GERMAN RAIDERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 October 1939, Page 7

GERMAN RAIDERS

TWO POCKET-BATTLESHIPS BELIEVED TO BE AT SEA [BY. CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] (Received October 28. 11 a.m.)— LONDON, October 27. A high'authority states: It is most likely that two raiders are at sea. namely, the pocket-battleships Admiral Von Scheer and Deutschland, both of which have great endurance, and a 20.000 miles’ range at low speed, even without supply ships. For these reasons, it is possible that the Admiral Von Scheer will be in the Pacific or the Indian ocean, though no reports have been received. " It is most probable that the Admiral Von Scheer sank the Clement. It is unlikely that the Emden is at large. The raiders are “really doing us very little harm,” considering the time they have been operating in the busy sea-routes.

NET RESULT VERY SMALL. (Recd. October 28, 11.45 a.m.) RUGBY, October 27. The question of the number of German raiders operating in the Atlantic has provoked interest among naval commentators in London. Though there is a possibility of one ship having been as far as the South Atlantic and the Newfoundland coast, it cannot be overlooked that the combination of dates on which the raiders appeared rather suggests that two German ships have been at large. The next information after the reported sinking of the Stonegate, about 500 miles east of Florida, on October 5, was received on October 12, when, off the Newfoundland coast, the Norwegian steamship Nansen was sunk, and' it appeared that a raider was cruising in the neighbourhood of the famous Newfoundland fishing bank. On the same day, an oilier Norwegian ship was stopped, and the crew of the Nansen was transferred to her, and a

little later the City of Flint was also stopped, and the crew of the Stonegate were transferred from the raider to her. On September 20, the British steamer Clement was sunk off the coast of Pernambuco. Despite the distance, there is no reason why the raider which attacked the Clement should not have steamed quickly to the position where the Stonegate was sunk.

Nothing has been heard of armed’ merchantmen elsewhere, and the net result of these attacks over a. considerable period is very small indeed. Both pocket-battleships seem to have failed to get into the areas of dense shipping. Their endurance at an economical speed of 15 knots is. 20,000 miles, but, of course, at the full speed of 28 knots, this range Avould be considerably reduced. It is felt that these ships might have taken advantage of darkness, bad weather, and the indiscriminate use of Norwegian territorial waters, to return to Germany.