TO SEA FIGHT IN THE CATTEGAT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 96, 16 January 1918, Page 7

TO SEA FIGHT IN THE CATTEGAT

HOW A BRITISH SQUADRON SANK ELEVEN SHIPS

A THREE HOUR BATTLE ON ENEMY'S "DOORSTEP"

{By the.Special Correspondent of tho American Associated Press.) Base of British Grand Fleet, November 9. The recent naval action in tho Cat"tegat, whero the British sank a German cruiser and ten armed patrol ships, is an example of the careful planning which lies behind every move on tho raval chart. A comparatively insignificant force of British destroyers and light cruisers were the actual stageperformers in the littlo Skaggerak drama. The actual fight in the Cattegat began about seven o'clock in the morning, and was over three hours later. The German fleet behind its fortifica■'tions received tho calls for help, but ■dared not take a chance —probably well .knowing that any attempt to send out I help would be confronted with enemies '••rising out of tho sea from all directions. The Cattegat is a deep bay, lying Denmark and Sweden, and pleading out through the Skaggerak into : the North Sea, near the sceno of tho j ifamous Jutland battle. A fog lay over j the entire Cattegat throughout the action, and the British destroyers picked off their victims one by one and sank them. Tho German auxiliary crui- . ser Marie, which was leading the fleet of patrol boats, was a ship of 3000 tons.. Her commander, Captain Lau''■fcerbach, was wounded, but reached the 'Danish shore safely. His ship, which •had four guns and a crew of "ninety, rivas "suddenly attacked," he said in j ian interviow with a Danish newspaper j i man afterward, "by a fleet of British j •destroyers, and tho shells fired by them i ' descended with such rapidity that the J (men on the Marie were almost unable j "to use the guns. Only a few shots were : :fi red before tho ship was a mass of flames." - Captain Lauterbach's Unpopularity. .. British and American naval men, who fhave been on. the China station in j ; years past,-- will remember Captain .Lauterbach. Hβ was known from j Shanghai to Vladivostok as "Baron j (Munchausen," and is eaid to havebe.6u • j the most ■ unpopular German naval of-1 Ificer in the Far East. His unpopular-; >ity extended even to his own men, and i (in the Cattegat battle the first remark 'made by a Gorman bluejacket rescued jirom the sea was a fervently expressed (lope that the British had not made tho j ! mistake of rescuing his captain. Lau-1 ' ierbach's naval reputation will prob- I /ably suffer somewhat from the Catte-! igat battle. His report that he fired ! Sis guns as long as possible is denied j 'by his own men, who declare that Lautorbach was "seized with funk" as : soon as the enemy appeared, and that ,not a single shot was fired from the (flfarie's guns. . Presumably the Marie. was making iher way towards the trade route be■'tween Norway and Scotland, in hopes of repeating the successful Gorman at'.tack on the British convoy on October The British commander concen(irated his fire first of all on the Jlarie, ;and then detached his fastest vessels to round up the escorting patrol vessels. This was thoroughly done after ■ a hunt lasting nearly three hours. This action, it should be remembered, occurred" in waters which the Germans regard as practically one of their "inland spas." The Cattegat is the gate'ivay to the Baltic. The scene of the fight is 600 miles from the nearest British coast, but less than 200 miles ■ from Kiel. The Germans held their favourite "interior lines," while the ' British forces had to cross the North Sea, go up through tho Skaggerak, < and then awind the Skaw. The Ger- < ( mans had every chanc6 to execute a : ; coup, cutting off the retreat of the Bri- < I tish forces by bringing superior units : lup the coast to the entrance of the 1 Skaggerak. That they did not dare to ' ■• attempt this is evidence of their ap- i ; preciation of the initiative and resource : 'of the British Navy.

An interesting comparison might te i made between this clean victory by the [British destroyers and the tip-and-run i raid by the German light cruisers on a , British convoy on October 17. The Gerr mans • sent out two of their fastest ; cruisers in the darknesSj struck their I blow in nervous haste in the early .; morning hours, not even pausing to I rescue a single life of hundreds of ■ combatants and non-combatants, vhen ran away northward to spend the reimaining hours of daylight in hiding, !Jind when night fell dashed down tho ' Norwegian coast and thus returned home without being intercepted.

On the occasion of the British victory, tho fight occured, not in tho Worth Sea, but on Germany's doorstep; inot at night, hut in daylight; not 'hurriedly or nervously, for sixty-four .'prisoners were taken, drowning men i rescued from the -water, thus providing ' another vivid contrast between Gorman ■ and British methods of warfare. Moreiover, no non-combatant lives were Jest lor endangered in tho British action, whereas the Germans ruthlessly and •■unnecessarily sacrifice scores of inno'cent neutrals.

The return of tbo British squadron jio its hase was quiet and unostenta- ! tious. By nightfall it was off again. ' on its business of sweeping the sea. The cruise into tho Cattegat and the little victory which the British Navy 1 Tvon there without the loss of a single British He, while nob largely importnnt in itself, is a concrete illustration and proof of the manner in which the Allied fleets control the seas and enable the Allied Governments to vso •their resources in full strength on the various fronts.