'How I sunk the Ark Royal'.

[Hobilar]

On the 26th of September 1939, four Ju88A-1s belonging to Kampfgeschwader 30 (1), KG30, normally based at Jever near Wilhelmshaven were transferred to Sylt in the North Frisian Islands to carry out attacks on British warships in the Firth of Forth.

This enterprise met with a singular lack of success, although one bomb, that failed to explode, did glance off HMS Hood. The British Press at the time reported only the bombing of a small Scotish Village. Some reports published during, or slightly after the war, state the attacking bombers as having been Heinkel IIIs, but this I think is an error, based on misidentification.

The German Ministry of Propagana also made much use of these early raids by the Ju88s of KG30. They issued a special bulletin that the Ark Royal had been sunk, and morning newspapers repeated the statement in enormous red headlines. The Volkischer Beobochter covered his entire front page with an 'Artist's impression' of the Ark Royal sinking, whilst the weekly Der Flugzengtrager went one better with full colour pictures of the end of the Ark. Naturally the crew of the Ark Royal were highly amused at Lord Haw Haw's regular Broadcasts almost every night asking "Where is the Ark Royal?"

Every German newspaper displayed photographs of the not very-intelligent features of Leutnant Adolf Francke, who was now promoted OberLeutnant, decorated with the Iron Cross First and Second Class, and sent a telegram of congratulations from Field Marshal Goering himself. OberLeutnant Francke was then commissioned to write an illustrated booklet for children entitled 'How I sunk the Ark Royal'.