Man Who “Sank” Ark Royal Wants To Commit Suicide

Northern Advocate, 18 November 1941, Page 5

Man Who “Sank” Ark Royal Wants To Commit Suicide

LONDON. Nov. 17. An authentic account of how the German propaganda ministry “sank” the Ark Royal in September, 1939, was broadcast from London by a wellknown American journalist (William Boyles) the British Official Wireless. Mr. Boyles has spent the past eight years in Germany and personally knew Lieut. Franck, the air pilot alleged to have been responsible for this exploit. “Franck himself never claimed to have sunk the Ark Royal, but he got the biggest headlines I have ever seen in the German newspapers,” said Mr. Boyles. A long series of pictures depicting every phase of the sinking appeared in the magazines. I Invented For Him “As Franck was flying a one-man dive bomber, he was the only eyewitness of what happened, and his account became longer and more dramatic in each new edition. Franck later told me that he never made any of the statements attributed to him, but then, he was not asked to. “The climax came when Goering sent Franck an elaborate telegram of congratulation and conferred upon him the Iron Cross, first class. Goebbels’ ministry even prepared an illustrated children’s booklet entitled 'How I Sank the Ark Royal’ and signed Franck’s name to it. Modern Munchausen “Meanwhile Franck’s position in the Luftwaffe became quite intolerable. He was wearing a decoration for something he had not done, and jokes were beginning to circulate about him. “One of the secret broadcasting stations in Germany called him Baron Franckhausen. an obvious allusion to Baron Munchausen, the pretended author of a book of extravagant ‘adventures,' and the name stuck. “Franck became morose and nervous and was removed from operational flying. I saw him last in March, 1940, and with another American, urged him not to carry out his project to commit suicide. Admiralty’s Scoop “He said that if he could only get up in an aeroplane again he would dive it into the first ship be could find. I suggested that the Propaganda Ministry might be a better target and he agreed. I left Germany shortly after, and have not heard since of Franck. “I wonder if he is still alive. If so he will appreciate the irony of Goebbels being scooped by the British Admiralty on the news that his Ministry once tried to make the biggest propaganda of the war.”