HOW SCHARNHORST WAS FOILED

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 258, 28 July 1941, Page 8

HOW SCHARNHORST WAS FOILED

Attempt To Break Into Atlantic HEAVILY BOMBED BY R.A.F. (British Official Wireless.) (Received July 27, 8.40 p.m.) ' RUGBY, July 26. It is now 7 possible to reveal the methods by- which the attempt of the German battle-cruiser Scharnhorst to break into the Atlantic from her moorings at Brest was detected and frustrated. For the last few months Coastal Command aircraft have visited the Scharnhorst several times daily while she lay at the Rade de Brest with Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen. Last Wednesday the Coastal Command defeated the most elaborate efforts at camouflage..

At dusk-on Tuesday Sharnhorst was in her usual berth. At dawn next morning there was every outward appearance that she was still there. The overhead camouflage netting with which the Germans had tried to screen the ship was still in place, and below it was the seemingly familiar hull of the battle-cruiser. But Coastal Command reconnaissance planes saw certain flaws. Interpretation of observers’ reports showed that what was beneath the canopy of camouflage was a 530 ft. long Atlantic liner, with smaller ships at its bow and stern to give length, all fitted with devices to resemble the Scharnhorst’s superstructure. Bluff Not Good Enough. It was a good piece of bluff, but not quite good enough. While Coastal Command reconnaissance planes prowled about Brest seeking more information, they had to evade possibly the heaviest barrage of shell fire ever raised against investigating aircraft. A pattern of patrols was flung out across the western approaches, and the Bay of Biscay and every yard of the Breton coast was searched. The enemy laid smoke screens from the breakwater at Brest, and from small islands close to the coast. Mysterious trails of bluish yellow oil. 100 yards wide and seven miles long, appeared on the sea. These devices to deceive met with no success. The Coastal Command aircraft scoured the sea and coast in relays on carefully planned patrols, which looked like,a great maze on the operations room charts.

Successful results came promptly. Almost simultaneously several aircraft signalled back to their base and Coastal Command headquarters that Scharnhorst now lay inside the pierhead of the outer bay of La Pallice, 24!) miles south of Brest. While the Royal Air Force Bomber and Fighter Commands prepared for a great onslaught last Thursday on Scharnhorst at La Pallice and other enemy warships at Brest, Coastal Command bombers and torpedo-bombers— Hudson and Beaufort aircraft—opened the offensive. They showered the heaviest bombs on Scharnhorst in her new harbourage, from which she was apparently to make a sortie into the Atlantic. The attack was so persistent an'd effective that Scharnhorst did not move. She had to stay- in the same position till the Bomber Command, using the biggest aircraft, had assembled the most powerful striking force ever directed against a warship.