London, Jan, 11.
WO British ships, the Oakgrove (1,985 tons) and the Upminster (1,013 tons) were sunk as a result of German air attacks yesterday.
The Northwood (1,146 tons) was also attacked.
The Upminster foundered after a lifeboat had stood by for 17 hours. The casualties in the loss of the Oakgrove are not definitely known, but it is believed that twenty of the crew have been landed. The attack on the Upminster, which took place in the North Sea, is feared to have resulted in the death of the Master and two men. Ten survivors of the crew of thirteen were landed at a port on, the east coast last night. Two of them were seriously injured. In describing the attack by two German aircraft, the Second Officer—one of the survivors—said "they swooped down and attacked us again and again, first with machine-guns and then with bombs.'
"We had no guns and no wireless," the officer added.
Other survivors told how they were machine-gunned as they tried to scramble Into their small boats, and again as they were rowing away.
"The planes," they declared, "swept Jour decks mercilessly os we ran for. the. boats."
The Northwood was attacked by two German bombers off the east coast. No less than 40 bombs, accord Ing to the crew, were aimed at the ship, but all went wide of their mark. Later, the vessel was swept with machinegun fire, but nobody was hit.
reported that one of the German machines was hit near the fuse-Inge by the Northwood's Lewis gun, which caused both planes to make off.
Tt is now stated that the Danish [ships Ivan Vondrup (2.369 tons) and Teddy (055 tons), previously reported sunk as a result "of German air allacks, are still afloat, and they are expected to be brought into por Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.