GERMAN RAIDERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20107, 29 November 1939, Page 5

GERMAN RAIDERS

ROYAL NAVY BUSY

TEMPTESTUOUS PERIOD

STORY OF RAWALPINDI

JEERS FOR SURVIVORS

'COLD DOWN THERE?”

(Life. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Nov. 29, Noon.) LONDON, Nov. 28.

The Royal Navy, in tempestuous weather and the brief daylight of the northern waters, is making a most intense search for the German pocket battleship Deutschland and the other Warship which sank the British merchant cruiser, Rawalpindi, on Novcm- I her 23, south-east of Iceland.

The Naval correspondent of the j Daily Telegraph says weather favoured the escape of the Rawalpindi’s at- j tackers. It can readily be understood j that the one thing the Deutschland j dreads is to be kept in sight for any ! length of time by 1 a faster British j warship because sooner or later this j will entail having to lit;lit an oppon-j ent of superior force.

According to an unofficial account of the battle in which the Rawalpindi was sunk the second German ship was I the cruiser Emden. Boat Almost Overturned A number of (lie Rawalpindi’s lifeboats got safely away, but the Deutschland, travelling at great speed, swept past so close that several were overturned by her wash. A survivor said: “It almost seemed j as if they tried to overturn us. Several | seamen struggled in the icy waters. \ A few English - speaking German j sailors lined the Deutschland's deck j rails and shouted: “Is it cold down I there? We hope you have a good | night.” The Chitral was on patrol duty when she sighted a lifeboat in which 'here were nine men in an exhausted condition after hours of exposure. The following morning the Chitral ;aw an overturned lifeboat with a man lying over the keel. He waved feebly. His arms and legs were frozen still’. He had been lying in that position for 13 hours and was more dead than alive when taken aboard. Nazis Use Flag of Norway

Two days before picking up the survivors of the Rawalpindi, the Chitral captured 32 members of the crew of a German cargo vessel which tried to evade the contraband control by masquerading as a Norwegian ship, the Ada. The Norwegian flag was painted on the side of her hull. She ignbred the Chitral’s heave-to order. However, a shot across the bows stopped her, but before a prize crew could be sent aboard the crew scuttled the ship.

As the Germans boarded the Chitral they boasted that the Deutschland would soon rescue them. It is learned that the Chitral is also an armed merchant cruiser.

It is now apparent that it was not the Deutschland which sank the British tanker, Africa Shell in Portuguese East African waters, but probably the Admiral Scheer. The German radio announced that the majority of the 2G members of die Rawalpindi's crew who were taken in custody aboard a German ship are Scottish.

It says that flames broke out immediately after the first hit. Probably the ammunition chambers exploded and the ship sank very quickly. According to a Berlin message a German communique records the sinking of the Rawalpindi but does not mention the Deutschland. The communique says: "The German naval forces commanded by ViceAdmiral Marschall reconnoitring between i he Faeroes and Greenland met ;he auxiliary cruiser Rawalpindi near Iceland. They destroyed the Rawalpindi after a short skirmish. Only 20 of the crew could be saved, despite immediate rescue actions.”