TOLL OF GERMANS AT SEA

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 187, 4 May 1940, Page 11

TOLL OF GERMANS AT SEA

RUGBY, May 2. “I have no doubt,” remarked the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, in the course of his statement in the House of Commons, “that the Germans expected a walk-over in Norway, as in Denmark. That expectation has been frustrated by the courage of the Norwegian people and by the effort of the Allies.” The Prime Minister said that during the period of just over three weeks since the invasion began the German naval losses had amounted to serious figures. He detailed incomplete German losses and the losses sustained by the Royal Navy in this period as follows: GERMAN. BRITISH. Two capital ships damaged for Four destroyers, tlu-ee subcertain. marines, one sloop, and Three, possibly four, cruisers five trawlers sunk, sunk. Five other warships damaged Eleven destroyers sunk. by air attacks. Four U-boats sunk. One store ship sunk by a UThirty transports and store ships boat torpedo. had been sunk, scuttled, or set on lire, with the loss of several thousand lives. Further, 10 transports or store ships struck by torpedoes and probably sunk. “It will be seen from these figures,” Mr. Chamberlain said, “that whereas the strength and efficiency o£ the Royal Navy have been little, if at all, affected, the injury to the German navy has been so substantial as to alter the entire balance of naval power and to permit an important redistribution of the main Allied fleets.”