SECRETS OF THE NAVAL WAR.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 February 1922, Page 4

SECRETS OF THE NAVAL WAR.

SPEE’S DOOM. IN THE FIRE OF OUR BATTLECRUISERS. STURDEE’S SIGNAL. (London Daily Mail). J IV.. ! (Concluded). • With the appearance of the two big j British battle-cruisers Invincible aiid j Inflexible, under Admiral Sturdee, .in | the British forces off the Falklands.’i Spee must have known that his fate ; was sealed. Each of these ships mount- _ ed eight 12in guns behind Tin armour-j and could steam jat 25 to 26 knots. j They could attack the German armoured cruisers Sohamliorst and. Gneisenau at ranges where the German guns, if they bit at all, could produce no more effect than do peas from a peashooter on .the hide of an elephant.j But because of their size and power it was of the most vital importance that tho battle-cruisers should not suffer any serious injury. They were wanted hack, intact, at the earliest possible date; and if they closed to short range there was .the risk numerous, smaller German guns, served as they were with great speed by admirable gunners, might be able to .cause ,a great; deal of mischief "to the unarmorued parts of their hulls. These considerations dominated the battle which was now opening. Sturdee wanted to destroy the Germans without damage to his command, and therefore deliberately chose to fight at extreme range.

Among the most interesting sections of Captain Raeder’s new volume is the account it gives for the first time of the experiences of the German ships under the “hurricane of fire” from the two British battle cruisers, which at once fastened on Scharnhorst and Gnoise nan, leaving the smaller cruisers to the lesser British ships. BATTERING THE GERMANS.

At 1.30 p.m. on December 8, 19.11, Epee opened fire at a distance where only four of his 8.2 in. guns ?n each of liis ships could hit. They picked up the range quickly, but though they i.m the British ships they could not hurt them.

“Gneisenau in the first period of the battle was twice hit by 12in shells and was damaged under water. Her loss in this period was I killed and 10 wounded One of the shells exploded against the afteredge of the third funnel, putting an B.Pin gun temporarily out of action. The second heavy Lit was about the middle of her deck, shattering her boats and wrecking the ward-room. Splinters, probably from a shell which fell short, penetrated her port side plating above and below the waterline. Scharnhorst suffered in about tin, same degree.”

There came a pause in the-fight, pud again at 2.50 Sturdee’.s battle-cruisers opened, keeping at long range:

“The heavy shells found an easy way into the ship through the roofs of the casemates .(armoured compartments for puns) and wrought great destruction in the narrow spaces below. It was some compensation for the Germans that the explosive effect of tho British shells was less than might have been expected from 12in projectiles (each weighing 8501 b). Yet the injuries multiplied, especially amidships. The 6in casemates suffered under the highangle fire; the wireless cabin was destroyed. No. 1 boiler-room filled as ,the result of a hit under water and had ,to he evacuated; No 3 boiler-room was filling fast. The after-battle dressing station was wrecked. In the unprotected parts of tho ship fires broke out which until the close of the battle were successfully fought by the fire parties. It was noteworthy that the columns of water which shot up mast-high from tho shells which fell short were carried by tlie wind inboard and drenched the decks.” SCHARNHORST ON FIRE.

From Gneisenau it could be seen during this ordeal that Scharnhorst was suffering severely: “She was on fire in many places and her own fire had slowed down. At 3.15

her third funnel was shot away; she .temporarily sheered qff to starboard, probably as the result of a hit in her steering compartment, but after a short interval took her place again. At 3.37 she showed great holes in her port side forward and her starboard side jift. |She .had .siiflk Jft .fleepqr ,in the water.”

About this .time .there was a curious interchange of signals between Gneisenau’s captain and ,Count Spee in .Scharn-

horst

! Gneisenau to Admiral: Why is the ' admiral’s flag at half-mast? Is the ad- ' iniral dead ? | Admiral to Gneisenau: So far I am i all right. Have you made any hits? i .Gneisenau ,to Admiral: Owing to the ! smoke nothing can be observed, i Admiral to -Gneisenau: -You were

quite right. This last message referred to the advice which Gneisenau’s captain had given against -attacking .the iFalklands two days before the battle, and, as Captain Raeder justly says, it shows Spea’s calm and coolness. A little later Spee ordered Gneisenau to attempt to escape, and himself turned towards the British to use his torpedoes. As he turned, his ship heeled more and more to port; steam poured up from her, and fires raged in her stern and near her bridge. When the foreturret was only 6ft above the water, it fired for the last time, and then, with flag still Hying anil engines still moving, Scharnhorst vanished below the water at 4.17.

“No attempt to rescue her men was made, though no fewer than three adversaries, two of them battle-cruisers, were engaged against the solitary Gneisenau, badly damaged as she was.” The answer to the implicit charge in these words is that the .British had at all cost to dispose of Gneisenau, and that they did not know how serious her injuries were. The last stage of the battle was her destruction: “As the result of further damage to her boiler-rooms and engines she quickly lost speed. Her artillery suffered severely. The whole crew of the forward starboard B.2in casemate were killed by a shell which passed through the roof, and this also killed all but two of the crew in the port casemate.”

DOWN WITH FLAGS FLYING. For some minutes the British ceased tire, thinking she was disabled, but then resumed when Gneisenau’s foreturret again opened: “Gneisenau’s armour was pierced by a direct bit oil the fore-battle dressing station, which was crowded with wounded after the destruction of the after-battle dressing station. The shell put out of action the forward ammunition to the fore-turret. When this turret reported that there was no more ammunition left and the chief engineer stated that there- was no more steam for the engines, at 5.20 the captain ordered: ‘Prepare to abandon ship and sink her.’ ”

All the valves were opened and charges were detonated ; at 5.45 Gneisenau capsized with flags flying, after her captain had ordered: “Three cheers for his Majesty the Kaiser.” The water was bitter cold (37 to 3ft degrees), though it was tho southern summer, and some 200 of the survivors died of the cold. One hundred and eightv-seven were rescued by the British, among them the commander (not the captain). To him Sturdee made this signal: “The Commander-in-Ghief is very gratified that your life lias been spared, and we all feel that Gneisenau fought ig a most plucky manner to the end. We much admire tho good gunnery of both siiips ; we sympathise with you in the loss of your admiral and so many officers and men. Unfortunately the two countries are at war; the officers of Loth navies who can count friends in the other have to carry out their country’s duty, which your admiral, captain and officers worthily maintained to the end.”

The destruction of Leipzig and Nurn-

berg "'as carried out by the smaller British ships in two separate actions.; Captain Raeder blames the captain of Glasgow for not moving with sufficient energy to cut off the fastest of the small German ships, Dresden. She escaped, to he destroyed in March by the British at Juan Fernandez. He also most bitterly attacks Glasgow for firing on the Leipzig’s crew when their vessel was sinking. But as by his own account Leipzig’s flag was still flying, as she had shortly before fired three torpedoes at the British, and as she had returned no answer to a British Morse signal, “Do you surrender?” it is difficult to see what else Glasgow was to do. A sinking ship with her torpedoes could do great damage, and no risks could bo taken. Such complaints are unworthy of a serious historian. And let it be remembered that by the old custom of the sea the crew of a beaten ship who sank her had no claim to rescue or quarter. Certainly the German Navy, after its record in the war has no right to pose as a critic of Bri-. tisli humanity. No doubt it was a tenable surprise to the Germans to find that at the price of all their efforts and loss of nearly. 3,000 men they had killed only 6 men. and wounded 07, and tailed to inflict, any injury worth mentioning with some 30 h'ts on the British ships. H. W. WILSON