SUNK BY BOMBS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 190, 8 May 1940, Page 9

SUNK BY BOMBS

Loss Of Three Allied Destroyers DEFENCE OF CONVOYS Other Damage Off Norway Denied (British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) LONDON, May 6. Three Allied destroyers—British, French and Polish—have been lost. In addition to H.M.S. Afridi, which was bombed and sunk at Namsos, the French destroyer Bison was sunk by aircraft attacking a North Sea convoy, and the Polish destroyer Grom was also sunk off the Norwegian coast. The Admiralty’s announcement of the attack on the Afridi stated that following the withdrawal of the troops from Namsos, ships of the Navy, including the Afridi (Captain P. L. Vian, D. 5.0.), provided defence for the convoy against aircraft and submarine attack. With the arrival of daylight repeated waves of enemy aeroplanes kept up an incessant attack against the convoy, but the barrage maintained by the escorts’ anti-aircraft guns was so effective that the transports were not touched. It was in the course of this operation that the Afridi was struck by a bomb and subsequently sank. Two euemy planes were shot down. It is learned that .Captain Vian is unhurt.

The Afridi, a sister-ship to the Cossack, which rescued the prisoners from the German ship Altmark in February, lost since the outbreak of the war, and the fourth since the Norwegian campaign opened, the Hardy having been refloated. The French Admiralty states that German aircraft attacked a troop convoy in the North Sea. None of the ships convoyed was hit, but an escorting destroyer, the Bison, was sunk. Many of the crew were saved. Offer To Poles. The Polish naval staff in London announced tonight: “The Polish destroyer Grom, which, together with other units of the Polish navy, has been actively co-operating with the British Fleet since the beginning of the war, has been sunk by a bomb. The Grom was engaged in operations off the Norwegian coast. One officer and 65 ratings are missing and must be presumed to have been lost. “An offer by the British Government to replace this destroyer by one now building in a British shipyard has been gratefully accepted.” A Berlin communique states that German fighters hit a British battleship with a bomb which exploded in an ammunition depot, and that they also shot down two Blenheim bombers near Terschelling. Seaplanes captured a British submarine which was found damaged after striking a mine in the Kattegat The German news agency states that German patrol vessels approached the submarine before it could be scuttled and a German officer took over the command and towed the submarine out of the minefield in which it had been drifting. The British said that the mine put out of action the diving apparatus and damaged the engines. A Swedish fishing boat was blown up previously in the same minefield. Views on Air Weapon. ' There is some speculation as to whether the sinking of the Bison does not form the basis for the reiterated but untrue Nazi claim to have “sunk a British battleship,” which according to German reports was accompanying a transport off Namsos on May 3. In spite of the official denial of the loss of a battleship off Namsos, the German propaganda machine even goes so far as to assert that the “sinking” of a ship of this type by an aerial bomb must be considered to be an “epoch-making event in military history.” One Berlin broadcast said regarding the alleged incident: “On Friday of last week there perished the belief in the invincibility of battleships to bombs.”

Authoritative circles in London point out that there has been no expression of belief in the "invincibility” of any warships against bombs. There has not yet been sufficient experience for competent critics to express a confident opinion*. All that can be said at present is that a heavy bopib which hit H.M.S. Rodney caused 11 casualties, but resulted in such slight damage to the ship that she was able to keep her station. It can be confidently declared that other than this no British battleship has been hit by a bomb, no British battleship has been damaged by a bomb, and no British battleship has been sunk by a bomb in any of the seven seas, in each of which the British Navy is still supreme. The true figures of the British losses were given by Mr. Chamberlain in the House of Commons in his speech on May 2, and the only addition since then is the Afridi. Blucher Admitted Lost. German newspapers now admit that the Norwegian batteries at Oskarsborg sank the 10,000-ton cruiser Blucher at dawn on April 9. It is announced in Loudon that a 4000-ton German steamer and a Swedish trawler were sunk in the Kattegat by mines. Three Grimsby trawlers, the Pen, Hercules, and Leonora, each with a crew of nine, are overdue and are presumed to have been lost. SUNDERLAND BOMBERS DAMAGED LONDON, May 6. The Air Ministry, in denying that two Blenheim bombers were shot down at Terschelling, said that two Sunderland flying-boats were damaged by gunfire off the Norwegian coast.

CLEAR WAR ISSUE Summarized By Premier (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 6. In a message to the National Government candidate in the East Renfrewshire by-election, Mr. Chamberlain says that the issue involved in the war is clear. ‘‘Our enemies have shown that they will hesitate at nothing to bring about the destruction of the British Empire, which stands between (hem :im| (heir avowed goal of world’dmninalimi." he staled. ”t> n aim is to win peace, freedom ami security alike for ourselves, our Allies and the threatened! nations of Europe.”