BLOCKADE LOSSES

Grey River Argus, 21 March 1940, Page 8

BLOCKADE LOSSES

NINE SHIPS LAST WEEK I By Enemy Action I I LAus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] ' LONDON, March 19. The Admiralty announced that, for the week ended March 17, three British ships, with a total tonnage Of 5 499, two French (3,172 tons), and four neutral (15,321 tons), were lost as a result of enemy action. None was being convoyed. ... . The majority' of the vessels were sunk by illegal mines. On?y four ships had been sunk by U-boats since February 24. Those U-boats which escaped destruction had presumably been withdrawn in order that their crews may rest and recover from shattered nerves. Enemy Ship CAPTURED BY FRENCH. LONDON, March 19. The French steamer, Capitaine Augustin, 3,137 tons, was sunk by a mine off the east coast of England last Sunday. Two men were killed, and 28 saved of whom two were seriously wounded. The German steamer, Uhenfels, 7,603, arrived at Gibraltar with a prize crew aboard, after capture by the British Navy in the South Atlantic.

ALLIED CONVOYS. LONDON, March 19. Of 12,816 British, Allied, and neutral ships convoyed to March 13, 28 were lost. The French Navy convoyed over 2,000 vessels, of which only four were lost. ENEMY’S CLAIMS. BRITISH REPLY. RUGBY, March 19. The German claims about British losses at sea are the subject to the following Admiralty statement: “Fantastic and untrue statements of British losses at sea are constantly being made by the enemy, very often in order to obtain information. A statement containing a full list of all British and Allied and neutral mercantile marine losses, due to enemy action, is issued weekly by the Admiralty <?nd this statement' is the British answer to all such German claims. It is also the policy of the Admiralty to publish the loss of His Majesty’s ships as soon as the next-of-kin of casualties have been informed.”