THE LOWESTOFT RAID.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16230, 16 May 1916, Page 7

THE LOWESTOFT RAID.

GERMAN STORY OF FIGHT.

DISTORTION OF FACTS. London, May 14. The Cologne Gazette publishes a flamboyant report of the German raid on Lowestoft. It claims that a squadron arrived at five o'clock in the morning, and after a bombardment proceeded to Yarmouth, where it caused many fires.

" British ships were sighted at 5.45 a.m.," the report proceeds, "and the Germans, abandoning the bombardment of the coast, opened fire on the British cruisers. The latter, realising their inferiority, moved to the southward. German shells pursued them and many hits were noted. A serious fire broke out on the cruiser Penelope, whose funnel was smashed. It is believed that she was almost entirely burnt. The shells also sunk a destroyer.

" The British ships, thanks to their greater speed, were soon out of range, but they ran into the arms of German submarines, with the result that the Galatea was torpedoed and also an English submarine.

"Within 15 minutes the whole fight was over, and the German ships, not desiring to wait the approach of stronger enemy divisions, proceeded eastward."

The raid on Lowestoft, a fishing town on the coast of Suffolk, took place on April 24 last, when a German battle-cruiser squadron, accompanied by light cruisers and destroyers, appeared at four o'clock in the morning and shelled the town for half-an-hour. A British naval squadron subsequently appeared and drove. off the raiders. The official account issued by the Admiralty stated that two British cruisers and a destroyer were hit, but none was sunk. The inaccuracy of the German report is further proved by the fact that the light ' cruiser Galatea, of 3750 tons, was one of the ships reported to have destroyed Zeppelin L.7 off the Schleswig coast on Tuesday last.