MAZE OF NAZI PROPAGANDA

Southland Times, Issue 24113, 30 April 1940, Page 5

MAZE OF NAZI PROPAGANDA

British Cruisers 1 Adventures

ATTENTION GIVEN TO REPULSE

(British Official Wireless) (Received April 29, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, April 28.

Following the adventures of three British battle cruisers through the maze of German propaganda is a bewildering task. The Repulse first received the attention of the German Minister of Propaganda (Dr Josef Goebbels) last October when he claimed that she had been “torpedoed and almost certainly sunk” at Scapa Flow at the same time as the Royal Oak was sunk. In February, however, the Repulse steamed into a British port to give the crew leave afte' weathering the winter gales. Dr Goebbels then stated that the Repulse had “come in for repairs” and had a large hole below the waterline. Thinking, perhaps, that he had paid too great a tribute to British seamanship and ship building, which had enabled a seriously damaged ship with a large hole below the waterline to keep the seas through the winter months, Dr Goebbels decided to drop this subject.

About a month later —March 16— came a Nazi raid on Scapa Flow. No ship was sunk and no capital ship was damaged, so the German propaganda was forced to manufacture some sort of success. Consequently the Deutschlandsender announced on March 17 that three British battleships and one cruiser had been seriously damaged and next morning Zeesen informed America that the Hood, the Renown and tlie Repulse were the ships concerned.

Dr Goebbels had paid another tribute to British craftsmanship. According to his own story an “enormous hole below the water-line” in the Repulse had been successfully repaired in a month and the ship was back in Scapa Flow, ready to receive the attention of the German bombers, which not only damaged her again, but the Hood and Renown as well, thus putting out of action all three battle cruisers. BATTLE WITH SCHARNHORST Unfortunately for Di - Goebbels, the Scharnhorst encountered the British battle cruiser 24 days later and felt the weight of her guns. The Germans again claimed to have damaged the Renown and for once with justification. As announced by the Admiralty, she received unimportant damage in the action with the Scharnhorst. A few days later —April 27—Hamburg told English listeners that “off Adalesnes a British battle cruiser received several hits of various calibres and was put out of action." This was a little too much, even for Dr Goebbels, and an hour later Bremen rectified the error and announced that it was a “British anti-aircraft cruiser” which had been hit. Creating an entirely

new type of warship and sinking it at the same moment is but a minor achievement to the German Propaganda Minister. Meanwhile the Hood, Renown and Repulse are available for other purposes than to be sunk by him.