SAFE IN PORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 January 1940, Page 4

SAFE IN PORT

TORPEDOED BRITISH BATTLESHIP NOT SERIOUSLY DAMAGED. AMENDED CASUALTY LIST. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, December 29. The Admiralty announced that the torpedoed British battleship reached harbour under her own steam. She is net seriously damaged. Three men were killed, one is reported missing, believed killed, and one is seriously injured. According to a Berlin message Nazi officials are jubilant over the torpedoing of the British battleship. It is claimed that this is the fourth, battleship casualty, the others being the Hood, Repulse, and Royal Oak. GERMAN VESSELS SUNK. A French warship sank a German, submarine off the coast of Spain. A German naval ship of 704 tons sank during a storm south-west of Sweden. Six were drowned and 32 were saved. The German High Command admits the stranding of a 704ton patrol-boat, and says that 35 of the crew of 37 were rescued. Wreckage bearing the word “Moortoft” has been washed ashore, providing evidence of that vessel s loss. The German High Command states: -The German navy is continuing reconnaissance activities; also its vigil in the North Sea and the Baltic trade routes. The employment of naval forces in economic warfare successfully continues.” The official German news agency claims that a U-boat sank a British patrol-ship. Agathe, last Friday. (The British Admiralty states that no British naval ship sank on that clay, and that there is no Agathe in the British Navy). , , , ~ Returning to Fleetwood today, the skipper of the unarmed trawler Adam reported that the vessel was bombed and machine-gunned by Nazi seaplanes while on her way to the fishing grounds, states an official wireless message. The trawler, with her crew of 12, was steaming along when a seaplane appeared. The skipper said: “We saw two planes coming toward us. At first we thought they were British. They landed on the sea a short distance from us and then one took off and. after circling us. dropped bombs and swept us with machine-gun fire. The firing was not accurate and none of the bombs found their mark. Our ship was not seriously damaged, and no one was hurt. After about 10 minutes the planes flew off in an easterly direction.”