CAPTURED WAR CRAFT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 August 1941, Page 5

CAPTURED WAR CRAFT

BATTLESHIP MERELY A SKELETON s NAZI APPEAL TO RED NAVY. ‘■HONOUR” OF GIVING SHIPS TO GERMANY. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, August 20. Commenting .on the German claims yesterday to have captured eight warships on the stocks at Nikolaev, the “Daily Telegraph’s” naval correspondent points out that the battleship mentioned was laid down at Nikolaev at the beginning of the war but little progress was made in the construction because of difficulties in deliveries of materials, and is probably, still meiely a skeleton. Those warships which were nearer to the launching stage were no doubt wrecked by explosion before the evacuation of the port. An appeal to Red Navy personnel not to scuttle their ships was broadcast from Berlin radio. “Now is your last chance to choose between the dishonour of sinking your ships and the honour of handing them over to Germany,” it said. “We are youi’ liberators. We are already sacrificing a tremendous number of our best sons, but we must fulfil our mission. Give us your ships, which will be used for the benefit of your country.”