THE CHINA MAIL, MAY 31, 1941.
Supremes
"Unbelievable Nightmare"
Hood Sinking
Of H.M.S. Reuter Correspondent Tells Graphic Story Of Naval Battle
(By Reuter's Special Correspondent with the Home. Fleet)
I WATCHED THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS WHICH CUL- MINATED IN THE SINKING OF GERMANY'S NEW 35,000-TON "UNSINKABLE" BATTLESHIP BISMARCK. STANDING ON THE BRIDGE OF ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S SHIPS I SAW HOOD GO DOWN ONLY 200 OR 300 YARDS AWAY, WITH HER GUNS STILL FIRING. SO BEGAN THE GREATEST NAVAL EPIC OF THE WAR.
This engagement between Greenland and Iceland was followed by a running fight lasting three days and four nights, which ended when the pride of the German fleet was sent to the bottom.
The end of "the mighty Hood" was an almost unbelievable nightmare. Shortly after the engagement began shells hit the 21-year-old battle-cruiser, there was a bright sheet of flame and she blew up.
Pieces of metal were thrown hundreds of feet into the air and in a few minutes all that remained was a pall of smoke hanging on the surface and a few small pieces of wreckage.
blotting out
Soon afterwards the battleship bridge, momentarily Prince of Wales was hit by a 15- the view. inch shell but damage was slight.! To port, Hood. 200 or 300 yards "The battle of the gant." was away, surged forward on a par- Fountains of water the climax tu a chase by Houdallel course,
FIRE BROKE
Ai
and Prince of Wales to prevent shot up in her wake. Hood plough- She Bismarck breaking out
into ed on
THEN, SUDDENLY, SHE HAD the Atlanter to attack Convoys
11. A SHELL OR The pursual began off ferland aluf¦ BEEN continued mur after hour in the SHELLS APPEARED TO FALL. eerie half hght of the Arctic night | JUIST AHEAD OF ONE OF HER!
The cruisers Norfolk and Suf-; AFTER 15-INCH TURRETS.
OUT,! folk, which had been shadowing LARGE the Bismarck ever since she left) WITH THICK BLACK SMOKE,
What happened next was a Bergen, kept Hood and Prince of Wales and the other pursuers in-strangling, sickening sight. There | formed from hour to hour of the was a terrific explosion and Bismarck's movements.
whole vast ship was enveloped in Never during that fateful night flash of flame and snuke, hiss- did true darkness fall, A chain ng high in the shape of a giant of blinding show squalls lashed mushroom. the jet-black waters and at times visibility fell to a few yards.
Curtain Lifts
the
Sank In Three Minutes
Sections of the funnels und masts hurtled hundreds of
the on the ship, some into the sea.
THAI MINISTER ARRIVES IN SINGAPORE
Major Vilas Osthanada, Thai Minister of State and Director-General of Publicity, arrived in Singapore yesterday
with the to discuss Straits Government the question of sup- plying oil to Thailand. He is also exchang- ing views "on other matters" with Chief Marshal Robert Brooke-Pop- ham, Commander-in- Chief, Far East, and other Service and Government officers. --Reuter.
Air
Sir
ALIENS' MONEY: MAJOR CHARGED
Stated to be commandant of a feet
James Braybrook, forty-six, des-
Unhurried, minute calculations into the air and then fell, some suggested we should contact
Hood's long, Ane bows tilted Bismarck about 2 in the morning but at the last moment she alter- vertically into the air, and three of four minutes after she was hit all that remained, apart from pieces
wreckage,
flicker was 4
ed course.
of
For another four hours Hood of and Prince of Wales continued on flames and smoke on the surface a course roughly parallel to the of the sea, enemy, most of the time plough- ing our way through a dense cur- tain of snow.
Suddenly the curtain lifted. The last snow squall passed, laying bare a horizon broken by two black specks the Bismarck and her cruiser consort.
For a few long minutes, we ploughed on to shorten range. Then the Germans turned to meet their pursuers.
A destroyer was diverted
Lo
camp for internees, Major Alfred cribed as of the Military Police,
to
FLOWERS FROM THE QUEEN - Her Majesty the Queen has sent a quantity of daffodils for patients at the Royal
Six months old Northern Hospital, London.
Roy Sylvester rald shelter in London is who was born in an Anderson air. now a patient at the hospital and is here seen the Queen's daffodila (Copyright, Fox).
with some of
RED ARMY HOLDS VAST WAR GAMES
IN THE UKRAINE
THOUSANDS OF highly trained Soviet troops took part in vast anti-parachutist-and air raid manoeuvres just carried out in several Ukraine sub-provinces on lines simi- lar to those held in Moscow province recently, while further thousands participated in defence measures against combined air and naval landings.
According to
and
was at Bromley (Kent) remanded on bail charged with stealing two
of a combined naval reports in the the form Italian banknotes, 100-lira
a newspaper "Sovietskaya Ukraina" landing and the descent of air- troops, parachute twenty franc Swiss bank note, a yesterday, a surprise parachute borne
the Zojev district of which, however, was successfully Kruger sovereign, a Turkish gold attack in coin, jewellery and 200 English Kharkov province, scene of the beaten off, " and foreign coins belonging first paratroop demonstration be fore European General Staffs in rescue work and managed to pick the War Department.
cluding the British, some years up three of Hood's. company, two
He was also charged with steal-ago, resulted in seizure of a rall- seamen and a midshipman.
All this time Prince of Wales ing while in the service of the way station, water tower and
gold sovereigns, a other strategic points... continued to pour shells at the King Bismarck. Mord than once typewriter worth £15 and 1,040 worth £10, spurts of water showed she was safety razor blades straddled...
also belonging to the War Depart Again the Bismarck's shells ment crashed near Prince of Wales but no serious damage had been done.
100
It was alleged that the money The world's biggest warships, Prince of Wales never lost her and valuables belonged to the their bow wayes hissing aside iraghting efficiency and her speed challenge, sped to meet each other. was not impaired.
The specks grew rapidly into re-
cognisable, form, and the tension Pursuit Goes On e
of wälting for, battle become acute,
Sickening Sight.
Then the Bismarck turned away but only, to be pursued that day and night and the next day, over THE "OPEN FIRE" ORDER the Atlantic at high speed, WAS GIVEN AND ALMOST. Twice during the night Prince WITHIN A SPLIT SECOND ANfor Wales pumped out, salyges, at ORANGE-GOLD FLAME her, and torpedo-bombers from BELCHED FROM HOOD'S Victorious and Ark Royal carried GREAT FORWARD GUNS... out attackṣi...
Within three seconds thore shot Altogether these attacks were from the Bismarck puffs of black delivered intermittently for three. -smoke. She too had opened, fire. I days and four nights. Then came Then Prince of Wales' guns the final dramatic signal from came into action. Clouds of yel- Dorsetshire that she had torpedoed low cordite smoke enveloped her the Bismarck Reuter,
internees.
In the province of Vinitza, thousands of Bed, Army troops participated in the...,defence of Vinitze against large-scale paration and bombing "at- taoke. Kakbovka, famous battlefield in Similar exercises, are due to Nikolaev province, where in 1920 take place in other regions of the Bolshevik forces held up the Kharkov, province shortly, and a advance of General Wrangel, the full-scale black-out test has been White Russian commander: inordered in Tiffis, capital of Stalin's chief, was again the scene of native province of Georgia. military activity, this time taking Reuter.
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