A FIGHT IN THE CHANNEL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 213, 28 May 1918, Page 6

A FIGHT IN THE CHANNEL

HOW A HUN DESTROYER WAS RAMMED. A recent destroyer action off Dunkirk betweon an Allied flotilla and a large German force .returning from a brief bombardment of Dunkirk had about it something of the great old fighting .days when tho practice was to get to close grips with tho enemy. On our side there were engaged the destroyers Botha (Commander Roger L J E. M. Rede) and Morris (Lieutenant-Commander Percy R. P. Percival) and the Frenoh destroyers Mehl, Magon, and Boueiier. They wero cruising together with Botha as'senior officer's ship when they fell in with the enemy, raiding force, 18 torpedo craft, trying to steal back to its baso in the darkness. Without a moment's delay tlin Allied vessels opened a heavy fire, bore down on the enemy at full speed, overhauled him rapidly and pounding him with the full weight of their gun power. Tho enemy ships fought and ran. But in a destroyer engagement first blow means, everything, and the Allied flotilla had got this in most effectively. The enemv fired many torpedoes, but nono struck an Allied ehin. He also threw out a smoke-screen to 'hide his movements. Morris, dashing into this, cut off ono of tho largest destroyers and at 500 yards' range fired a torpedo athor. It went home in a vital part and the destroyer blew up and sank almost immediately,

By this timo the Allied flotilla was right in the press of the enemy and at closo quarters the fight raged furiously. A shell cut through Botha's main steam-pipe and the commander, recognising that quick action! was necessary if his crippled boat was to take any 'further effective part, fired both his torpedoes 'at tho leading enemy craft. Then, jamming -his helm hard over, he drove Botha straight at tho fourth vessel in tho enemy lino. Although Botha's speed had fallen off considerably, her razorlike bow caught tho foe cleanly aniidships and cut her completely in half. Swinging his ship round, Commander Rede tried to ram tho German vessel next astern, but she eluded the blow. Two French destroyers, howover, fell on her promptly, and their torpedoes and gun-iiro soon reduced iher to a blazing wreck. Morris returned from pursuing an enemy which had escaped her in'the smoke and mist, picked up Botha and towed her out of action, while tho French destroyers steamed about in search of survivors of tho three enemy vessels accounted for.

A squadron/'of the Royal Naval Air Service sighted the 15 vessels which had fled from the encounter, and bomb'' them so vigorously that the Germans scattered wildly. Then the air squadron espied a number of enemy seaplanes that had come out to escort the raiding flotilla home. A short, sharp encounter with the fighting e-scort of our air squadron resulted in the destruction of four of the enemy planes, three of them by one British pilot. Even when the rest of tho German flotilla reached Ostend, and were making, as they thought, safely for harbour, another attack was sprung upon them. This time it was by a sinister, almost invisible craft which, racing up at a tremendous speed, fired a torpedo into the stern of one of tho enemy destroyers. The Germans'turned a hail of shell and bullets on the strange assailant, which, having done its work, turned, unscathed, "*and vanished ghost-like into tho mist.