Evening star., 1941-02-26
Three British Ships
Fired by Planes Off
Ireland, Nazis Say
Sinking of le2, 300 Tons
Credited to New Subs
And Novice Crews
By the Associated Press.


BERLIN, Feb. 26.-Authorized
German sources said fighting planes
of the Luftwaffe bombed and set
afire three cargo ships totalng
81 900 tons northwest of Ireland
early today. German flyers reported
they observed the ships sinking.
A Nazi speedboat sank a British
destroyer of the southeast coast Of
England, the German high COM
mand said. It also credited NaI
submarines with destruction Of an
8,000-ton armed merchant ship and
a British patrol boat in the stepped
up offensive against Britain's supply
lines
German warplanes, the daily COM
munique also said, set two large
merchant ships afre in a British
occupied harbor in Libya and scored
bomb hits on port facilities. A Brit
ish plane was reported shot down
over Malta.
Munitions Ship Listed.
Informed sources previously had
identified the port as Tobruk and
said the damaged vessels included
a 10,000-ton British munitions ship
and another merchant vessel Of
equal size.
Port facilities at Hull, Harw1ch
and Great Yarmouth in England
were battered by small combat units
of the German air force last night,
the high command declared. Air
ports in Eastern England and
armaments factories at Ipswich and
Norwich also we're reported attacked.
The Germans acknowledged that
British warplanes had dropped in
cendiary and explosives last night
on Western Germany, but said the
bombs were loosed at random and
damage was "immaterial." One
raider was said to have been shot
down by anti-aircraft batteries.
Sinkings Credited to New Sub.
Virtual submarine novices-young
commanders and crews in brand
new undersea boats, who went into
action for the first time-were cred
tied in information reaching Berlin
today with sinking 1872, 300 tons Of
conveyed shipping from Sunday
noon until Monday evening
(The German high command
reported yesterday the sinking Of
more than a quarter million tons
'in the past few days'-45,000
tons by surface raiders and 208,-
900 tons by submarines. The
German claim was disputed in
London by naval spokesman,
who said nothing extraordinary
had happened in the sea warfare
recentlyD
The feat, part of the action an
nounced proudly by Adolf Hitler
Monday when he also declared the
real submarine campaign would be
under way by March and April, was
accomplished without losses, said
DNB, German official news agency.
Besides the ships sent to the bot
tom, numerous other vessels were
reported damaged by torpedoes in
this action, described here as a big
convoy battle"
The battle was said to have
started last Sunday afternoon. when
submarines patrolling England's At
lantic shipping lanes west and
northwest of the British Isles sighted
a large, protected convoy.
Cooperative Attack.
The account given here was that
the submarines took positions for a
cooperative attack, which was con-
/ tinued under heavy shelling from
/ armed merchant ships accompany
ing the convoy.
Other submarines were attracted
/ to the scene and, when the convoy
| was scattered. the submarines
/ hunted down and sank several more
vessels, this report said.
! At about the same time. the re-
/ port added, another submarine far
ther north sent to the bottom three
steamers from another convoy.
Other undersea raiders were cred
| tied with torpedoing another IS 900
tons of ships trying to reach English
shores singly.
Informed Germans said the crews
assigned to the new submarines had
completed careful training and were