HUGE HOLES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 5, 6 January 1940, Page 11

HUGE HOLES

THROUGH GRAF SPEE MEN IN TERRIBLE SHAPE “LOOKED AS IF HIT BY THE VENGEANCE OF GOD” LONDON, Dec. 15. Russell Lewis, a Montevideo photographer, was allowed on board the Graf Spee. When he returned he told an English reporter: “It beats me how the ship’s holding together. She looks as if she’s been hit by the vengeance of God. “Her turret is smashed into a mass of twisted steel, and there are two huge shell holes right through the heart of the ship from one side to the other. “The British gunnery must have been terrific. Her thick armoured plates are buckled and twisted until they look like a jigsaw puzzle. “As I walked along the deck I had to step among a mass of wreckage which was once an aeroplane, but which a British shell had made into junk. “The sailors I saw looked in terrible shape. Most are bandaged. Many lay on deck on stretchers waiting to be taken off to hospital. “The officers’ mess just doesn’t exist any more, and —oh, I forgot to tell you—there’s a hug hole in the bridge and the thing looks as if it were hanging on a thread. “I guess the Graf Spee’s days are over for good. The British did everything but blow her out of the water.” One of the holes in the warship’s side was sft. from the waterline, and an internal explosion appears to have taken place. It is reported that there was a third hole in the stern below the water line. There were holes on each side of the control tower, halfway up, indicating that a shell probably passed through without exploding. The damaged aeroplane had its engine and wings shot away.