HOW ODESSA WAS SURPRISED

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2359, 15 January 1915, Page 6

HOW ODESSA WAS SURPRISED

— 6 AN ENGLISHMAN'S.NARRATIVE. 1 A. British resident in Odessa forwards an interesting account of the bombardment of that port by'the Turkish Fleet on October 31 The writer says: "Oa the _previoua evening I was out at dinner. The Con-sul-General was also there, and, of course, we talked a little besides the war and pooh-poohed our hostess's uneasiness at Odessa being marked as officially within the. war zone. We discussed the probability of 'a bombardment in the event of Turkey declaring war, and laughed at Mme. 's complacent information that they had thirteen sucking pigs coming on nicely at their house in the country, so if thero was any idea of an attack on Odessa sho could leave town at a few hours' notice and not,feel she_ was running away headlong to starvation. ■ "As I -walked home the tramway-cars were still running and the streets blazing' with arc lamps, but the sky was black as ink. I walked the whole way home, oppressed with that curious sense of impending catastrophe which I feel before something horrible is about to-happen. I got home at 11.15 and went straight to bed. I had no idea how long I had been asleep when I was suddenly awakened by the thundering roar of cannon. "I remembered the Governor had issued a notice that the people were not to be frightened at the sound of heavy firing, as the Black' Sea Fleet were going at times to carry out gun practice, so I concluded it was a night manoeuvre and rolled over to try and' go to sleep. A few minutes later it began again—a crash of heavy firing and the whole sky lit up with flashlights—the roar of moro cannon in the distance, punctuated with the thunder of guns in the near harbour. « "I put .on my slippers, looked at .my watch, found it was 3.35, and went to lcok out. The sky was a mass of swirling lights. 'Five shells shrieked past overhead and the guns shook tho houses. For nearly an hour the bombardment. went on. The Turkish ships with German crews had boldly come right inside the harbour with the Russian flag flying and searchlights going. F,veryone thought it was ono or two of the Russian ships, as they intended it should be thought. Once inside the.v torpedoed the' gunboat here and opened a heavy fire' on .her at a few yards' range. "The port authorities showed great presence of. mind, and promptly put out all the port lights and arc lamps. The Germans made a great attempt to burn the three enormous petroleum reservoirs in the Pericep. One shell hit a reservoir but failed to explode. ■ "Next io the boats sunk was a transport with forty tons of dynamite on board. If that had been hit I do not suppose many of us would be here now; certainly tho port, of Odessa would have gone! When the firing ceased I went back to bed and to sleep. Yesterday morning dozens of little boats wero rowing about the harbour taking crowds of people out tot 2}d. a head to look down at tho sunken gunboat entombing so many sailors." A gruesome coincidence is recorded in tho meeting of a German soldier who re a member of tho Salvation Army anil a British soldier who also belongs to the Salvation Army. The Germans were charging the British trenches with the bayonet, and the German Salvationist, as ho drove his bayonet into the British Salvationist, found that ho had killed tlfo man at whose house he had been a guest for some weeks during tho International Congress of tho Salvation I\rmy which ins held in London in May last. 'Among-the. batch of wounded British soldiers sent to a military hospital at Cardiff arc two brothers who, previous to being placed in adjoining beds,'had not seen one another for sixteen years. Ono is Martin Gafl'oy, of the 2ml"Loinstvin Regiment, and the other John Oail'e.v, oi' the Ist .Connaught Hangers. Martin \h' wounded' in tho right °unti and John hi tho loft am,