Cowardly Nazi Attacks Rouse King’s Horror

Northern Advocate, 22 December 1939, Page 5

Cowardly Nazi Attacks Rouse King’s Horror

(Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, December 21

Conversing with a Trawlers’ Federation representative during a visit to the Ministry of Agriculture, His Majesty expressed horror and indignaTlsh at the Nazi' machine-gunning of British fishermen./ In Berlin, authorised sources vigorously deny that the Germans have sunk innocent fishing- smacks off the British coast. They claim that the vessels are equipped with radios. /They might possibly do some fishing, but mainly serve to report the approach of German aircraft and naval vessels to the British coast belligerent area. Will Continue. Germany’s action was justified and would be relentlessly continued. The sinking of the trawler Trinity yesterday was not mentioned. The Berlin official news agency report: says • German aeroplanes visited the Shetland Islands on Wednesday and attacked six British minesweepers, one of which returned to port with two of the crew dead. 35 Attacked in Three Days, " German aeroplanes attacked 35 vessels in the last three days. , They sank on a coaster and six trawlers. Two of those attacked were neutral and only three, were naval craft. It is reported from Oslo that a German warplane bombed and Sank the British trawler Trinity, which was fishing close to Norwegian territorial waters. Survivors were found clinging to planks by a Danish fishing boat. They said the Trinity had been blown to pieces and the crew machine-gunned while struggling in the water. One man was injured by a bullet. Bombs killed none, but one man was drowned and another died from exhaustion after the rescue. Actual Facts. The British' Admiralty, in a Press notice, gives the actual facts regarding these vessels, which, the German High Command claims were light naval forces and which were destroyed. “Pearl.—Fishing trawler, attacked on December 17 by aircraft. Three of the crew injured. “Serenity.—Coasting steamer, unarmed, machine-gunned from the air and sunk by bombs on December 17. “New Choice.—Fishing trawler, attacked by aircraft without damage or casualties on December 18. “No such vessel as the.llkway exists. “The fishing trawlers Evelyn and Sedgefly were overdue some time ago and are presumed lost. Misrepresentations Exposed.

• “Trinity.—Fishing trawler, sunk by aircraft on December 18. “In thd last three days, 35 vessels, of which two were neutrals, have been attacked by German aircraft. “Only three of the vessels attacked were naval units, and all three of these attacks were unsuccessful. “One coasting vessel and six trawlers were sunk.” The Admiralty statement thus exposes the misrepresentations by the Germans, who disguised these attacks against neutral and unarmed vessels, which the Admiralty statement characterises as marked • by “senseless inhumanity.”