Fire From East Bloc Ship Strikes W. German Vessel

A West German naval vessel was hit Monday by gunfire from a Warsaw Pact warship, the Defense Ministry here reported. Three men on the West German ship were reportedly injured, but none critically.

Ulrich Hundt, a Defense Ministry spokesman, described the incident as an accident. It occurred while the West German vessel, the tender Neckar, was observing Warsaw Pact naval exercises in the Baltic Sea off the Polish and Soviet coasts.

Friedhelm Ost, a spokesman for the Bonn government, said the incident is being regarded with “great composure” by officials here. He would not say whether West Germany will file a protest.

‘Human or Technical Error’

Hundt said: “We definitely think it was an accident. This is the first incident of this kind. We believe it was caused by either human or technical error.”

The Neckar, a 2,370-ton vessel with a crew of 98, serves as a tender for the 7th Fast Boat Squadron, based at Kiel. It was observing maneuvers by a group of Tarantul-class anti-missile corvettes, one East German and two Polish, in international waters about 25 miles off the coast north of the Bay of Gdansk.

The East Bloc ships were apparently firing machine guns at a pilotless drone launched from shore, simulating defense against a missile attack. Five rounds hit the Neckar, a Defense Ministry source said, two of them piercing the hull below the waterline near the stern. One round hit a gun mount on the after deck and caused a small fire.

Due in Port

According to the Defense Ministry spokesman, the crew extinguished the fire and headed back toward Kiel, where it is expected to arrive this morning. The three injured crewmen, all with injuries caused by metal splinters, were taken by helicopter to the naval hospital at Kiel.

The Defense Ministry said it believes that the gunfire that hit the Neckar came from one of the Polish corvettes. The corvettes are surface action ships larger than sloops and smaller than frigates.

As of late Monday, no Warsaw Pact country had contacted Bonn to take responsibility, the Defense Ministry said.

Another Defense Ministry spokesman, Peter Monte, said small shells from “what apparently was a Gatling gun” were fired at the German ship. They were 46 millimeter or smaller, he said, similar to those used by the Warsaw Pact to shoot at missiles during training exercises.

“Maybe someone was aiming wrong,” Monte said.

The Neckar had Warsaw Pact permission to watch the maneuvers, and visibility was at least nine miles when the ship was hit from a distance of from just over a mile to just under two miles.

Asked if it may have been hit because it moved too close, Monte said, “Not really, because when ships are too close you are supposed to stop firing anyway. This is standard procedure.”