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WAR ON THE
U-BOAT
Men From N.Z. &
Australia Busy
LONDON, May 5 (A.A.P.).
A Coastal Command Liberator
with an Australian and New Zea
land crew has just set a new bat
tle of the Atlantic record. The
plane attacked five U-boats in its
first four operational sorties, in-
cluding two in the fourth outing.
They were the first crew In
action from, the newly formed
squadron which recently entered
the Atlantic U-boat war. The
pilot was an Australian, Flying-
Officer C. W. Burchcr, a former
bank teller of Randwick, and the
navigator an Australian, Flight-
Sergeant Douglas Paine, school
teacher, of Penrose. The crew
also played a vital part in a re
cent convoy battle when in one
day at least eleven U-boats at
tacked. The best day's hunt
ing was the most recent one,
when the plane attacked the first
submarine of the sortie twice in
under a minute, and also dropped
depth charges on a second from
30 feet as it was In the act of
diving.
The Second Pilot, Sgt. Lloyd, of
New Zealand, spotted the first U-
boat, and shouted excitedly,
"Boy, this Is it." #fylng'-Ofhcer
Burcher said, "We took a look,
and there Was 740 tons of U-boat
on the surface making ten knots.
Three or four men were attempt
ing to man the heavy guns fore
and aft, and another was trying
to bring a smaller gun In the
conning tower to bear on us. We
flew along the U-boat's track to
release depth charges, and passed
over It about 30 feet up. None
of us saw the guns fired, although
they were trained on the plane.
As we passed over the conning
tower an officer jumped almost
head first into the hatchway, fol
lowed by the other members of
the crew, who closed it after
them
"By the time we made a steep
diving turn to make a second at
tack only 20 feet of the submarine
was above the water. Our bombs
tell Just ahead of the swirl caused
by the conning tower, soon after
which we were heartened to see
an ever increasing patch of oil
and a black object which looked
like a body. The U-boat went
down so quickly that at least one
of the crew must have been1 left
behind." ' ".V.
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