Evening star., 1940-07-24
Five Are Credited
To Aircraft, Two
To Submarine
BY the Associated Press,

6EftL1N, July Z4.-NaN air 0nC
sea raiders. tightening their drive
for the battle Of Britain. destroyed
seven merchant ships totaline
81 900 tons In the last 48 hours, the
German high command said today
They also sank a British subma.
rine, two patrol boats and a mine
sweeper, according to the high COM
+, mand.
Five OF the merchant ships, total.
ing 1900 tons, were sunk by Ger.
man planes this morning In an at.
tack on an armed British convoy
communique said. A sixth com.
mercial ship Of 1000 tons, last ir
the convoy. was set afire, the high
command declared.
Two Of the merchant ships, total
ing $4,000 tons, were picked out OF
an armed British convoy by SUBJ
marine yesterday, an earlier COM
munique said. The other British
losses yesterday were inflicted by
bombers.
The high command also declared
that Nazi bombers had wrought ex-
tensive damage in Southern Eng
land yesterday. hitting several rail
lines and roads, as well as reserve
barracks.
Claim Planes Destroyed.
The communique claimed the de-
struction of three British planes
during r. A. F. raids over Northern
and Western Germany last night
The raiders did little damage, the
high command declared.
DNB, official German news
agency, celebrating on the COM
munique, said the British submarine
was attacked in the North Sea east
of Aberdeen, Scotland, by q plane
which dived to within $50 feet of
the water before dropping three
bombs.
One hit the submarine abaft its
coming tower, DNB said, and few
minutes later the boat nosed down
leaving a widening smear of oil on
the water.
One German plane was lost in
yesterdays raiding activities, the
high command said, noting that ad-
verse weather conditions limited
flights.
Aim Is Peace in Southeast.
Meanwhile as Germany got ready
for the decisive assault on the Brit
ish isles, her diplomats undertook
a program Of constructive diplo-
macy" to insure peace in the SOUTH
east.
Casting aside all reserve, German
commentators asserted Britain had
signed her death warrant by re-
jecting Hitler's peace overtures and
loosed flood Of caustic criticism
Of English political leadership.
British Foreign Secretary Lord
Fairfax, who voiced his country s
determination to fight on, was char
acterized as a funeral orator" by
Hitler's newspaper, Voelkischer Beo-
bachter, in an article topped by q
red bannerline proclaiming: Eng
land chooses war!"
England arrogant though fall
ing" said a headline in the Boersen
zeitung. while the Allegemeine Zei-
tung declared that "All Europe dis
counts England's chances"
Few Weeks of Good Weather.
When the long expected offensive
against Britain will start and what
form it will take remained Hitler
secret, but it was pointed out only
a few more weeks of good summer
flying weather remain and the blow
is not likely to be long delayed.
While the west resolved itself in
the German view into "a military
situation in which weapons alone
can speak," Nazi statesmen stepped
up their efforts to protect the
Reich's interests in the Balkans.
An announcement that Rumanian
and Bulgarian statesmen had been
invited to confer with Foreign Min
ister Joachim Won Ribbentrop later
in the week was taken as an indi-
cation Germany might have sug-
(See BERLIN, Page A-30