LARGE NAZI CRUISER SUNK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20124, 19 December 1939, Page 5

LARGE NAZI CRUISER SUNK

TORPEDOED BY SUBMARINE ATTACKED AT BASE IN RIVER ELBE SCREEN OF SIX DESTROYERS ELUDED (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 11 a.m. RUGBY, Bee. 19. An Admiralty communique states: “The Secretary of the Admiralty announces that the British submarine Ursula reports that she sank one of the (5000-ton Ivoln class cruisers at the mouth of the River Elbe on Thursday, December 14. The cruiser was screened by six German destroyers. Three sister ships, the Ivoln, Karlsruhe, and Konigsberg were completed in 1929-30 at a cost of nearly £2,000,000 each. They are ships of 6000-tons with speeds of about 32 knots and are armed with five 5.9 in. guns and a number of smallei guns. They mount 12 21-in. torpedo tubes arranged in four triple mountings, and a catapult with two aircraft. The aircraft were reported to have been removed from the Koln and one other during 1938. All possible expedients were adopted in these ships tor saving weight, and electric welding was used for the hulls instead of rivetting. The designed horse power at 31 knots is 657,000 and the ships arc driven by geared turbines with Diesel engines for cruising purposes. With 1200 tons of oil, plus 300 tons of Diesel fuel, the ships are reputed to have a cruising radius of 5500 miles at 14 knots and 10,000 miles at 10 knots. It will be recalled .that on December 14 it. was officially announced by the Admiralty that in the North Sea the same British submarine that sighted the liner Bremen torpedoed an enemy cruiser. There is no connection between this and the latest exploit of the sinking of a Koln class cruiser. . The Ursula, the British submarine which was responsible for the sinking of the cruiser, is a small vessel of about 500 tons and cost £200,000 to build. ' Not only did the Ursula penetrate the screen of destroyers; she apparently entered the strongly fortified zone adjacent to Cuxhaven Harbour, south of the mouth of the Elbe and on the opposite side of the naval base at Brunsbuttel, which was the scene of the Royal Air Force s first hei oic attack on the enemy naval forces on the second day of the war. It would be necessary to negotiate minefields. A Berlin message states that it is officiallj r denied that a British submarine sank a cruiser of the Konigsberg class, but admits the possibility from the underwater explosion mentioned in the German war communique on December 14 reporting that a light cruiser was slightly damaged, might have been caused by a British submarine.