NAVAL LOSSES

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 139, 8 March 1941, Page 11

NAVAL LOSSES

Absurd Nazi Claims Disproved A MINUS FLEET (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY March 6. In the 18 months of the war the claims of the enemy High Command to have sunk or seriously damaged British warships have amounted to more than double the fleet possessed by the British Empire at the outbreak of the war, states an Admiralty communique.

Since the enemy has repeatedly declared that British dockyards are unable to cope with the number of ships requiring repair, ships claimed as seriously damaged are presumably accounted for by the enemy as out of action, in addition to those claimed as sunk. The number of British warships which the German and Italian High Commands, in official communiques, have claimed to have sunk or seriously damaged are as follows: —Battleships and battle-cruisers, 34; air-craft-carriers, 13; cruisers, 102; destroyers, 144; submarines, 71. The strength of the Empire fleets at the outbreak of the war was: —Battleships and battie-cruisars, 15; aircraft-car-riers, 7; cruisers, 62; destroyers, 185; submarines, 58. It therefore follows that the number of ships left to the Empire, according to enemy communiques is: Battleships and battle-cruisers, minus 19; aircraft-carriers, minus 6; cruisers, minus 40; destroyers, plus 41; submarines minus 13. Since it is hardly conceivable that claims on this scale could have been made in good faith, it is probable they were issued with the following objects: (1) In the hope of drawing a denial which would convey information of the actual strength and disposition of our fleets: (2) to bolster up the morale of the enemy peoples, who are uneasily aware of the British naval power; and (3) to cause alarm and dispondency in the enemy-occupied territories and in those countries which have been able to maintain their neutrality, and in the hope of causing anxiety among relatives and friends.