NAVAL LOSSES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 124, 24 April 1940, Page 9

NAVAL LOSSES.

GERMANY'S HIGH TOTAL. LOW BRITISH TALLY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 22. Now that naval operations preliminary to the landing in Norway of British- and Fraiich . forces are concluded and while Dr. Goebbels continues to try to persuade the world that the British Navy has suffered such losses that it has almost ceafied to exist, it is an opportune moment to survey the actual losses derived from official announcements suffered by the British Navy. One capital ship has been lost out of 15 i=uch ships completed before the war, namely, the Royal Oak. One air-craft-carrier, the Courageous, out of 6even has been lo6t. Not a single cruiser has been lost out of the 60 that had been completed at the outbreak of the war. One armed merchant cruiser, the Rawalpindi, has been sunk. Ten destroyers, H.M.S. Blanche, Gipsy, Duchess (in collision), Grenville, Exmouth, Daring, Glowworm, Gurkha, Hunter, Hardy (beached at Narvik), have been lost. At the outbreak of the war Britain had 185 destroyers. /->,'« Five submarines, the Oxley, beahorse, Undine, Starfish, and Thistle, have been lost out of 58 at the beginning of the war. NEGLIGIBLE PROPORTION.

The British Navy thus has lost 18 warships, including ' the Rawalpindi out of a total of 327 completed on the outbreak of hostilities—a total loss which would hardly have affected the vast preponderance of the British over the German navy had the latter suffered no losses during the eight months of the war. But it has suffered heavy losses, exactly how heavy it is impossible to state with the same degree of certainty attaching to the British losses. Of Germany's two battle-cruisers completed at the outbreak of the war the Scharnhorst has been damaged in an encounter with H.M.S. Renown—herself damaged during the encounter —while the Gneisenau was reported officiary by the Norwegians to have been sunk*in Oslo Fiord. Of her three "rocket" battleships, the Admiral Graf Spec has been scuttled and the Admiral Scheer has been hit by more than one torpedo. At the outbreak of war Germany had two heavy cruisers and six 6-m gun cruisers. Of these heavy cruisers the Blucher'and the 6-in gun cruiser Karlsruhe have been admitted by the German High Command as sunk. In addition, one heavy cruiser was hit by torpedoes in December, as was also one 6-in gun cruiser. Another 6-in gun cruiser was sunk by a British submarine in December. One was sunk by British aircraft at Bergen and another was hit by a heavy bomb off Bergen. Germany's remaining 6-in gun cruiser Emden has been officially reported by the Norwegians as sunk. Germany started the war with some 45 surface torpedo craft, of which only 22 were modem destroyers. The German High Command stated early in March that two destroyers had been lost. Eight modern German destroyers were destroyed at Narvik, one was hit by a- bomb at Trondheim and another was probably hit in the same raid. . . . Germany began the war with about 70 submarines, of which she has lost, according to unofficial estimates, some GO. Of course, many have beeii built since the war began. At the same tim- Germany has lost since the- campaign'began against Norway 20 transports and supply ships. Ten others have been hit by torpedoes and probablv sunk, one has been set on fire by air attack, and four German vessels have been captured.