OCR Text |
Show TEUTONS DESTROY BRITISH1RSHIPS WHILE SEARCHING FOR THE GERMAN FLEET, BRITONS ENCOUNTER EN-COUNTER SUBMARINES. First Time That Admiral Scheer"s Fleet Has Ventured Into the Open Sea Since Battle Off Jutland Coast. London. Two British light cruisers cruis-ers and a German submarine -were Bunk and another U-boat rammed when the German and British high seas fleets came within a few sea miles of a new clash in the North sea on Saturday. The two cruisers the Nottingham end Falmouth were destroyed by submarine attacks, according to an official of-ficial statement issued by the admiralty ad-miralty Sunday night, while the British Brit-ish naval forces were searching for the German high seas fleet, which, the statement says, "came out, but on learning from their scouts that British forces were in considerable strength, avoided an engagement and returned to port." It was the first time that Admiral Scheer's fleet had ventured into the open sea since the great battle off the Jutland coast on May 3 and June 1 of this year. There have been repeated reports of late that the Germans were planning plan-ning an important naval action in the Baltic, with the view to crippling the Russian fleet as a forerunner to a new drive by Field Marshal von Hinden-burg Hinden-burg against the big Baltic port Riga, This may have been the mission of the German fleet, naval experts believe. be-lieve. Thirty-eight members of the crew of the cruiser Nottingham are missing miss-ing and are believed to have been drowned. All of her officers, as 'well as the whole complement of the Falmouth, Fal-mouth, were saved, though one of her stokers died of injuries. The German admiralty in a brief statement, in which no reference is made to any action in the North sea, announced the destruction by a German Ger-man submarine off the British east coast Saturday of a "small enemy cruiser and a destroyer," adding that enother small cruiser and a battleship battle-ship were damaged by torpedo hits. |