DRAMATIC WAR EVENT

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1931, Page 8

DRAMATIC WAR EVENT

DISGUISED ENEMY CRUISER. ILL-STARRED EXPEDITION. One of the most dramatic incidents of the early days of the war, when a German attempt to smuggle arms into Ireland for a revolution was frustrated, has been recalled by Captain Karl Spindler, formerly .of the German Navy. Captain Spindler, who commanded, the camouflaged cruiser concerned m the ill-starred expedition, gave details in an interview of the arrangements with Sir Ro"er Casement, the Irish revolutionary leader, who was executed in London, for the landing of arms. “The German general stall, Captain Spindler stated, expected that if an Irish revolution was started, England would have to withdraw her troops on the western front to suppress it, and the German drive would then succeed. 1 talked with Casement in Germany in March, 1916, about the details of the expedition. It was arranged that the landing should take place between April 20 and April 23. “Incidentally, Casement told me he knew he was to be executed by the British Government if he was caught because he knew too much. The German Embassy in Washington had been raided on April 15, and I learned that documents seized there revealed our smuggling plan and were forwarded to the British.” Captain Spindler spoke ot a certain death” call for volunteers to make the attempt. He was chosen to command the German auxiliary cruiser Libau, camouflaged to look like a Norwegian cargo carrier. The vessel carried SO,OOO rifles, 10 machine-guns, and ammunition. It set out from Lubeck, in the Baltic, on April 9, 1916.

“We were unarmed and carried no wireless,” Captain Spindler related. “We passed through the British blockade fleet in the North Atlantic and arrived in Tralee Bay, on the west coast of Ireland, on April 20. We waited 22 hours and no word came from the Irish revolutionists. Then a British cruiser came up and we skipped. The British admiral at Fastnet sent out 29 vessels after us. We were caught. "At the entrance of Queenstown Har-

hour I told my men that the hour had come. We put on our German uniforms and hoisted two German ensigns to the masts. I had placed in the forecast!? huge charges of dynamite, embedded in cement. \Vo touched it off and half the ship blew up. I ordered the men to the boats and threw hand-bombs into the hold to finish the job. Captain Spindler and. his crew were, taken aboard the British cruiser Bluebell.