CLAIMS BY GERMANY

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21371, 15 March 1941, Page 2

CLAIMS BY GERMANY

PROPAGANDA METHODS r AIR LOSSES EXAGGERATED HOW COMMUNIQUES ARE MADE "Hier 1 St. Deutsehlltndsender” (this is the German home radio). A bomber pilot is speaking. He is describing a raid over Britain, and Sits’ is what he says:— “There was no searchlight activity as we circled the aerodrome. Then we dropped our bombs. Several fires started with a reddish yellow colour, and we heard seven explosions—seven machines destroyed.” This cock-and-bull story is soon translated upon arrival in Berlin into the clipped language of a High Command announcement: “Total losses of the enemy yesterday and last night, therefore, amounted to 33 aircraft.” (German High Command communique, February 11, 1941.) In fact the British lost six machines on the day in question. But this and similar enemy exaggerations are not to be wondered at if Berlin is prepared to score every hasty assumption as a substantial result. All At Sea Claims regarding the tonnage of British shipping sank seem to be made on the same unsubstantial basis. The Nazi bomb—or torpedoaimer—claims as victim the ship whose fate his aeroplane or submarine cannot possibly have waited to see. The classic case is that of Aircraftman Francke, who was awarded a commission for the first sinking of the Ark Royal, because his comrades had “clearly seen her decks awash.”

On the same scanty type of evidence the German High Command communique of November 8 claimed to have “completely destroyed” 86,000 tons of shipping, being “the whole of the British convoy” which was escorted by the Jervis Bay. As is well known, only four out of the 38 ships in that convoy were sunk by the raider. To take yet another example, the German High Command claimed (February 12) that 14 out of 15 ships had been sunk in an Atlantic convoy a few days earlier. A German home wireless commentator added the embellishment that “it would have been an easy matter to sink the fifteenth vessel as well, but the German commander left her to pick up the crews of the 14 other ships.” It is already known that 11 of 19 ships in the convoy in question are safe at their respective destinations and that three more are not yet overdue. Flying High Lastly, Herr Hitler’s famous 215.000 tons in two days—conveniently reported just in time for his annual speech of February 24—are as far removed from the truth as such enemy assertions invariably prove to be. ... Light is thrown on the higher mathematics of the Nazi Air Command by an article in Der Adler, the Nazi flying paper. Writing in the issue of October 29, Hauptmann Schramm, who commands a Press reporter company, says that one of the rules governing the recognition of an airman’s claim to be credited with a feat is that "Victories are not credited to a single pilot, but to his unit. Should more than one unit have taken part in the air battle during which the enemy machine was shot down, all these units are credited with this victory. •The rule is evidently open to variation, for German broadcasts often announce that “Sergeant Schmidt has shot down so-and-so many machines.” It is easy to register a big score if. as happens, his flight, squadron, wing and group are al credited with the success. Ihe total is swelled still further whenever other units are engaged in the action and then flights, squadrons, wings and groups chalk up tne bag as well.