THE ARK ROYAL
ENEMY PILOT’S MESSAGE. "BLAME GOEBBELS, NOT US.” An explanation of the stream of German assertions that the Ark Royal has been sunk is given by the Marquess of Donegall in the Sunday Dispatch. Commenting on the perpetual query by a German announcer on the radio. “Why do you not ask Mr Churchill where the Ark Royal is? Of course, he would not tell you, because his nonBritish masters would not allow him to admit that the Ark Royal is at the bottom of the German Ocean,” Lord Donegall says:— “I am fed up with this. I don't need to ask Mr Churchill where the Ark Royal is. Where she is is not of the slightest interest to anyone. What is of interest is the story behind the perpetuation of the lie that Goebbels makes his minion bleat nightly into my home. "The incident occurred when units of the Home Fleet went to the help of a damaged British submarine. You may remember the broadcast about how the crew ran a sweepstake on how long it would be before the next depth charge shook them. The Ark Royal was among the rescuers, and her aircraft helped to drive off the raiders. “When the Germans last saw the Art Royal she was heeling over, due to turning at high speed. They can therefore be forgiven for reporting that they had sunk her. Goebbels’ department duly announced it with glee. However, a day or two later the German Air Force discovered their mistake and reported the fact to the German authorities: Still the lie keeps coming over the air, night after night. “The next thing that happened was that a lone German aeroplane approached the Ark Royal’s base and, while still well out to sea, dropped a bulky object. Our people went out in a boat and retrieved it. The object proved to be an empty keg—empty except for a message. “This read as follows: ‘This is to tell you that we are sorry we gave wrong information about the Ark Royal. We have reported our mistake to the authorities. So blame Goebbels and not us.’ “Thus, in unexpected ways, even in wartime, do lies come home to roost.”
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19391128.2.73
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1939, Page 6
Word count
Tapeke kupu
369THE ARK ROYAL Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1939, Page 6
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Wairarapa Times-Age. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in