GERMAN FLEET

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 May 1945, Page 5

GERMAN FLEET

SURRENDER TO BRITISH

SORRY SPECTACLE

RUGBY; May 10. After World War I the German Fleet steamed in surrender into Scapa Flow. This time, what little was P left of the Fleet of the Third Reich was sought out by the Royal Navy, and submitted only four days after it had been shelling Copenhagen. The last remnants ot the German Fleet, including the powerful cruisers Prinz Eugen and Nurnberg, came under the guns ot the Royal Navy in final surrender at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, writes a naval observer at Copenhagen. With them in Copenhagen harbour were two large destroyers, one small destroyer, two’ torpedo boats, ten M class minesweepers, 13 flak ships, 19 armed trawlers, and two armed merchant ships. . , The British warships, under the command of Captain Herbert Williams in the cruiser Birmingham, had been steaming for two days forcing a passage through the German minefields in the Skaggerak and Kattegat to reach Copenhagen, following the German surrender. With the Birmingham. was the cruiser Dido and the destroyers Zephyr, Zodiak, Zealous and Zest. Although our Royal Marine Band was playing on the quarter-deck, we were' taking no chances, and the rest of the ship s company were on the alert for the slightest hostile movement from the enemy. There was none that mattered. One ship, a merchant ship, had its crew fall in with their backs to us as we steamed by. Another, . a torpedo-boat, passed close to us with her officers looking the other way, but that was all. The Prinz Eugen, lying alongside the quay, although towering above all else in the harbour, was a defeated ship, with guns in wild disorder, some pointing up, others down, some trained one way and the rest another. The Nurnberg, lying at another quay, was a similar picture of dejection. Our’sailors, many of whom had fought the Bismarck and the Scharnhorst, and had run convoys to Russia, were grinning from ear to ear. This was their moment, but when one of them said: “It is a pity we could not have sunk them at sea,” he was speaking for the rest.

U-BOAT SURRENDER

NAVAL PROCEDURE

RUGBY, May 10. The first U-boat to surrender in British waters reached Weymouth flying a black flag. She is U 249, with five officers and 43 other ratings.

mgs. U 249 was met about four miles off the Dorset coast this morning by a motor-launch carrying Commander N. J. Weir, authorised by the Admiralty to accept the surrender, and a Polish naval armed guard launch, carrying a military armed guard with sten guns at the ready, came alongside and boarded the submarine. They were followed by Commander Weir, who climbed at once to the conningtower where the white-capped redfaced U-boat commander, Ober-Lieut. Kock, awaited him. Weir handed a document of surrender saying: “I have come aboard to accept unconditional surrender of your U-boat.” The crew of five officers, and fortythre'e men were then lined up, the officers on deck and the ratings forward. Meantime the captain had signed six copies of the' document, and returned them to Commander Weir. A party of Royal Navy experts descended into the submarine to make careful examination to see if everything was in order. Before the examination was completed, most of the crew, including the captain and officers were taken ashore in motorlaunches and escorted to a cage for prisoners of war. Several members of the crew remained to assist in the technical examination of the vessel. Later when the examination was completed, the submarine was towed into Portland. U-249 surfaced yesterday morning about forty miles south-south-west oi The Lizard, and signalled her intention of surrender. The Amethyst and Magpie were at once sent from Plymouth to escort her. She had been at sea about forty days operating in the south-west Channel area and still had ten torpedoes unfired when she came in. , . Weir remained on the conningtower with the U-boat captain for. a considerable time, and the captain apparently asked the Commander what was going to happen to his submarine and he was told she would later be towed in by tugs. In Portland dockyard, the surrender was formally made to the Admiralty. The surrender was accepted by Rear-Admiral R. J. R. Scott, Chief Flag Officer of Portland, accompanied by his Chiel-of-Staff, Captain G. B. Villiers. Captain Hunt, representing Admiral Stark United States Navy and the senior officer of Polish flotilla operating from Portland. . „ , Fourteen U-boats signalled acceptance to-day of the British Admiralty’s instructions to make for the nearest Allied port. Another U-boat was reported on the surface near Land’s End to-day, and eleven ot he is are on the way from the North Atlantic this afternoon. Another which had been on patrol off the north coast of Scotland reached the British naval station Loch Eriboll near Durness Sutherland.

TWO SHIPS TORPEDOED

(Rec. 10.0 a.m.) LONDON, May 10

The steamship Avondale Park was torpedoed and sunk on .May 8. Two lives were lost. The survivors reached port. The Avondale Park was m a convoy from which a Norwegian ship was also lost. The survivors said the attack was made at 11 p.m. The torpedo struck the engineroom and killed the chief engineer and a greaser. The ship sank in five minutes.

U.S.A. SHIPPING LOSSES

WASHINGTON, May 9

The U.S. Navy has announced that an enemy submarine torpedoed and sank an American collier of 7000 tons off Rhode Island coast on Saturday last. Twelve members of the crew are missing, and are believed to be dead. Three Allied ships in the vicinity rescued 34 survivors. The collier’s owners said that the submarine was reported to have been sunk bv naval action after the collier went down.

LONDON. May 10

The United States Liberty ship “Horace Bmnev,” struck a German mine on Tuesday, 36 miles from Flushing. She was just afloat when she was towed to De'al.