Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-10-21
Lives Are Disregarded
and No Warning Given
as Germans Shell Ships

| By the Associated Press.
LONDON, October 2o.-Two German
| raiders attacked a convoy in the North
sea on Wednesday and sank two Of the
British escorting destroyers. it was an
nounced officially today by the British
war Office.
| Three merchant vessels escaped In the
action. but five Norwegian, one Danish
and three Swedish vessels were sunk
without warning.
The British torpedo destroyers sunk
| were the Mary Rose and the Strong.
bow.
| All the officers and men of the Mary
| Rose and the Strongbow were lost;
armed. showed anxiety to escape be-
fore they could be intercepted by Brit
| ish forces, and made no attempt to res.
cue the crews OF the sunken de-
stroyers.
! Thirty Norwegians were rescued by
British patrol craft.
The admiralty statement giving the
details of the North sea incident. reads:
Two very fast and heavily armed.
German raiders attacked convoy in
the North sea about midway between
the Shetland Islands and the Nor
wegian coast on Wednesday. Two
Mary Rose, Lieut.. Commander Charles
Fox, and Strongbow. Lieut. Commander
Edward Brooke, which formed the anti
submarine
enemy vessels and fought until they
were sunk after a short and unequal
Their gallant action held the Ger
man raiders sufficiently long TO enaoie
| three merchant vessels to effect their
escape.
Lives Are Disregarded.
at is to be regretted. however. that
five Norwegian, one Danish and three
iC,
thereafter sunk by gunfire. without ex-
animation or warning of any kind and
regardless of the lives of their crews
and passengers. Lengthy comment
essary, but adds another example to the
long list of criminally inhuman deeds
of the German navy.
Anxious to make good their escape
before the British forces could inter.
cept them, no effort was made to res
cue the crews of the sunken British
destroyers, and the Germans left the
doomed merchant ships while these
British patrol craft. which arrived
shortly afterward. to rescue some thirty
Norwegians and others, regarding
whom the details are not yet known.
The German navy by this act once moro
and further degraded itself by this dis
regard of the historic chivalry of the
sea.
The German official communioue on
this subject states tnal tne attack LOOK
place within territorial waters in the
neighborhood of the Shetland Islands,
and that all the escort vessels. includ-
ing the destroyers, were sunk. with
the exception of one escort fishing
steamer. The statement as to the To-
cality of the attack is untrue. as ~
also the statement regarding the de-
struction Of the escort vessels.
'"The enemy raiders succeeded In
evading the British watching squad.
rons on long dark nights. both on their
outward dash and their homeward
flight.
.It is.regretted that all of the eighty.
eight officers and men Of n. NJ. s. Mary
Rose and forty-seven officers and men
of H. NJ. S. Strongbow were lost"
German Versions Of Sinkings.
BERLIN. October 20. via London-A
convoy Of thirteen vessels bound fron
Norway to England was attacked By
German light naval forces wednesday
with the result that all the ships oe
the convoy and the protecting vessels,
including two British destroyers. wsce
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