NAVAL HUNT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1939, Page 5

NAVAL HUNT

FOR SHIPS THAT SANK THE RAWALPINDI MORE DETAILS OF ACTION. MEN IN BOATS MOCKED BY GERMANS. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON. November 27. The Royal Navy, in tempestuous weather, during the brief daylight in northern waters is making a most intensive search for the Deutschland and the other warship which sank the Rawalpindi. The “Daily Telegraph's” naval correspondent says the weather favoured the escape of the Rawalpindi’s attackers. It. can readily be understood that the one thing the Deutschland dreads is to be kept in sight for any length of time by a faster British warship, because sooner or later this will entail having to fight an opponent of superior force. It is now apparent that it was noi the Deutschland which sank the Africa Shell off Portuguese East Africa. It was probably the Admiral Scheer. It is iearned that the Chitral which picked up the survivors from the Rawalpindi is also an armed merchant cruiser. According to an unofficial account ol the battle, the second enemy ship was the cruiser Emden. A number of .the 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 as if she tried to overturn us. Several seamen struggled in the icy waters. A few English-speaking German sailors lined the Deutschland’s deck rails and shouted: 'ls it cold down there? We hope you have a good night.’ The Chitral was on patrol duty when she sighted a lifeboat from which she took aboard nine men exhausted after an hour’s exposure. The following morning the Chitral saw an overturned lifeboat with a man lying over the keel. He waved to the ship feebly. His arms and legs were frozen stiff. He had been lying in that position for 13 hours and was more dead than alive when taken aboard. Daventry reports that the survivors from the Rawalpindi have been landed in Scotland, ten from a boat. The other man was picked up after having been 23 hours in the water. The German Admiralty states that 26 men were saved from the Rawalpindi which is taken to be the number they have rescued. , GERMAN CREW CAPTURED BY CHITRAL. DISGUISED SHIP SCUTTLED. LONDON, November 28. The P. and O. merchant cruiser Chitral which went to the rescue of the survivors of her sister ship the Rawalpindi, had two days previously captured 32 members of the crew of a German cargo vessel which tried to evade the contraband control by masquerading as a Norwegian and had the Norwegian flag also painted on the side of the hull. She ignored the Chitral’s heave-to order. However, a shot across the bows stopped her, but before a prize could be sent aboard the crew scuttled the ship. As the German boarded the ship they boasted that the Deutschland would rescue them. GERMAN REPORTS NO MENTION OF POCKET BATTLESHIP. (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, November 28. A German radio message announced that the majority of the 26 of the Rawalpindi's crew, who were taken into custody aboard a German ship are Scottish. It says Hames broke out immediately after the first hit. Probably the ammunition chambers exploded and the ship sank very quickly. According to a Berlin message, a communique records the sinking of the Rawalpindi, but docs not mention the Deutschland. It says: "German naval forces, commanded by Vice-Admiral Marschall, reconnoitring between the Faroes and Greenland, met the auxiliary cruiser Rawalpindi near Iceland. They destroyed the Rawalpindi after a short skirmish. Only twenty-six ol the crew could be saved, despite immediate rescue action.”