SEVERE DAMAGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20823, 30 June 1942, Page 4

SEVERE DAMAGE

NAZI BATTLE CRUISER CONDITION OF GNIESENAU LONG TIME OUT OF ACTION (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) (1.30 p.m.) RUGBY, June 29. The German battle cruiser Gneisenau has been severely damaged by Royal Air Force bombing attacks and repairs will take a long time, says the Air Ministry news service. Ddmage was inflibted on the Gneisenau while she lay at Brest, during her passage through the English Channel,, and subsequently at Kiel. The Gneisenau is now in the Polish, port of Gdynia, where she has been photographed from the air. , . The photographs, under expert scrutiny, show, that the three main 11 in. gUn turrets are being dismantled and the A forward turret completely removed. The R forward turret, is partly dismantled, with. the,, grins removed. The Y after turret is being dismantled in, the same way as, the B ttirret arid a floating erring is working over it. Thirty feet of the forecastle deck has been removed. Camouflaged netting is laid over the stern .and between the ship and the dockside. This work of dismantling is evidence of the heavy damage Some of the damage almost certainly resulted from the attacks on the battle cruiser when she was at Brest. She was taken to Kiel on February fl to Undergo more extensive repairs than could be made at Brest and was hit by bombs While at Kiel during the latter part of February. Fire On Depdt Ship , In one bombing attack on February 25 riight photographs showed d Are on a liner iri the inner construction basin at Kiel. This was the Monte Olivia or a liner of the same class, a ship 500 ft. long serving as the Gneisenau’s depot Ship. ' During February, the Gneisenau was nioored near to her depot shife) and it is most probable that she was also hit that night. The damage done in the attacks on Kiel undoubtedly caused the Germans to rriove the Gneisenau to Gdynia at the end of March or the beginning of April, but Gdynia, unlike Kiel, is not a port where major repairs d° a large naval vessel can be made. The Gneisenau may posSibly have gone there so that a careful inspection could be carried out at a greater distance from England and with less risk, of another armour-piercing, bomb confusing the issue. In such case she would have to go back again for repairs to shipyards within easy range of the Royal Air Force. Her present state shows, that such repairs would take a long time, or it riiay be intended to leave her at Gdynia for the duration of the war. Iri either case, a capital ship of 26,000, tons, one of the three most heaVily arrtiorired ships in the German navy, is immobilised for a considerable time, . ■ -