PANIC AND DISGRACE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 200, 22 May 1944, Page 5

PANIC AND DISGRACE

Germans’ Last Flight In The Crimea (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 20. Of 220,000 Germans who were defending the Crimea, only 30,000 were evacuated during the Russian offensive from April 8 to May 12, says a correspondent with the Red Army in Sebastopol. The Germans met their Dunkirk, but it was incomparably worse as it was accompanied by chaos, disorganization, and disgrace. On the night of May 11, 50,000 enemy troops ran in panic to the lighthouse at Sebastopol, hoping to board ships and somehow fight a way through their own ranks to the water. The demoralization was complete. Officers lost their authority and inen began to shout treason, and all along the lines Soviet artillery, trench mortars and aircraft sowed death as the lighthouse became so jammed that no shell or bullet could miss. Some tried to fight back, and others committed suicide. Some surrendered, but the majority ran on to the sea. Nowhere was there a ship in sight. The German command sent more than 100 ships, but they were either destroyed, damaged, or forced to turn back by gunfire and bombs. Colonel Takes Over. Lieutenant-Colonel Franz, who was captured early on the morning of May 12, declared that everything was lost in the complete demoralization. “I left soldiers to guard a divisional commander, General Gruner, to prevent him committing suicide, while I talked with other superior officers about the surrender,” he said. “They agreed, and on my orders our troops laid down their arms and themselves lay down on the ground.” The prisoners included General Gruner, who was wounded. is ruined with greater thoroughness than ever Stalingrad,” says an agency correspondent. “I rode and walked for hours inside Sebastopol, and all I saw was ruins. The mayor told me there was not a single building undamaged, and that of the city’s 15,020 buildings only some 500 small houses on the outskirts are habitable, and they too, are in need of repair. Ten thousand out of the population of over 100,000 are living in Sebastopol. When the Germans captured] the city in 1942, 50,000 citizens remained, and of these 40,000 were killed, executed, or evacuated. A vivid picture of the German Dunkirk at Khersones, where the Nazis made their last stand in the battle for the Crimea, is given by the Exchange Telegraph correspondent, who toured the area. Scene of Debacle. “The Germans had planned to hold the first of three defenoe lines as long as possible to permit troops to embark on the ships which the enemy command was assured would be coming in sufficient numbers for everybody,” he said. “If the firstline forces withdrew, then the second line was held, and then the third. "But the moment the men of the first line ran, the other lines collapsed. Some troops tried to fight back in desperation. Others committed suicide. Some surrendered. But the majority ran to the sea, where no ships were waiting. “I saw the scene of the debacle. It was macabre and unreal. The corpses had been cleared away, but as far as I could see the field was strewn with the litter of an army overtaken by terrible fear, while the nearby aerodrome was a cemetery of planes.”