THE NAVY’S HERE!’

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22288, 25 March 1947, Page 3

THE NAVY’S HERE!’

ALTMARK INCIDENT PRISONERS RELEASED ROTARY CLUB ADDRESS An incident which brought happiness to a number of New Zealand homes and thrilled the world at the time was the releasing of 300 prisoners, mostly of British nationality, from the German prison ship, Altmark, inside Norwegian territorial waters. The incident, which occurred early in 1940 was recounted to members of the Gisborne Rotary Club to-day by Mr. N. K. Brown, one of those men released.

Mr, Brown explained to Rotarians that in 1939 he had been an engineer on the vessel Tairoa, trading between England and Australia. Late that year, the Tairoa was returning from Australia and after calling at Durban the vessel was cn route to Freetown, in Sierra Leone. A few days before the Tairoa was due in port a German raider was met up with, and although she was shelled the Tairoa was not greatly damaged said Mr. Brown. Resemblance to Rodney

The German raider had Deutschland painted on the stern and also had a dummy forward turret and dummy funnel. This was lo make her appear like the British battleship Rodney, in the opinion of Mr. Brown. When the Tairoa's crew were taken on board and mingled with other prisoners, it was discovered she was the Graf Spec. After being examined by the Germans, the Tairoa was sunk.

The Graf Spee steamed south at full speed into the Atlantic for five days and then met up with a ship flying Die Norwegian colours. This was the Altmark. The lesser fry of the prisoner crews on the Graf Spec were taken off, only captains and chief executive officers being left on the battleship. That night the Graf Spee refuelled from the Altmark and steamed off, to bo engaged a week later and sunk at the now famous bat lie of the River Plate. Privations of Prisoners For the next month the Altmark remained a few hundred miles south of Cape Town, refitting her engines. During this time 55 men, including Mr. Brown, lived on a small deck approximately 30 feet square, being allowed only one hour’s exercise on the deck during the day. Three slices of black bread for breakfast and tea were allowed each man, while there was usually soup for lunch. At times a small piece of cheese varied this diet. At the end of January the Altmark made a run up into tiro Atlantic and eventually passed between Iceland and the Shetland Islands, continued the speaker. On February 14, 1940, the vessel reached the Norwegian coast, running into a fiord near Narvik. Although the prisoners were battened down from this time onwards, it was known that the Altmark was proceeding down the Norwegian coast. Each night the vessel stopped and one night was spent in Bergen harbour, and the neon signs on the shore were able to be read by the prisoners through a small spy hole. An attempt to break out of their bold was made by the prisoners, but they were unsuccessful.

Welcome English Voice One day an aircraft was heard, and this had notified a destroyer flotilla some miles away, said Mr. Brown. The Altmark went at full speed for some time, but it was not long before shots were heard by the prisoners and then a voice with a very English accent shouted “The Navy’s here. We’ve come to lake you home.” The boarding party took some time to free the hatches over the prison holds, but eventually they were all broken in. H.M.S. Cossack, from Which Rest Admiral Vian directed

tlie boarding operations, stayed near the Altmark and the prisoners were quickly taken across to her. During the boarding operations only one English sailor was injured, but eight Germans were killed, after putting up some resistance. The Cossack was inside Norwegian territorial waters and sire quickly steamed out of the fiord and set course for England The 300 on board were well looked after by the sailors, concluded Mr. Brown, but all of the prisoners were only too glad to land on British soil, after being captives for two months. , , , The speaker was thanked for his interesting address by Mr. M. .1. White. Chairman for the day was Mr. J. A. Peach.