DWINDLED NAVY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25051, 15 November 1944, Page 3

DWINDLED NAVY

SINKING OF TIIiPITZ

ONLY REMNANTS LEFT

By sinking the much-damaged battleship Tirpitz, British air power has left Germany with only the remnants of a once fairly powerful fleet, none of which, except light craft, is likely to be seen at sea again so long as hostilities last. Germany began the war wi A h two 26,000-ton battleships, Scharnhcrst and Gneisenau, mounting nine llin and twelve 5.9 in guns; throe 10,000-ton pocket battleships, Admiral Graf Spee, Admiral Scheer and Lutzow (formerly Doutschland), designed for commerceraiding and carrying six llin guns; two Bin gun cruisers, Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen, and three 6in gun cruisers, Leipzig, Nurnberg and Koln. The Bin gun cruisor Seydlitz, four Gin gun cruisers and two 20,000-ton air-craft-carriers were building but all are believed to have been left unfinished. Loss ol Graf Spee The Tirpitz and her sister ship, the Bismarck, were well on toward completion when the war broke out, together with two others of the _ same type, work on which was discontinued. They were formidable vessels 800 ft long, of more than 40,000 tons, with a speed of over 30 knots, heavy armour and underwater protection, and an armament of eight 15in, twelve 5.9 in and many light guns. Germany's first naval loss was the Graf Spee, which, after sinking merchantmen, was worsted in a fight with three cruisers of lighter individual gunpower, but greater rapidity of fire. This engagement clearly showed the deficiencies of pocket battleship design. After the fall of Norway, most of the capital ships were moved from German ports to the fiords, whence they made forays against Allied merchantmen in the Atlantic* and northern waters as opportunity offered. In-April, 1940, the Scharnhorst was damaged by the battle-cruiser Renown off• Narvik, but turned away and escaped. Later a pocket battleship sank the auxiliary cruiser Jervis Bay, which was escorting an Atlantic convoy. #

The Bismarck's End Early in 1941 the Scharnhorsfc and Gneisenau were turned loose in the Atlantic. They did ranch damage and eventually took shelter in the harbour of Brest. The Bismarck, with the Prinz Eugen, was located at sea in May and chased southward by a number of ships, including the battle-cruiser Hood, which she sank with a lucky shot. The dramatic pursuit ended about 250 miles from the French coast, when the great battleship, crippled by torpedoes and pounded into a blazing wreck, sank with 1000 men aboard. The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were bombed more than 100 times at Brest, but in February, 1942, they made a surprise dash and succeeded in running the gauntlet up the Channel to German ports under an umbrella of land-based fighters. However, the Gneisenau was so badly crippled that slu had to be taken to the remote Polish port of Gdynia and dismantled. The Scharnhorst in due course went back to Norway and met her end in December, 1943. when she ventured out to attack a convoy bound for Russia and was chased and sunk by the battleship Duke of York and a force of cruisers and destroyers. Torpedoed and Bombed The Tirpitz, which appeared for the first time in March, 1942, joined the Scharnhorst in raiding the small Norwegian garrison of Spitsbergen. She was repeatedly attacked by the Fleet Air Arm in various fiords, but owing to many difficulties the bombing was not effective _ enough, and another method was tried. In September, 1943, a flotilla of midget submarines entered Alten Fiord, near North Cape, and in spite of nets and other protective device, torpedoed her more than once. One submarine was lost and the crews of two were taken prisoner. Early last April the battleship was dive-bombed by a large force of naval Barracudas, escorted bv fighters, and many hits were scored, some with heavy armour-piercing bombs which burst between decks. Similar attacks were made a month later and again in August and September. Then Bomber Command took over and sent in a heavv force of Lancasters with 12,0001b bombs, some of which undoubtedly made hits, because there was an explosion so great that one of the ship's magazines was considered to have blown up. When a similar attack this week sank the Tirpitz she was in Tromso Fiord, about 100 miles south of Alten Fiord.