AT SEA: Deutschland at Large

Last week came explanation of a mystery which had puzzled the U. S. Maritime Commission and the U. S. State Department: where was the Commission’s freighter City of Flint, which cleared New York City for Manchester on Oct. 3, and never arrived? One of her passengers, James G. McConnochie, popped up in Bergen, Norway, to explain that on Oct. 9, at about mid-Atlantic, City of Flint was overhauled by the German pocket battleship Deutschland, which put aboard her 38 survivors of the British freighter Stone-gate, torpedoed earlier by Deutschland. Finding that Flint carried oil in large quantities, the German boarding officers asked Deutschland’s commander what to do. He kindly decided not to sink her, but to put aboard a prize crew, send her to Germany.

Deutschland vanished and the prize crew, armed with pistols and daggers, sailed Flint northeast, through icebergs and bitter cold. They made a Danish flag, painted out the U. S. flags on the ship’s side, altered her funnel, changed her name to Alf. They got jittery watching for British warships, put a time bomb in the engine room to blow up their prize rather than surrender her. After eleven days they arrived, not in Germany, but at Tromsö, Norway, flying a German flag. Authorities here saw through Flint’s disguise, let the prize crew take fresh water and debark their British prisoners (with whom Mr. McConnochie escaped), but insisted that the U. S. flags be repainted before the ship cleared for Murmansk, Russia.

The fate of City of Flint caused an angry stir in the U. S. State Department (see p. 16). From a naval viewpoint it was much bigger news that the 10,000-ton Deutschland—perhaps also her sisters Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee—was at large as a raider. Prime Minister Chamberlain took official cognizance of Deutschland in his weekly report to the House of Commons. She was known to have operated off Newfoundland between Oct. 5 and Oct. 15, halting two Norwegian vessels and sinking one of them, in addition to Stonegate. Admiral Scheer was believed operating in the South Atlantic. To British shipping this news was as serious as the discovery of sharks on a bathing beach.

These ships combine speed, range, armor and gun power which would make it unwise for Britain to send out anything less than a Hood, Repulse or Renown, battle cruisers which could shoot Deutschland to bits with 15-inch guns at 25,000 yards, without fear of the German’s eleven-inch reply. Britain’s next best bet would be heavy cruisers of the “London” class, but Deutschland could penetrate a “London’s” armor at 15,000 yards, whereas “London” would have to get within 8,000 yards to use her eight-inchers effectively.

The British ships could catch Deutschland on a short run (31-33 knots against 26 knots) but not in a chase the length of the Atlantic, where the Germans’ fuel endurance at economical speeds would be superior and the British would have to stop and tank up. Only two other Allied ships which could take on the German raiders are the French Dunkerque and Strasbourg (30 knots), based at Brest.

The pocket battleships may play havoc with the Allied convoy system which has kept U-boats under control. Submarines must beware the gunfire of convoying destroyers, must lurk afar and hope to catch ships straying from the fold. The same convoys would be perfect setups for Deutschland and her sisters, convenient targets unless defended much more heavily than hitherto.

Also of naval importance was whether the Germans would succeed in taking City of Flint under convoy (probably submarines) from Murmansk to Hamburg through the British blockade. Week-end reports had her hugging the Norwegian coast, approaching the German mine fields in the North Sea, which were doubly dangerous because storms had set many a live mine adrift.