ATTACK ON CONVOY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 March 1940, Page 5

ATTACK ON CONVOY

MORE INVERTED GERMAN CLAIMS ADMIRALTY CONTRADICTION. TWO SMALL NEUTRAL SHIPS SLIGHTLY DAMAGED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright, LONDON. March 21. Replying- to a claim by the German official news agency that German planes toward nightfall yesterday successfully attacked and scattered a British convoy off Scapa Flow which was guarded by cruisers and destroyers and that several ships were sunk' or badly damaged, an Admiralty communique states: "Two small neutral" vessels were slightly damaged in a German raid on a convoy. His Majesty’s ships were undamaged. The escorting warships and planes of the naval and coastal commands engaged Hie enemy.”

The damaged neutral ships were the Norwegian ship Svinta (1267 tools), which was abandoned and her crew rescued, and the Swedish Utklippan (1599 tons), which was hit by an incendiary bomb. The Norwegian vessel Tora Elise (721 tons), was also hit, but no details are available.

Two naval planes on one occasion dispersed 10 Heinkels. One Heinkel was damaged by anti-aircraft fire from the escorting warships, and several others were hit by two naval planes. Official circles say that Nazi airmen have not sunk a single ship in convoy during the war, despite the repeated fantastic claims. The total damage done to British warships as a result of air attacks is as follows: H.M.S. Mohawk, damaged by splinters on October 16; Iron Duke, damaged by a bomb on October 19; one cruiser which suffered very slight superficial damage on October 16 by a bomb which failed to explode; and one war-ship,-which is not a capital ship, slightly damaged by a bomb at Scapa Flow on March 16. The German news agency admits that one Gorman plane failed to return from the attack on the British convoy. AN IMAGINATIVE EFFORT. A Berlin communique claims that German planes sank nine British merchantmen and warships of a total tonnage of 42,000. damaged two merchantmen of 11,000 tons, and shot down one British plane in the raid on Scapa Flow. They also attacked armed merchantment in the English Channel. Amplifying its report in reply to this claim, an Admiralty communique (quoted by British Official Wireless) says that the convoy, which consisted almost entirely of neutral ships, was not dispersed and is proceeding safely upon its voyage. The raiders were driven off by British naval aircraft, and one of the German planes was destroyed and others hit. Three neutral merchantmen, as already announced, were damaged, and the British steamship Northern Coast (1211 tons) and the Norwegian vessel Earling Lindoe (1281 tons) reported on their arrival in harbour that they suffered damage. The British ship Barnhill (5439 tons), which was unarmed and was not in the convoy, was set on fire by an incendiary bomb, but the fire was extinguished and the ship is now in safety. Thus the German claim that 42.000 tons of shipping were sunk yesterday is 42.000 tons in excess of the actual facts. This considerable error is perhaps due to the agitated mentality caused by the Sylt raid, for which agitation every allowance should be made.

The German statement that 11.000 tons of shipping was damaged is not so far out—the actual figure being 11.518 tons—the Danish ships Viking and Bothal being torpedoed and sunk yesterday in Scottish waters. The Nazi wrath was thus vented yesterday almost entirely upon neutrals, who, being unarmed, present a peculiar temptation to Nazi prowess when out of convoy.

The experience so far gained in the present war in no way justifies predictions that air power would prove a decisive factor at sea. T'he only form of attack which has yielded the slightest success to the German air force has been attacks' on defenceless merchantmen sailing independently and on fishin vessels, lightships, and lightship tenders. Even so. the losses due to air attack have been exceedingly small in proportion to the effort expended by the enemy.