BRITISH WARSHIPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 April 1940, Page 5

BRITISH WARSHIPS

OFFEN PUT OUT OF ACTION BY DR. GOEBBELS

BUT STILL DOING GOOD SERVICE. MAZE OF CONTRADICTORY LIES. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. April 28. Following the adventures of the three British battle-cruisers, Hood. Renown and Repulse, through the maze of German propaganda is a bewildering task. The Repulse first received Dr Goebbels’s attention last October, when he claimed that she had been "torpedoed and almost certainly sunk" at Scapa Flow at the same time that the Royal Oak was sunk. In February, however, the Repulse steamed into a British port to give the crew leave after 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 shipbuilding which had enable 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, on March 16. cafe a Nazi raid on Scapa Flow. There was no ship sunk and no capital ship damaged, so the German propaganda was forced to manufacture some sort of success.

Consequently, the radio station Deutschlandsender announced on March 17 that three British battleships and one cruiser had been seriously damaged, and on the next morning the Zeesen radio informed America that the Hood. Renown and Repulse were the ships concerned. Dr. Goebbels had paid another tribute to British craftsmanship. According to his own story. _ an, “enormous hole below the waterline’ 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. Unfortunately for Dr. Goebbels, the German battle-cruiser Scharnhorst encountered a 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 her action with the Scharnhorst. Yesterday the Hamburg radio told English listeners: "off Andalsnes (Norway), 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 radio rectified the error and announced that it was a “British anti-aircraft cruiser” which had been hit. Creating an entirely new type of warships and sinking it at the same moment is but a minor achievement to the German Propaganda Minister. Meanwhile, the Hood. Renown and Repulse arc available for other purposes than to be sunk by him. TIME NO OBJECT FALSE CLAIM BY U-BOAT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. April 28. Last Wednesday the Deutschlandsender broadcast to Germany a story of the sinking of the British steamer Armanistan by a U-boat during a cruise from which she had "just returned." The Armanistan was sunk on February 3, and her crew were rescued by the Spanish ship Monte d’Abril. The loss of the Armanistan was announced by the Admiralty on February 6.