Evening star., 1941-02-25
Troop Transport Sunk,
Another Set Afire by
Planes, Nazis Claim
Smashing SEQ Offensive
Is Reported by High
Command in Berlin
BY the Associated Press.

bN lHe ASSoCldltu FIcoo'
BERLIN, Feb. 25.-Nazi warplanes
were reported today by DNB Official
German news agency to have sunk
one troop transport of 5000 1000
tons and set another 15,000-ton
transport afire in an attack on a
British convoy i'll the Mediter-
ranean.
The attack was made Sunday
evening off the North African coast,
the news agency said, but the results
just were reported to authorities
here.
The larger transport was said to
have been damaged heavily.
Smashing Sea Offensive.
A smashing German sea offensive,
in which more than 250,000 tons of
shipping have been sunk by Nazi
naval forces alone in the past few
days" was reported by the high
command today
Telling of conveys scattered in the
Atlantic and of blows overseas, the
communique gave this tally for Ger
many's surface and undersea raid
erS:
125,000 tons-including a protect
ing auxiliary cruiser"-sunk by sub
marines in numerous stiff attacks"
on strongly protected convoy"
$4,000 tons, including large tank
er, sunk by other submarines stimuli
taneously operating successfully in
the Atlantic" some of them from
conveys.
$4,000 tons sunk by surface war
ships.
10000 tons by "one warship op-
Grating overseas"
Thus, the high command said,
apart from air blows struck against
Britain's vital ocean supply lines,
the navy diminished enemy mer-
chant shipping space by over one
quarter of million tons in the past
few days y
Raises Hitler's Total.
Its figure raised the 215.000-ton
total cited by Adolf Hitler yesterday
when he proclaimed that our strug-
gle at sea only now can begin" and
that Nazi naval power would reach
full swing in the next two months.
Authorized Germans, replying to
British denialS of Hitler's statement,
declared that 'at the proper time" +"
the names and tonnage of the indi-
vidual ships would be disclosed.
"a naval spokesman in London
declared that nothing eXtraordi-
nary" has happened recently. In
its latest tabulation, the British
Admiralty reported 1885 tons of
shipping were sunk in the week
ended February 16 This figure,
for II sunken British and allied
merchantmen, was slightly below
the January average of 37,9l6
tonSD
In the more than 100000 tons
credited to submarines alone, au-
thorized Germans said were several
large ocean ships in a convoy Co
operatively attacked by U-boats"
Lit. Comdr. Lehmann- Willenbrock
participated outstandingly in the
great success of our submarines with
a total of $500 tons" the COM
munique noted. LIT. Comdr. Leh-
mann Willenbrock thus, within a
short time, has destroyed 125, $50
tons of enemy merchant shipping
space"
British Drop Bombs.
DNB said British planes dropped
several bombs at two places in the
Nazi-occupied French port of Brest
last night, injuring four persons and
slightly damaging shack
One of the raiders was reported
downed by anti-aircraft fire.
AirportS at Mildenhall, WattiSham
and Honington and several other
fields in Southeast England were
listed among targets bombed by
individual German planes last night.
Hangers and shelters were re-
ported fired at Mildenhall in three
separate attacks.
Several fires were started by Nazi
raiders among docks at Harwich,
and objectives in London and sew
eral other English east coast cities
also were attacked, the Germans
said. Two barrage balloons were re-
ported shot down.
A Nazi combat plane was said to
have damaged 2000-ton merchant
vessel with a bomb hit off Hais-
hor0IIoh