BATTLE OF JUTLAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 February 1919, Page 3

BATTLE OF JUTLAND.

.BRITISH OFFICIAL RECORDS.

(Reuter’s Telegram.)

Received this day at 2.3 d p.in ' LONDON, Feb. 22.,

A detailed account of the Battle of Jutland compiled from British official records finally disposes of the German assertions regarding the number of German ships which escaped .the British gunfire. It states twelve battleships, five battle-cruisers and ten light cruisers were hit while the battleship Ostcrievland was mined. Five destroyers are known to have been sunk. The bat file cruiser Luotzow sustained at least 40 direct hits and was torpedoed twice. It was finally abandoned, and sunk by two German torpedoes. The casualties on the Luotzow were from four to six hundred.

The account vividly described the terrible battering of the battleship Koenig and battle-cruiser Seydlitz. The former was struck fifteen times and the four forward companions flooded,' as the result of direct hits. The ship settled by the head and listed to port and ■the star-board compartments bad to be flooded to right her. The crew of the forward torpedo tube were impprisoned and were only extricated on June 6th when the Koenig was dry-docked at Hamburg. The men were kept alive by feeding through the voice tube. The Scydelitz was hit by twenty-three shells and one torpedo and was beached in a sinking condition. She was subsequently refloated and docked. Of twenty-two German battleships engaged, only ten, including the flagship, escaped damage. Five were soon repaired and the others laid up for months. All five battleships engaged suffered heavily. A complete record of the forces engaged follows. The Bri-

tish had t/wenty-four dreadnoughts, ten Attached cruisers ) eight battle cruisers, twelve light cruisers, eight vessels of first and second cruiser squadrons, six vessels of the light cruiser squadrons, and seventy-eight destroyers. The German had twenty two battleships and sixteen cruisers, seventy-seven destroyers. It is clearly established that of the vessels actually in action the preponderance of force lay with the enemy.