ENEMY REPORTS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 July 1940, Page 3

ENEMY REPORTS

OF BRITISH LOSSES. (Per British Official Wireless ) RUGBY, July 13. At a time. when the .Nazis , were seeking to impress Italian opinion with the object of facilitating Signor Mussolini’s :eptry in the war, it was noticed here how hard .the German wireless worked by misrepresentation and distortion and almost incredible exaggeration to''create an impression that the German Air Force had mastered the British sea power. A similar tendency is obserable now that Hitler’s urgent need is’to imbue the still-free peoples <>f Europe and those but recently free and still hoping for the end of their subjugation with the idea that Britain is not strong enough to withstand and outstay Germany’s effort at conquest and domination, so that they will' give up all hope and become submissive to the enemy’s “protection.’’ There has been,' for example, over recent days, a persistent exaggeration in the foreign news broadcasts on the German radio of the losses and damage inflicted in air raids bn Britain and oil British shipping while German losses have been systematically minimised. To-day, German and Italian stations are alleging that tlie aircraft carrier “Ark Royal”, and the battlecruiser “Hood” are out of action and in dock as the result of bortibiiig' by the Italian force last Tues- - day. lii fact neither of these ships- were and the flag officer com- ' manding the British forces in that action reported that, though the Italian , honibers scored some success, no direct hits were secured and no casualties were incurred. A’ subtle complaint to an ally may be the intention of the German stations in crediting an Italian pilot with damaging the aircraft carrier, for the sinking of which Herr Hitler already conferred an Iron Cross on a German airman, but a word will not And the claim *to vicarious success any more convincing because it constituted a be- ! lated admission of the falsity of the earlier German claim made on her own behalf. ' It is interesting to also note thaf last Sunday the German wireless announced the battlecruiser “Hood” sniftered such heavy damage at o’rah that she would be out pf for some time—an announcement which did "not, prevent her from fighting again two days later, . when,]; once ni’qrc according to tlie German wire-' less, she' was put out of' action. List- . chefs to the German wireless ' should be tyarhed that they need not be. surprised, even after this second “disablement,” "if the “Hood” give a- veryof.fectiy^.accpuut; qf liersejf . at the enemy’s expense whenever and however •soon she-is required or has the opportunity to do so,