NAZI "HERO"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 273, 18 November 1941, Page 7

NAZI "HERO"

" SANK " ARK ROYAL Pathetic Victim Of Goebbds' Falsehoods British omrla] Wire]ess. RUGBY. Nov. 17. An authentic account of how the German Propaganda Ministrv "sank" the Ark Royal in September, 1939 w ] a f broadcast from London by a ow 2? American journalist, \\ llliam Boyles. Mr. Boyles has spent the past eight years in Germany and personally knew Lieutenant Franck, the air pilot alleged to have been responsible for this exploit.

"Franck himself never claimed to have sunk the Ark Roval, but he got the biggest headlines I have ever seen in the German newspapers." said Mr. Boyles. "A long series of pictures depicting every phase of the sinking appeared in the magazines.

As Franck was flying a one-man dive-bomber, he was the only evewitness of what happened, and his account became longer and more dramatic in each new edition. Franck later told me that he never made any of the statements attributed to him. But then, he was not asked to.

"Franck became morose and nervous and was removed from operational flying. I saw him last in March, 1940, and, with another American, urged him not to carry out his project to commit suicide.

"He said that if he could only get up in an aeroplane again he would dive it into the first ship he could find. 1 suggested that the Propaganda Ministry might be a better target, and he agreed. I left Germany shortly after, and have not heard since of Franck.

"I wonder if he is still alive. If so he will appreciate the irony of Goebbels being scooped by * the British Admiralty on the news that his Ministry once tried to make the biggest propaganda of the war."