NAVAL WARFARE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 22, 26 January 1940, Page 7

NAVAL WARFARE

ADMISSION OF LOSSES

COMPARISON OF PRACTICES

MERCHANT VICTIMS

B.v Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.

(Received January 26, 12.40 p.m.)

LONDON, January 24. Wilh the loss of H.M.S. Grenyille and Exmouth, the British destroyer losses in the war have been brought in all to something just over 2 per cent, of the total number of destroyers in existence at the outbreak —that is to say, not including the construction since that date.

The frankness with which the losses have been announced by the Admiralty offers a contrast to the German practice.

Apart from the loss of the Admiral Graf Spec, which could not be concealed, and the statement,,for which! credence could scarcely have been expected, that three German submarines were lost in the first three months of the war, Germany has announced no] naval losses whatever. j The Admiralty announced that the number of the crew of H.M.S. Grenyille who are missing and feared dead is 68, not 73, as was previously stated. TOLL OF LIFE. The Swedish steamer Patria (1188 j tons) was mined and sunk in the I North Sea. , Four survivors from the crew of 21 landed at a Swedish port. The Finnish steamer Onto (1333 tons) was mined in the North Sea. The crew of 18, including ah Englishman, were rescued from a lifeboat and landed at a British 'north-east port.

Oslo reports that a lifeboat picked up one of the boats from the Estonian ship Nautic'. It contained a woman and ten men. A second lifeboat from the Nautic, containing one woman and eleven men, including the captain and the chief officer, arrived near Christiansund.

A message from Amsterdam states that the Norwegian steamer Borgholm landed at Ijmuiden 17 survivors and, three bodies from the British steamer Biarritz, which was mined and sunk off Ijmuiden .

The statement in an interview in the "Daily Herald" indicating that a destroyer was damaged by a mine is stated by the Admiralty to be without foundation.

A Spanish trawler has rescued from a lifeboat ten missing members of the crew of the Greek steamer Ekatontarchos Dracoulis.

/ An Oslo report states that the Norwegian shipping losses to date are 32 vessels of 111,994 tons dead-weight, and 150 men killed.

A vessel in the North Sea is believed to have picked up the remaining missing members of the crew of the Norwegian steamer Sydfold, which was sunk by a mine or torpedo off the Scottish coast.

The steamer Parkhill, with a crew of nine, is officially considered lost. v -