STILL AT IT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 May 1940, Page 5

STILL AT IT

GERMANS REPEATING LIE ABOUT SINKING OF BRITISH BATTLESHIP. AN EXPLICIT REPUTATION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.52 a.m.) RUGBY, May 6. In spite of the official denial of the loss of a battleship off Namsos, the German propaganda machine continues to make this claim and even goes so' far as to assert that the “sinking” of a ship of this type by an aerial bomb must be considered an “epoch-making event in military history.” One Berlin broadcast said, regarding the alleged incident: “On Friday last week, there perished the belief in the invincibility of battleships to bombs.” Authoritative circles point out that there has been no expression of belief in the “invincibility” of any warships against bombs. There has not yet been sufficient experience for competent critics to express a confident opinion. All that can "be said at present is that a heavy bomb which hit the Rodney caused eleven casualties, but resulted in such slight damage to the ship that she was able to keep her station. It can be declared confidently that other than this, no British battleship has been hit by a bomb, no British battleship has been damaged by a bomb and no British battleship has been sunk by a bomb, in any of the Seven Seas, in each of which the British Navy is still supreme. The true figures of British losses were given by Mr Chamberlain in his House of Commons speech on May 2 and the only addition since then is the Afridi, whose loss was officially an-' nounced today.