50,000 DEAD

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1940, Page 7

50,000 DEAD

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

COSTLY STORMS NAZI FLEET SCATTERED ORGANISATION GOES ON

Rec. 8.30 p.m. London, Sept. 24. Herr Hitler lost between 50,000 and 60,000 picked troops in a disaster which scattered his invasion fleet on Septernber 16, says the correspondent of the Daily Mail on the French-Spanish frontier. They were the victims of Channel storms and a merciless Royal Air Force bombardment. The German High Command had previously decided to make new dispositions because the troops had already suffered heavily from British bombing. The invasion fleet, consisting of thousands of barges, was taken out of the ports and moored along the lonely Flanders coast. The fleet was ready to cross

the Channel on Septernber 14, but because of the terrific losses of German planes on that day the orders to sail were delayed. Then south-west gales swept the Channel. Tugs desperately tried to tow the barges to safety, ,but many were overturned, drowning thousands of soldiers. The fiat-bottomed motor-boats and heavily laden transport ships drove helplessly before the wind. The Germans are still organising, but it is significant that since the disaster only the crews remain permanently aboard the vessels that are being prepared for invasion.