Brit Units Suffer No Losses, Slight Damage In Second Naval Engagement at Northern Port London, Apr. 14.
EVEN German destroyers, carrying a total complement of some 1,000 men, were sunk by a British destroyer force in Narvik harbour and Rombaks Fjord yesterday in the greatest single encounter of the Scandinavian conflict, an official Admiralty communique announced last night.
Th e British attackers, with H.MS. Warspite, consisted of strong force of destroyers using mine-sweeping and other appliances."
Three of these destroyers suffered slight damage in the encounter.
Losses in men were small, according to latest reports, the Admiralty declared.
Commanding the attacking force was Vice-Admiral William Jock Whitworth, who was commander of the battleship Rodney in 1936 and formerly Captain of the Fleet to the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. When first details of the successful battle were received here, the Admiralty signalled its congratulations to the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, Admiral Sir Charles Forbes, to Vice-Admiral Whitworth and to the officers and men engaged in this "vigorous, daring and skilfully-conducted action, which may well tend to clarify the situation on this part of the Norwegian coast."
'The Admiralty issued a lengthy communique on the baltic, which took, in almost the same' spot as, the Clash Fast Wednesday when four German' destroyers were stink damaged, two British destroyers were others were damaged, yue declared in full:
Since the attack upon German destroyers in Narvik last Wednesday, the Second Destroyer Flotilla with reinforcements has been blockading the enemy in Narvik Fiord. Today, about noon, H.MLS, Warspite, accompanied by a strong force of destroyers using mine-sweeping and other appliances advanced up the Ford 1o attack the German destroyers, some of whom were already damaged and were sheltering in the harbour, and also to engage any shore baticries that might have been erected.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.