MERCHANT CRUISER SUNK

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21676, 10 June 1940, Page 5

MERCHANT CRUISER SUNK

Was Former Cunard Liner Little Loss Of Life . United Press Association—By Electric Telegr a ph —Cop jrigb t (Received June 9, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 8. A U-boat torpedoed and sunk his Majesty’s armed merchant cruiser Carinthia. Two officers and two ratings were killed. The remainder were saved. The Carinthia, a Cunard White Star liner, of 20,277 tons, is the second British armed merchant cruiser to be lost during the war. The other was the Rawalpindi, which w’ent down last December with colours flying and guns blazing in a one-sided battle with the pocket battleship Deutschland. The German High Command announced that a U-boat sank an enemy auxiliary cruiser of 4000 tons northwest of Ireland. More than 200 members of the crew of the Carinthia were landed from a warship in Britain. Another warship is bringing 100. The Carinthia was afloat for some time after the warships went alongside. They took off the crew and towed the Carinthia which sank before reaching port (apparently the Carinthia is the ship referred to by the German High Command as having been sunk by a U-boat northwest of Ireland). Naval Expansion The Admiralty states that during the next few months the Royal Navy will receive a further large increase in strength comprising every category of warships from battleships to motor-torpedo-boats. also a very large number of auxiliary aircraft. The balance of naval strength in favour of the Allies now is far greater than at the outbreak of the war. All British losses have been and will be announced without delay. The losses to date are one capital ship, one aircraft carrier, two cruisers, 20 destroyers, eight submarines and six of the minesweeping sloop and patrol vessel types. The navy has been strengthened by more than 50 armed mechant 1 cruisers of which one has been lost (the communique presumably was Issued before the loss of the Carnithia was announced) and by more than 1500 minor auxiliary craft of which 58 have been lost. The French Navy, already very powerful, is rapidly growing. The Allied fleets have been reinforced by the active co-operation of Polish. Norwegian and Dutch naval forces. Acceleration work in naval shipyards is progressively increasing. Nearly a 1,000,000 tons of warships are building in British shipyards. The strength at the outbreak of the war was 15 capital ships, seven air-craft-carriers, 62 cruisers, 185 destroyers, 58 submarines and 108 minesweepers, sloops, patrol vessels and gunboats. Balance of Power The contrast between the German naval weakness and the Allies great and growing strength has apparently alarmed the German High Command as shown by its efforts to convince neutral opinion that German air power has achieved a spectacular ascendancy over British naval power. Nine months of war experience enables a balance to be struck. Concentrated air power in close proximity to its own aerodromes can inflict losses on less strongly armoured naval units. However it has signally failed to annul the decisive advantages conferred by sea power. A recent striking example was the successful withdrawal of the Allied armies from Flanders.