THE WAR

Patea Mail, 5 January 1940, Page 2

THE WAR

THE ;GRAT SPEE A MASS OF JUNK ' \ The terrible damage done to the Admiral Graf Spee in her light with the British cruisers was described to a representative of the Telegraph Agency at Montevideo by Mr. Russell Lewis, - r a photographer, who boarded the vessel with officials. It was lie 'who said that she looked as if she had been hit by the vengeance of God. ■ V He added that her lighting towers had been smashed to swished steel, and two huge holes had been made through 1 the heart of the ship. v “The British gunnery must have been terrific, ’’ he continued. “The raider’s thick armoured plates are buckled and torn in several places, and there arc signs of at least half a dozen hits just, above the water line on the port side. , HEAP OF JUNK “I stepped over a mass of wreckage which was once a plane, but which British gunfire had transformed into, a heap of junk. • “The Nazi sailors seemed to be in bad shape. Many of them were bandaged, and several of them were lying on deck on stretchers, waiting to bo taken ashore to hospital. ■“I, was .not allowed to sec the interior of the vessel, but 1 was told that it was in a frightful state. Only the engine-room escaped serious damage. “The officers’ mess was demolished. It just doesn’t exist. The'ship’s control tower evidently received a direct hit. It is hanging precariously on a few twisted beams. ’’