Evening star., 1939-10-17
Iron Crosses Given
Men in Sub That Sank
Warship, Hit Cruiser
Nuzis Claim to Have
Photographs Of Damage
Done at Firth of Forth
LOUIS P.LOCHNER.

Associated Press Foreign Correspondent.
BERLIN, Oct. 17.-Comdr. Prien
and the crew of his submarine which
sank the British battleship Royal
Oak Saturday and claimed to have
torpedoed the battle cruiser Repulse
were awarded Iron Crosses today
for their exploits.
1t was announced that they had
arrived today at an unnamed harbor
and that Grand Admiral Erich
Raeder hurried there to etxend the
Reich's congratulations.
Adolf Hitler also elevated Commo-
dore Doeniz, commander of the
German submarine fleet, to the rank
of rear admiral.
Officials said a second attack on
British warships in Scapa Flow had
been made today at 1890 am. H:30
am. E. S. T), this time by planes
An official announcement was ex-
pected later.
(The British government an
nounced that four German planes
raided Scapa Flow today and
damaged the training ship Iron
Duke)
Britain's first lord of the ad-
miralty, authorized sources said,
would lin such form as the German
supreme high command thinks de-
sirable" be acquainted with photo
graphs of bombing activity in the
Firth of Forth taken yesterday by
German flyers.
These sources tauntingly asked
whether the first lord, Winston
Churchill, would dare deny the ex-
tent of the damage inflicted in the
light of the documentary proof said
to be in German possession.
Report French Driven Back.
The assertion that such photo
graphs existed came shortly after
the supreme command announced
that French troops had retired from
the main part of German territory
they had occupied outside the Sieg-
fried Line since the first weeks of
the war.
This western front development
was not regarded here as important
news, however, German sources
have emphasized consistently that
the French merely entered two or
three little fingers" of German ter
ritory; in other words, little strips
only y to 11z miles deep.
These fingers" were regarded as
no-man's land and their evacuation
by the French caused satisfaction
but no particular jubilation.
DNB Official German news
agency quoted Comdr. Prien as
saying he succeeded in entering the
Bay of Scapa Flow, off the north
coast of Scotland, where the RoyaI
Oak and Repulse were lying at
anchor.
The submarine succeeded in hit
ting both, DNB said, and managed
to escape despite mines and anti
submarine nets.
(The British admiralty has &C
knowledged the sinking of the
Royal Oak, but has denied the
Repulse was struck
Five Allied Planes Claimed.
The supreme high command stuck
to its version that two British war
ships in the Firth of Forth were hit
by heaviest caliber bombs. Official.
ridiculed British versions that spin.
ters were the sole result of German
bombing activity.
A further cause for jubilation wa.
given by the high commands an.
nouncement of shooting down three
French and two British reconnoiter-
Ing planes along the western from
yesterday and by the statement thai
seven steamers totaling H,396 gros.
tons were sunk within three days ir
the North and Baltic Seas.
Commenting on the German air
raid on the British naval base in the
Firth of Forth yesterday, the COM
munique added that English naval
forces were successfully attacked
again" and that two warships had
sustained bomb hits of the heaviest
caliber."
This success was obtained despite
the heaviest defense Of the enemy
(see BERLIN, Page A-5)