NAZI ATTACKS ON UNARMED SHIPS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 92, 12 January 1940, Page 9

NAZI ATTACKS ON UNARMED SHIPS

Decks Swept By Gunfire

ILLEGAL METHODS OF WARFARE (British Official Wireless.) (Received January 11, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, January 10. Reports of attacks by Nazi aircraft upon unarmed fishing boats and similar vessels and the descriptions given by survivors have given rise to comment that the German air force during the last few days has prosecuted vigorously a form of warfare, which makes greater demands upon the conscience than upon the courage of the attackers. These unarmed merchant ships have been ruthlessly attacked. Without discrimination, enemy aircraft have swept down upon isolated cargo boats, or upon fishing vessels with trawls down, incapable either of defending themselves or of avoiding attacks. Decks have been swept by machine-gun fire and superstructures shattered by bombs.

These ships have no means of defending themselves, and only in .some cases can summon help in SOS, which cannot be answered till after, the enemy has retreated Into the mist, from which they came.

It is hard to believe that such methods of warfare can be anything but repugnant to the officers and men who are ordered to carry them out. Insistence on the presence of “armed patrol craft,” which is so often a feature of German High Command communiques would suggest an unconvincing attempt to impart a military flavour to an operation which resembles the calculated cowardice of the gunman rather than the chivalry and courage which has always been characteristic of the air forces of the world, however desperately they may be engaged with one another. Barbaric Assault. Further proof was afforded yesterday that Allied and neutral unarmed merchant ships are considered by Germany as legitimate targets for her bombers. German bombers as already announced, sank the British steamer Gowrie (689 tons), but the two Danish ships, Ivan Kondrup (2369 tons) and Feddy (955 tons), which were attacked and were reported to have been sunk are still afloat and are expected to reach port. Earlier reuorts stated that 11 survivors of the Ivan Kondrup were landed by a British vessel, with 10 still missing. In addition, five other steamers, one of which was a Trinity House boat which was relieving lightships off the east coast, and five fishing smacks . were also 'bombed. The bombing of the Trinity House ship, which was crowded with men returning to their duty of keeping watch in the lonely lightships along the east coast after Christmas leave, and resulted in injury to 31 men and the death of one officer, is considered a particularly barbaric assault. It is believed that another officer has died of wounds.

Hitherto, ships of this essentially non-milltary service have been spared by the Nazi bombers, but it appears that now nothing that ventures on the seas, from a raft of shipwrecked seamen to vessels bearing lightship personnel, are immune from the inhuman Nazi attacks. Attack Described. The master and two men of the steamer Upminster (1013 tons) are believed to have been killed when the ship was bombed in the North 'Sea yesterday. Ten survivors landed at an east coast port today. In describing the attack by two German aircraft, the second officer, who was one of the survivors, said: “They swooped down and attacked us again and again, first with machine-guns and then with bombs. We had no guns and no wireless.” Other survivors told of how they were machine-gunned as they tried to scramble into their small boats and again as they were rowing away. “The planes swept our decks mercilessly as we ran for the boats,” they said.

Two German bombers off the east coast on January 9 missed the steamer Northwood ■ (1146 tons) with 40 bombs and also machine-gunned the ship. There were no casualties. *The Northwood’s Lewis gun hit the fusellage of one plane, whereupon both planes departed. The Northwood has reached port. Nazi planes sank with bombs the steamer Oakgrove (1985 tons) which twice escaped bombing during the Spanish war. The ship’s master, Captain W. Falconer, .was killed, but all the other members of the crew were landed at an east coast port. Three were taken to hospital. A communique issued by the High Command in Berlin claims that German fighter planes sank eight ships off the English and Scottish coasts on January 9. “Fighter planes during a reconnaissance flight,” says the communique, “sank two armed naval ships and two merchant ships in a convoy off the Norwich coast. Four armed merchantmen unexpectedly fired on the German plants off the Scottish coast and consequently were sunk. Our aircraft suffered no casualties.”

Captain Copper, of the trawler Chrystalite, described how two heavy bombers circled the ship, machinegunning it from 50 feet from stem to stern. The crew took to the boats and the raider returned, dropped bombs, and machine-gunned the boats. The vessel .was not sunk. The crew again boarded her, though she was badly shaken and leaking. The crew’ watched four other raiders bombing and machine-gunning nearby ships. None was armed, and they were not convoyed.—Press Association.

COLUMBUS CREW RETURNS TO GERMANY

NEW YORK, January 10.

Four hundred men of military age from the scuttled German liner Columbus will be sent to the west coast, and will go from there to Germany in Japanese ships and through Russia. Those over age are to be shipped in neutral vessels from New’ York.

NORWEGIAN SHIP SUNK

AMSTERDAM, January 10.

The Norwegian cargo boat Manx (1343 tons) was mined and sank. Seven members of the crew were rescued.