“NO LONGER A FLEET”

Southland Times, Issue 24104, 18 April 1940, Page 8

“NO LONGER A FLEET”

Comment On Nazis'

Navy

(British Official Wireless) RUGBY, April 16.

In estimating the significance of Germany’s naval losses, newspaper commentators lay emphasis on the fact that the ratio of loss is even more important than the numerical total. The Manchester Guardian does not hesitate. It says that the German Navy is no longer a fleet in being. The Manchester Guardian also expresses surprise that major units of the German Navy, like the Gniesenau and Admiral Scheer, should be despatched on missions without a screen of destroyers. Students of naval warfare declare that seldom in history has so glaring a case of useless wastage of material been seen.

Referring to Germany’s grave tactical mistake in not providing an adequate escort for transports, The Manchester Guardian says that the German High Command has taken the suicidal course of sending valuable transports without protection across 60 miles of disputed water.

According to an official Admiralty statement, during the week ending at midnight on April 14 four neutral ships, totalling 14,426 tons, were lost and one Allied ship, namely the Norwegian vessel Tosca, of 5128 tons. The neutral ships lost were Okeania (Greek), Sveaborg (Swedish tanker), Inez and Velocitas (Swedish) and a Dutch fishing craft. Incomplete reports so far received show that the following German ships have been captured or sunk. All the ships sunk were employed as transports or naval auxiliaries. TRAWLERS CAPTURED The steam trawlers Friesland, Nordland, and Blakenburg and the steamship Alster, totalling 9498 tons, were captured by Britain. The steamships Kreta (2359 tons), Rio De Janiero (5261 tons), Amasis (7129 tons), Pcsidonia (about 5000 tons), lonia (3102 tons), August Leonhardt (2593 tons) and the trawler Moonunk (321 tones) were sunk by British submarines.

The steamship Main (7624 tons) was sunk by a Norwegian destroyer, the Ravenfels (8460 tons) was sunk by a British destroyer and the Antares (2593 tons), was mined or torpedoed. The tanker Skagerrak (6044 tons) was scuttled to avoid capture. The total German loss was 50,486 tons and, with the vessels captured, 59,984 tons. Thus the total German mercantile tonnage lost since the beginning of the war is 363,930 tons.

: The Admiralty statement points out I that at least a further 18,000 tons of | shipping is estimated to have been sunk ’ I by British submarines. Specific details ' of this have not yet been received. It ' | also believed that a number of German ships have been sunk in Norwegian ports. It is probable, therefore, that the total of the German mercantile losses amounts to over 400,000 tons or 10 per cent, of Germany’s total pre-war tonnage. At present there are no definite reports of any British or French ships having been lost in the German invasion of Norway. Up to April 19 no fewer than 16,751 I British, Allied and neutral vessels had been escorted in British convoys with a loss of 29 ships, a ratio of one in 577. There have been no losses in convoy during the week, in which 711 British, I 51 Allied and 228 neutral ships were convoyed. Members of the crew of the AberI deen trawler Delila, which returned to | | Aberdeen on Tuesday, have told how a week ago when at sea they saw the I German trawler Friesland approaching. Not knowing whether the German vessel was armed or not, the crew of I the Delila manned its machine-gun, (went up to the Friesland and ordered her to proceed to a British port with them. The next minute, however, they saw the White Ensign being run I up with the Swastika flag below. Their I own effort had been anticipated, for the Friesland had already been captured and was being taken to a British port by a prize crew. The narrow escape of the British l vessel Nyanza (4974 tons) from being trapped at Narvik shortly after the Germans had taken possession of the port was revealed when the Nyanza reached a north-east coast port on Tuesday. I The Nyanza dropped an anchor in Narvik harbour a few hours after the | port fell into German hands, but the I crew was unaware of the fact until it | received a message from another Brit- | ish vessel, the North Devon (3658 tons), which passed the Nyanza making for the open sea at full speed. The Nyanza immediately followed at full speed herself, while German aeroplanes circled overhead, but dropped no bombs.

BRITISH SEAMEN’S SUFFERINGS STANCLIFFE SUNK BY U-BOAT LONDON, April 16. Shipping losses as the result of enemy action during the week ended April 14 were two Swedish and one British, Greek, Dutch and Norwegian vessels. Mi- R. S. Hudson, Minister of Shipping, stated in the House of Commons that the total number of British merchantmen sunk by enemy submarines up to April 10 was 81. This included miscellaneous vessels mainly under 500 tons.

The horrible sufferings of the crew of the steamer Stancliffe were revealed when a battered ship’s lifeboat was

swept up on the rock-bound Shetland coast. The rescuers found eight men dead lying in the bottom of the boat, an Arab seaman dying, and 15 men in a pitiful state of exhaustion. They had been adrift for nearly four days and could scarcely talk, but they said that a U-boat had torpedoed the Stancliffe on April 12. A second lifeboat containing the remaining 15 members of the crew smashed to pieces immediately it was launched. The occupants are believed to have been drowned. The trawler Sansounet has been lost and 10 members of the crew have been drowned.