STORY OF NAVAL ACTION

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 190, 8 May 1940, Page 5

STORY OF NAVAL ACTION

Renown’s Encounter With Nazi Battleship NEW ZEALANDER'S LETTER HOME Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND. May 7. High seas which swept the deck and a fierce blizzard, which eventually obscured the target, were among diflicul ties encountered by officers and men of the British battle-cruiser Renown, when she recently successfully engaged the German battleship Scharnhorst off the Norwegian coast.

The story of the action, which materially damaged the enemy ship and put her to Hight, is graphically told by a New Zealander, Surgeon Lieutenant Gordan Evans, who is dental officer in the Renown. Surgeon Lieutenant Evans is a son of Mr. J. H. Evans, Auckland. He received bis secondary education at Auckland Grammar School, and, after graduating in dentistry from Otago University, he left for England. He joined tire Royal Navy about. 18 months ago. Writing to his parents on April .15, Surgeon Lieutenant Evans said the Renown was patrolling off the Norwegian coast when a signal was received stating that a German force was heading north. They immediately set off south to catch the enemy, and on the following morning at 9 o’clock the crew was piped to action stations, where they remained all day.

“As the day went on It became a bit rough, getting worse toward evening,’’ he stated. “We were pelting along into big seas at a fair speed, which made us take in a spot of water. The forward medical station, where I was posted, was one of the few dry places by morning, and there were a few casualties during the night as the result of chaps being Hung about the ship by the sea.

“Terrific Roar.” ’At 3.30 a.m.. when it was just getting tight, we were told to wake up, and at. live minutes to four there was a terrific roar as we fired our first broadside. The enemy was caught napping, and we got off three broadsides before they opened lire. When they did start their fire was pretty good, but. our skipper handled the ship beautifully and dodged most of it. “When a salvo was fired by the enemy he watched where the shells fell and. when he saw the next 10l of Hashes, he beaded the ship toward the first lot of splashes. By the time their shells landed we bad changed position. ’The range when we opened lire was 10,000 yards, increasing to 30,000 yards, and eventually finishing al 24,000 yards. This shows that, though at the beginning they began to leave us. we soon started to catch them up. "Eventually the German ship managed to escape in the blizzard, but before this we landed at least three of our 15-inch shells, each weighing about a ton. on her. They would cause a fair amount of damage. We bit the bridge structure with one and upset their firing control, because she ceased fire for a while and later sent out ragged salvoes from her after turret. Cruiser Hipper. "The cruiser Hipper was also with the battle-cruiser, but we were only firing our smaller stuff at her till she started to put a smokescreen around the Scharnhorst, then we let her have our heavy guns, but we could not see any results on account of the blizzard. We eventually ceased fire at about 6.25 a.m. “Weather conditions were on the side of the escaping enemy,” Surgeon Lieutenant Evans stated. “Visibility was very bad and waves were at times as high as the bridge.” The Renown did not escape scotfree, be said. One shell went clean through the ship and wiped out a few cabins, but failed to explode. Another passed through the- mast, again without exploding. There were narrow escapes from splinters of high explosive shells bursting on the ship, but the only casualty was a first-lieutenant, who was struck in the foot by a 4-inch splinter. He later underwent an operation, at which Surgeon Lieutenant Evans assisted, for amputation of several toes.