THE OPENING PHASE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1940, Page 6

THE OPENING PHASE

The House of Commons listened with deep attention to the details Mr Churchill was able to give of events since Sunday night, when the news that German battle-cruisers, with a number of cruisers, other vessels and destroyers were out on the North Sea. moving northwards, the Commander-in-Chief put to sea to bring them to action. At the same time, independently, a strong British naval force was approaching Narvik to lay a minefield oIT the Norwegian coast. It was laid according to plan at daylight on Monday morning. Mr' Churchill then told the house of the presumed loss of the destroyer Glowworm, which was detained through waiting to pick up a man overboard —how. proceeding to rejoin her force, she first saw one enemy destroyer, at eight o’clock on Monday, and then two. how she engaged them, how later she reported an unknown enemy ship before her. and how the last message ended abruptly, and the Admiralty could only conclude that she had boon sunk by superior forces. Mr Churchill said that during Monday morning, it looked as if these enemy forces, which contained a German battle-cruiser and other important ships, would be caught between the British naval forces in the north and main Home Fleet, both of which were superior, but in mists and storms the German forces got away. USUAL GERMAN TALES On Tuesday, the Fleet was cruising to the south, about the level of Bergen, when, during the afternoon it was attacked continuously by German aircraft. The usual tales were put out by the German wireless of several battleships and cruisers being sunk or seriously damaged. Actually two cruisers were slightly damaged by air missiles, but that did not interfere at all with their work, and they were still with the Fleet. One very heavy bomb hit the flagship Rodney, but her very strong deck armour resisted the impact successfully—-a satisfactory commentary on the structure of British men-of-war. Four officers and three men were injured. The cruiser Aurora, which was joining the Fleet, was subjected to five diving attacks, which were pressed with courage, but which all failed. The destroyer Ghurka. which was escorting the Aurora, was hit. She listed very heavily and sank after four or five hours, but all her crew except 14 were rescued. On the same afternoon, the destroyer Zulu sank a German U-boat off the Orkneys. Meanwhile, far to the north, off Narvik, at daybreak today, the Renown perceived the battle-cruiser Scharnhorst and a 10.000-ton Hipper class cruiser which had evidently gone up with the German force the day before. After an exchange of fire at 18,000 yards, the Renown observed hits on the forward superstructure of the,

German battle-cruiser. Thereafter her whole armoury stopped firing, but later, after having turned, she' began firing under local control. The speed which the battle-cruiser maintained was very great and the Renown had to push to 24 knots, through very heavy seas breaking over her forward gun turrets, and after a further two minutes of firing, a vertical column of smoke from what they called a possible second hit was observed in the Scharnhorst. who then turned away and fled at high speed without hampering hersolf’oy further firing’. Mr Churchill said an unexploded shell passed through the Renown nt about water level, and another carried away her main aerial, but there were no casualties. ATTACK ON NARVIK Mr Churchill then reported on the attack on Narvik, announced by Mr Chamberlain yesterday. He added the information that from all they heard at the Admiralty late on Tuesday night, they thought the operations so hazardous that at one o'clock they told the captain of the destroyer flotilla he must be- the sole judge whether to attack. Captain Warburton Loe attacked. Coming to his first announcement. Mr Churchill said: "A 10,000-ton cruiser of the Hipper class now tried to cross the Scharnhorst. This ship and the Gncisnau are Germany’s most modern and most formidable vessels. The Hipper then threw a smoke-screen to cover the Scharnhorst and the Renown opened lire upon the Hipper. which turned away and both ships retired at high speed. The Hipper dodging fire which became intermittent. In the end they succeeded in getting away and tiring ceased at. 29.000 yards, when they became invisible. POLICY OF FRANKNESS “Tn the beginning all they told us was what they had lost. They said nothing more, and I let it go out. because I do not think we want to have any kind of mealy-mouth to the public. Therefore I pul it out, although there was nothing to relieve it. The moment we get any news —be it bad or good—once we can reply upon it, we shall present it to Parliament, to be broadcast, and to the Press. I am all for propaganda and publicity, but the best, propaganda is results and I must say these are coming to hand in no unsatisfactory manner." Mr Churchill's story of Wednesday was of the air action and bombing in' Bergen Fiord by the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm. The last detail he gave the House was of an attack at daybreak today by 18 torpedo-carrying aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm on enemy shipping in Trondheim Harbour. RAID ON SCAPA FLOW Amonqsl. reports of air activity are

two from Norway and a brief account of yesterday’s raid on Scapa Flow and the Moray Firth, which were described as the “largest air attacks of the war.” About 60 Nazi machines took part in the Scottish raids, of which at least eight will never return. No damage was done by the raiders either to shipping or to property. Over Bergen harbour, reconnaissance aircraft of the Coastal Command found the berth of a Nazi cruiser empty and her place taken by an oil patch about a mile long, and although neighbouring fiords were searched, no trace of the bombed vessel was seen. London air circles lake the view that the Fleet Air Arm operations were completely ell'cctive. Other news from Norway concerns a Royal Air Force long-range fighter, which dived over a Nazi-occupied aerodrome and successfully machine-gunned assembled aircraft. destroying a Ileinkel and damaging another, after which the pilot sprayed a Boehm and Voss aircraft with bullets. A heavy bomber being refuelled was set on fire. On his way | homo, the lighter engaged a Junker 88 1 and put ils port engine and roar gun | out of action.