MARCH 15TH. - CROMER, AND SHERINGHAM, NORFOLK. On the night of the 14th March and in the morning of the 15th, a convoy was attacked by enemy E-boats.

The E-boats in turn were attacked by destroyers and by H.M.S. Vortigern, which sank three of them and damaged two more, but H.M. Vortigern was hit by two torpedoes and sank. At 7.38 A.M. on the 15th March the Cromer coastguard passed a message from the flag officer in charge at Great Yarmouth to the Cromer life-boat station that two vessels had sunk ten miles N.E. by N.

from Cromer. A light S.W. wind was blowing and the sea was smooth. The Cromer No. 1 motor life-boat H. F. Bailey was launched at 7.57 A.M., and by 9.43 A.M. had reached the position. A number of other rescue boats were there. The life-boat found a lot of wreckage, and picked up eleven bodies. She continued the search until 1.25 P.M. but found no one alive, and returned to her station at 3 P.M.

The Sheringham station had received a call at 7.40 A.M., and the motor life-boat Foresters Centenary was away at 8.2 A.M She found one body and a barrage balloon.

She returned to her station at 4.15. Both life-boats transferred the bodies to a motor boat which took them to Lowestoft, and both returned to their stations smothered in crude oil. Rewards : Cromer, £13 6s. 6d. ; Sheringham, £19 12s..