NIGHT FIGHTING AT SEA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3064, 27 April 1917, Page 6

NIGHT FIGHTING AT SEA

m TRUE TALE OF A DESTROYER

VIVID PICTURE OF THE ; r . REAL THING

• V Ihe following description, by one i who.has been through it,'gives a vivid jpicture of what night fighting in a de•Stroyer is like. Such events arearaoug . . the most thrilling episodes of the war, ;.-though the laconic official statements ', y which convoy news of them are usually .-~ as a mouthful of sawdust. We were spinning along," says tho ("Jaokstaff,".in the "Daily .'■■- -"W.-J. ui darkness:so dense that oue .; felt it would bo.possible to dig it away in chunks. A really dark night at sea and a foggy day at sen are two things ■'. .of which orily those who havo experienced them can form any real conception. We could see absolutely nothing, but wo felt plenty, and most of all the biting east wind which swept our 'decks as though the Weather Clerk V. were mowing across them with a keenly tempered scythe. ,Rain and flying spray beat upon us fiercely. From the ':. '■■.;way these battered on our oilskins and : ■cut into our faces o.ne'might'have iin- , aguwdrthat'volleys of buckshot were being fired at us from 'short'range.-' : ;., 'Underfoot every place was so slip- . ,'pery that:it:was difficult.to keep foothold, and if one lost this there was a 'chanoo of being washed overboard like : a stick of wood,: as the seas were ■ breaking; over our boat just anyhow. :!And vfc was,cold. Balaclava helmets ! ;: sou-westers, oilskins, sea boots, and thick clothing couldn't keep us warm neither could'they, keep us dry. We '~ had just to hang on, get wet through ' 'and freeze. It is not often that I envy ■the fellows-doing the • ShadracL , Mesnach, and Abednego business in ~.. • . flur engine-room and stokehold, but I did that night, for they were at least : , w arrn. In fact, while we on deck wore ■-.' muffled up and freezing, those below ;, £ere,half naked and .nearly melting. :■ .-;.-.. But ite often that way in a destroyer. , , : Tumbling Inie Action. ■ "Knowing that whatever comes will , ■ fcome^ without:warning, you always keep -.: on, the top line ready to act immedi- , ately. Well for us that we were so, for ...'. .we justi tumbled into action. I don't ; Jcnow.a better way of expressing what ;■■■■ occurred.- We could not actually ; see v-jthem clearly, but by;the. sort of in•stinot which destroyer crews acquire by •long practice we 'sensed , that' other : ..craft -about and 1 guessed rather .than discerned the faint loom of a hull -m the darkness. ' ■";.-'■ ■; ■ ■; "Promptly.we challenged; the reply :; yi&a unsatisfactory, ,and instantly the : ''scrap' began. There was no prelimin- ■ Wry. feinting. Blow followed word al- '• -most as soon as the word was spoken. 'Knowing that we must be hostile, there /--existed no need'for the enemy to speak - '-Seforohe struck. Andhe didn't: he let .-,'.1"' ]fly'at us'instantly.'■'~■■••.- . .' "First blow often counts ~ the enemy wisely -tried' to get it in. , jOne weE-placed salvo is usually as much '■ ,;.<as a destroyer can. stand. Nine; times ' wit of ten it will put her out of action, "v But shooting in tho dark means shoot- '-■;;■ ing at random to some extent. And the ,-..;■:; difficulties of it are increased by the :;iact that both shooter and.shot-at con- ;- J *mue' moving at high speed. To slow \down would be fatal. In these cireuni- '"; 'stances one may have the bad luck to catoh a salvo or one may have the good ; duck to miss it.;..' , , "Good luck came our way. Enemy • ; ',-'Wojectiles went over iis.and fell astern, , ; Jiut none .of them hit us. Our own ...'cuns, iof course,: weren't idle. They /began yapping practically, as soon as the enemy's did. I.say 'yap , because that ..word.best describes the noise a destroyer's, quick-firers make. It's a sort of ;,.; .Bhprt, sharp, ear r 6plitting detonation .. which pierces right through one's head. '.■,'■ lAll. around us this noise was now goin" ,:on.- T We could see the : guri-flashes, both /from our line and the enemy's making ; toght yellow rents in,the black curtain :. of the night, then suddenly disappear- , : ;uig.' Now and again the Win.! of a would cut a:broad,*.bright ; 'Bwathe through the'darkness. Instantly many guns would be turned upon any 'object which the light reyealecl. ■... "Searchlights, however, cannot' be : Tised too much, forthe reason that they :£ive,ia vessel's position away, and an • enemy always fires at them promptly. \&s often the best target he can find. ■While the. enemy and ourselves ! wero ; .thus, slamming away attach other tho ; ment s continued their war as well ...The_ seas still washed us down, • the ■wind drove the rain and sleet in upon ■-.~«s, but in the excitement of tlio com- . .-bat we paid little heed'to these minor . matters, though they didn't make our ipb any the easier. Shells whizzed over our-boat, one skimmed just over thedeck without hitting anybody, and others fell stiort,_for we could hear them splash into the water. ;

■[ Torpedoes cruising Around. '.■"Every now- and again a torpedo .™Uf. 'loosed,' .and, of course, we didn t know wheu one of these unwelcome messengers from the enemy might Teach us;'there were plenty of thorn cruising about. I saw one break water right astern of us; too far behind to do us any. harm and too far ahead of our next in line to hurt which was lucky. Catehing a salvo is bad ;enough, but,getting a torpedo into you means a knock-out for the boat and Kingdom Come for a .good many of her ;crew— probably the lot of them. Her consorts may try their best to save lire, but you may imagine the difficulty of picking up mon from the water in circumstances such as. those I am describing. . , ■•■'-.- "Besides, there's 'always tho enemy to think about. He's never willing to 'stand easy' in-order that rescue work may be dono. Usually these night engagements between destroyers are short and sharp, as this particular one !ivas. Pretty soon it had resolved itself into a chase, with the enemy running for home, and us pelting along after him, banging into him all tho .time. Owing to the impossibility of making accurate observation, it's difficult to say how much damage you do to the enemy on such occasions unless you happen to sink Eome of his craft outright. A thing like this can be seen; but a destroyer, might be ever bo badly knocked about and have half the. crow laid out and yet get away under cover of the darkness,. without her opponents being able 1o see how much she had suffered. All one can do is to make it as hot for ihe enemy as one can, and our chaps always do that.

"During the hnisli I am speaking of our flotilla suffered little. We chased the enemy as long as we could (we had to bewaro of getting drawn into his minefields) and gave it him hot and' strong all the* way. As to what dnmage wo did to him I will only say that it'was undoubtedly a lot more than ho did to us. ■ "While the scrap lasted is was a lively enough ect-to, quite a- welcome "break in the monotony of • battling through a gale on night patrol. And though I've done my best I'm afraid I've not managed to convey a very realistic idea of what a night fight-be-tween destroyers in this wintry weather is like. Really, it's a thing that cannot be adequately pictured in words nor on canvas either. There it would .be all blacks and reds. Only by going through this experience ';an anyone ■understand exactly what it's like."