Evening star., 1941-05-25

lIle GERMANS SAID.
(The German communion
GA German fighting unit
command of Fleet Admiral IL
naval forces in waters around
Iceland.
The battleShip Bismarck de-
stroyed an English battle cruiser.
apparently the Hood. A further
English battleship was forced to
turn away.
The German force continued
its operations without serious
damage
Empire Shocked.
Greenland. protection of which has
been assumed by the United States,
and Iceland. now under British oc-
cupation. are separated by a $50
mile stretch of water, the Strait of
Denmark.
1t was apparently somewhere near
the mouth of this strait, on the
edge of the Western Hemisphere.
that the battle occurred.
The brief British communique
shocked the empire during celeora-
ton of the 122d anniversary of
Queen Victorias birth. 1t said:
British naval forces intercepted
early this morning off the coast of
Greenland German naval forces, in
cluding the battleship Bismarck.
THE enemy were attacked, and
during the ensuing action H. M. S.
Hood Capt. r. Kerr, wearing the
flag of Vice Admiral L. E. Holland,
received an unlucky hit in a maya
zine and blew up.
The Bismarck has received dam
age and the pursuit of the enemy
continues.
1T is feared there will be few sur
vivors from H. M. S. Hood
That was all.
Speculation Over Tirpitz.
Speculation Immediately arose
whether the Tirpitz, sister ship of
the Bismarck and known to have
been completed about the same
time this year also was in the
Western Atlantic battle.
1t was assumed that probably
both these battleships and other
German vessels-two more battle
ships may have been completed
recently-slipped past the British
blockade along the Norwegian coast
on a raiding mission.
Apparently they went at once to
the Greenland-Ic area, for
German authorities claimed today
their submarines had sunk nine
British ships near Greenland, and
authoritative British quarters limited
yesterday that German raiders were
near American shores.
(The story of the sinking of
the Hood having come true, the
German press and radio leaped
on it with cries of joy, jubilantly
calling it "one of the proudest
in the history of the German
Navy"
Outweighs Crete News.
(The news outweighed the &C
tivities in Crete in the sentiment
of most German commentators,
especially because loss of the
German pocket battleship Ad-
miral Graf Spec in December,
1899. has ranked here ever
since.
CThe Admiral Graf Spec took
refuge in Montevideo, Uruguay,
in December, 1899. after a run
ming fight with three British
cruisers. and later was blown up
at Hitler's order rather than go
out to meet the waiting British.
(The National zeitung of Essen
said the sinking of the Hood
knocked out the last pillar from
the illusory structure of British
hopes for victory"
ut called the Hood the great
est warship of the world, pride of
the English fleet, sWagger piece
of British naval strength and
most powerful bulwark of English
sea prestige"
ct said that "the German fleet
unit remained as victor on the
battlefield and continues its op-
erations in the battle of the At
lantic."
Ut was stressed in Berlin that
this was the first meeting of
heavy naval forces on both sides
which fought through to the end"
German Admiral Guenther
Luetjens was named as COM
mander of the German squadron
In the battle. He led the squad
ron which on March % was cred
tied with sinking % British ships
In one convoy in the North At
lantic At that time his chief
vessels were believed to be the
battleships Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau.)
Loss Tragically Ironic.
The Hoods loss to the British was
tragically ironic in that her compile
ton in 1920 was delayed for the in
stallation of special armor to protect
her vitals as a result of the lessons
learned in the 1916 battle of Jutland
In that battle, at least two British