Bombs Sink Scheer

Bombs Sink Scheer

A newspaper cutting telling of the sinking of the Admiral Scheer by Lancasters.

One newspaper cutting

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PJonesWC18020138

Bombs Sink Scheer
The German pocket battleship, Admiral Scheer, sister ship of the Graf Spee, has been sunk by Bomber Command in a night attack on Kiel harbour.
Germany has now only one pocket battleship – the Lutzow.
The attack was made on Monday, and air photographs taken yesterday show that the Admiral Scheer is lying in the inner dockyard basin at Kiel, almost completely upside down.
Reconnaissance had detected the battleship moored in the inner dockyard basin only two days before the attack.
She had been driven to Kiel when Gdynia was first threatened by the Russian Army, and had previously played an important part in the defence and evacuation of German pockets of resistance on the Baltic coast.
The attack was by a strong force of Lancasters in clear weather. Many crews spoke of a violent explosion, which they thought was caused by a hit on either a ship or an ammunition dump.
“The whole target area seemed to be a mass of flames, with the fires starting from two aiming points and merging into one,” said Flight Lieut. Albert Marshall, a pilot of Runcorn, Cheshire.
Big Explosion
“I saw an explosion fling debris many hundreds of feet into the air,” said an air bomber.
Bomber Command has now put out of the war three out of Germany’s seven capital ships.
The Admiral Scheer, built in 1933, had a range of 20,000 miles at 15 knots. She cost about £3,750,000 to build.
The Germans officially described her as a vessel of 10,000 tons, but this figure was probably given to disarm suspicion. It is certain that her displacement was more than 12,000 tons.
The ship’s armament included six 11-inch guns.
[black and white photograph of the Admiral Scheer upside down in Kiel dockyard]
The Admiral Scheer, German pocket battleship, upside down in Kiel dockyard after the RAF attack on Monday night.