NAZI DISASTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 September 1940, Page 6

NAZI DISASTER

GALES SCATTER INVASION FLEET OVER 50,000 MEN LOST ACCORDING TO “DAILY MAIL.” CONTRIBUTION OF THE R.A.F. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 24. The “Daily Mail’s” correspondent on the French-Spanish frontier says that Hitler lost between 50,000 and 60,000 picked troops in a disaster which scattered the invasion fleet on September 16. They were victims of Channel storms and merciless bombardment by the Royal Air Force. The German High Command previouslj- decided to make new dispositions because the troops had already suffered heavily from the British bombing. The invasion fleet, consisting of thousands of barges, was taken out of the ports and moored along the lonely Flanders coast. The fleet was ready to cross the Channel on September 14, but because of the terrific losses of German planes on that day the orders to sail were delayed. South-west gales swept the Channel and tugs desperately tried to tow the barges to safety, but many overturned drowning thousands of men, and flatbottomed motor-boats and heavilyladen transport ships drove helplessly before the wind. The Germans are still organising. It is significant that since the disaster only the crews remain permanently aboard the vessels prepared for the invasion. The official British claim of enemy raiding aircraft destroyed during the day of September 14 was a total of eight. The Germans’ greatest loss occurred on the following day. when they lost 185. It was on the morning of that day that the London “Sunday Express” stated that Hitler had invited journalists to assemble on the French coast to witness “the greatest spectacle of the ages”—an invasion of Britain. London reported that the weeks of fine weather in the Straits of Dover broke with a south-westerly gale on September 16.