END OF TIRPITZ

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25052, 16 November 1944, Page 5

END OF TIRPITZ

KING'S MESSAGE

MISSING PLANE SAFE

STORY OF THE ATTACK

(Heed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 15 The attack against the Tirpitz was conducted without loss. The Times' Stockholm correspondent says the British legation has confirmed that the Lancaster which made a forced landing at Overhalix, North Sweden, on Sunday morning was the one which was missing from the raid. The King has sent a message to the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command: "Please convey my hearty congratulations to all those who took part in the daring and successful raid on the Tirpitz." Battleship Photographed London newspapers today carry pictures of the Tirpitz as she lies in Tromso Fiord. Only a part of the bottom and starboard side of the ship can be seen, and it looks as if the water is too shallow for the ship completely to turn turtle. The control tower is evidently firmly stuck in the sea bed. Six of the airmen who took part in the sinking of the Tirpitz told their stories in London yesterday. Wing-Commander Tait said Sunday's attack was the third attempt made by R.A.F. bombers to sink the battleship. The first try was at Alten Fiord oil September 15. There great difficulty was met. The fiord was less than a mile broad, and the Germans installed a wonderful system of smoke .screens, by which they could fill the fiord with smoke in six or seven minutes. The smoke meeting the R.A.F. was 400fc deep. As the bombers came across the ship there was just a mast sticking out of the smoke. "The bomb aimer got a line for the mast," said Wing-Com-mander Tait, "and that time we got one direct hit." Great Explosion Seen The Tirpitz then moved to Tromso and on October 29 the R.A.F. paid another visit. "The weather was good," said Wing-Commander Tait. "Down below we could distinguish the Tirpitz .clearly, ljut as we approached low cloud obscured the ship entirely. Our bombs went very close, but we could not see the results.

"A "third attempt was thus necessary. We knew if we could get a clear run on the ship with 30 aircraft we could get the two or three hits necessary to sink her. Sunday was a clear day, and at a bombing height of 13,000 ft I saw the Tirpitz looking like a black and squat island against the crystal water of the fiord, and she stood out clearly against a pillow of snow on the hills in the background. Ten miles away the big guns of the Tirpitz opened fire and sent up clouds of greybrown smoke, which hid the ship entirely. Flak was intense, , but not accurate. We made our run, but it was difficult to see the effects of our bombs. But little later after a direct hit there was a great explosion, which shot several hundred feet into the air. All 29 12,0001b bombs were sent down by visual bombing." Four Direct Bomb Hits Flying-Officer Walter Daniel said the Tirpitz was lying 200 yds or 300 yds from the shore. He saw two near misses on the port side and two direct hits. Flight-Lieutenant Bruce Alexander Buckham, of Penshurst, New .South Wales, who flew with the bombers to take 700 ft of film, said he saw four direct hits on the ship and several near misses. Flight-Lieutenant Buckham added that one of the first bombs fell amidships. It was a perfect bomb. Then a couple of bombs fell amidships and in the bows. There was possibly one further direct hit in the stern.

He added: "I had actually set a course for home when the rear gunner said he thought the Tirpitz was heeling over. By the time I turned, the Tirpitz had turned over to 70 or 80 degrees. W& could see her hull. She did not sink immediately. It was some time later before she turned over. The actual attack took between five and six minutes. We saw no fighters." Berlin broke the silence on the loss of the battleship at mid-day today with an announcement from the German news agency that she had been put out of action in shallow water off the coast of Norway after a British attack on Sunday with super-heavy bombs. MARTYRS OF ATHENS GERMAN BARBARITY THOUSANDS OF VICTIMS (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) 'LONDON, Nov. 15 More details of German barbarity in the Athens area have been learned by a British correspondent in Greece. He said that just before the Germans left the Athens area, a 16-year-old girl wrote on a wall the four words: "Welcome to the Allies." She was shot _by the Germans and was their last victim in Athens.

This girl was one of 5000 martyrs in Athens and the port of Piraeus. Four thousand of these, mostly people who had sheltered British soldiers or worked against the Germans, were shot. The rest died in prison, generally of illness brought on by the treatment they received.

The Germans took away the clothes of peoples who were shot and sent them to the Archbishop of Athens for distribution. Relatives went every day to the archbishop's residence and if they found clothes they recognised that was their intimation that someone belonging to them was dead.

The correspondent said that one day the Germans had 49 victims ready to be shot and wanted one more to make the quota of 50. They chose a 13-year-old boy who had been arrested because he was found playing in the street with an old pistol.

GERMANS ON CRETE NO ACTIVITY DISPLAYED (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON. Nov. 14 An Athens message says that although there are about 9000 Germans and 5000 Italians on Crete concentrated around the capital, _ Canea, they are displaying no activity arid the island remains free from their influence. There is, however, a danger of famine and the Greek Government, in co-opera-tion with the British authorities, is to send foodstuffs.

The # reorganisation of the Greek Army is being discussed by the Greek War Ministry. The Turkish Government has informed M. Papandreou, Greek Prime Minister, that Turkey has no territorial ambitions concerning any part of the Dodecanese. Greek newspapers say that Greece can now ask for the establishment of Greek authority in the islands.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT (Rgpd. 8.45 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Nov. 34 President Roosevelt, at a press conference, said he had received a letter of congratulation from the defeated Republicah candidate for the Presidency, Mr T. E. Dewey, yesterday. He declined, however, to divulge the contents. Mr Roosevelt added that, to save money, the fourth term inauguration ceremonies on January 20 Would be • held at the White House, instead of the Capitol. The usual parade would be omitted. *

HIGH PRICE FOR STAMPS NEW YORK, Nov. 14 A block of eight American 1918 air mail stamps with inverted centres sold at auction for 27,500 dollars (about ' £8100), setting an American record for; a single philatelic item..