EXAMPLE OF GERMAN BRUTALITY

Southland Times, Issue 24353, 6 February 1941, Page 6

EXAMPLE OF GERMAN BRUTALITY

MOVING PICTURES TAKEN FROM. SUBMARINE

Moving pictures of the sinking of a British vessel and members of its crew struggling in rough and bitterly cold water were taken from the German submarine which attacked the vessel. This statement is included in a letter written by an engineer on the British vessel to his mother, who lives at Islington, states The Press. “I was on watch at twenty past one,” writes the engineer, “when a torpedo struck the engine room, blowing away the starboard engine and generators. I was blown down flat, and by the time I scrambled to my leet the water was six inches deep. The glasses and tubes burst, filling the place with steam. I escaped through the fiddley with the two firemen. When I reached the deck, I found she was sinking by the stern. She sank in 15 minutes. Thirty were killed; many were crushed to death between the sides of the ship. "There was a very’ heavy sea running, and a freezing wind blowing. Many were left in the water, and the look on their faces was terrible. It was so rough that we could not help them.

“I cannot tell you all—but the submarine rose—took moving pictures of us. She came and was starting to ram the boats when a tanker attacked her by shellfire and depth charges. Two submarines were sunk, one by the tanker and one by a destroyer.” “Perhaps this extract will let us realize the mercy shown by the Huns to peaceful sailors,” writes the engineer’s mother to The Press.