATUR-
DAY MORNING.
The enemy aircraft then disappeared but returned and dropped four more bombs, in- cluding incendiaries.
A number of people were killed when pombs exploded and some of the ship's life- poats caught fire and could not be lowered, put as there was little danger of the ship sink- ng immediately, there was plenty of time for passengers to take to the lifeboats before the iner was completely ablaze from stern to
tern.
The last were taken off some
x hours after the attack.
In the meantime there was no panic, women and children calmly obeying instructions to remain below.until it was time to leave.
The youngest passenger was a by boy 11 months old who was apped to a sailor's back, toʻge wn the ladder into the boat,
Rafts Out Of Doors: Captain Charles Sapsworth, the mmander, stood on the bridge couraging his gunners as they
tiled with the raider until all ere killed or wounded and the
ns out of action..
Capt. Sapsworth is believed to
among the survivors,
of
The crow made rafts out bin doors in case the boats oved insufficient.
A member of the crew de- blared the raider machine-gun-
med passengers after the ship'a anti-aircraft guns were out of
action.
He praised the women stewards o, he said, behaved marvellous-
Flying Boat-Aids
BULGARIA HOPES TO STAY NEUTRAL!
End
Home Guard men, taking an intensive” course' in modern;" realistic-methods of wärfärd, are sock hefe learning how to deal with dive bombers. This picture was taken at Osterley Park, Home Guárd' traïning” sóhööl, where' Ingenious' apparatud has been devised to swing a model bomber down in a realistic dive over the heads of gunners, who^bľâżó” away" at it with their rifics. (Copyright, Fox).
"Our policy to-dayKWANGSI
is one of neutrality
CAIRO
and definitely there isPERATION REACTIONS
no reason to believe it will change," de- clared a Bulgarian diplomat to Reuter in London yesterday.
GET
BLENHEIMS
IN AMONGST INVASION PORTS PORTS
A BIG SHARE in Sunday's R.A.F. air oper- ations is stated in an Air Ministry news bulle tin to have been taken by Coastal Command: Blenheims. One force scored repeated direct hits on one of the power stations at the naval base at Lorient.
The night was very dark but the first air- craft dropped a salvo.of bombs which caused a great explosion followed by a fire glow visi- ble 35 miles away and which served as an ef fective guide, and with the added help of flares one of the following aircraft made a direct hit on the power station.
Later in the attack another behind by three Messerschmidts Blenheim made more direct hits 109: The Blenheim's rear gunner with a salvo.
peppered them and one of the German fighters broke away dam- aged. The Blenheim continued to fight back until the Messersch- midts' fire became ineffective and they gave up the attack.
"I heard the bomb-aimer say the bombs had gone," said the pilot. theThen I heard him shout, "We've An R.A.F man repaired maged engine of a lifeboat and hit it. My observer reported an s was used to tug the heavy explosion and
a big blue flash boats from place to place, from the power station after our
while a bombs had burst.” king up survivors) : val officer on board the liner led Another Blenheim of the Coast- arty of men through the flames af Command; patrolling the smoke to lower a lifeboat French coast; bombed Querqueville Ich saved many lives.
aerodrome, near Cherbourg and [scored: direct hits on a hangar;
British flyingboat spotted the zing liner and brought war- pacto the rescue-Reuteraa
few
KING VISITS A:A GUN TEAM
Another Blenheim of the Coastal Command, patrolling the Dutch The King yesterday morning coast, bombed German supply visited one of the AA. batterics shipsy "shot up the crew of a big which, defend a south-east. Enge. A frequent visitor to Hong coastal gun and fought three Mes- land district. His Majesty inspect ngon round-the-world oyserschmidts on the way home.ed guns and instruments and talk- the Empress of Britain was When the Blenheim emergeded with the crew who showed him by John Browir in 1931. from cloud over Den Helder there their living quarters. - British 1th largest vessel in the world were a number of ships in the Wireless. til the Queen Elizabeth was docks below. The pilot dived and nched) she was of 42,348 tons bombed them from only a 69 register and, was 733. feet hundred feet,
In 1934, she won the Atlan Blue Riband" with a Quebec Cherbourg voyage of 5 days.6 T:68 minutes, giving the C.P.R. proud distinction of being the shipping company to hold the ands of both the Atlantic and Pacific (held by the Empress Japan) at the same time. M
JL
GIFTS FOR AIRCRAFT Fighters Beaten Off:{ The Minister of Aircraft Pro- duction acknowledges a gift of A little later he observed a big £6,000 from Richmond, Surrey, gun emplacement thoroughly. The Spitfire Fund (the plane to be gun crow scattered and ran for called "Jubilee") and £10,000 ns cover but several were hit.
a further contribution, from Bri-.
When the Blenheim set course tish communities in China. Brl- for its base it was attacked from tish Wireless.
Sweeping successes have been INFORMED POLITICAL CIR- scored in the Chinese offensive in CLES IN CAIRO WERE NOT south Kwangsi.
SURPRISED BY THE ITALIAN Lungchow, important communi-INVASION OF GREECE BUT cation centre on the Indo-China THE NEWS CAME AS A SHOCK border, was recaptured at 5.30 | TU ORDINARY EGYPTIANS. a.m. yesterday, while another Faith in Mussolini's word is no Chinese column took Mingkiang, longer felt by Egyptians or for- south-west of Lungchow, Sullu eigners. It is recalled that on the Tso River was legained at Italy's entry into the war Musso- lini stressed he had no designs on
noona.
on
On the Pingyang-Nanning high- Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Egypt way the Chinese re-occupied San-or Greece. Reuter. tang, Chinyuling and Tatówling. Japanese aircraft dumped tons o
explosives upon the Chinese and Japanese reinforcements launched
RAID ON KUNMING
counter-attacks at Kanhu, Yiling Thirteen Japanese planes raid- and Tenghsiang, but failed to ed Kunming yesterday morning. check the Chinese attacks. Cen- About twenty civilians were kill- tral News R
ed and wounded-Central News.
SPOSEZCORSAR TANK
BRITISH BEER
IS
BEST
McEwan's
Red Label
SPARKLING BEER
BREWED & BOTTLED
IN EDINBURGH
SOLB-AGENTS
DODWELL & CO., LTD.
QUEEN'S BUILDING
20631