ADMIRAL HIPPER

Hokitika Guardian, 25 July 1932, Page 8

ADMIRAL HIPPER

FAMOUS GERMAN NAVAL LEADER’S CAREER. NORTH SEA MEMORIES. LONDON, July 19. Admiral Franz Hipper, whose death occurred on May 26, wac? Well kuowiv during the war as commander of the riattle-cruiser squadron of the German High Seas Fl'eet. Admiral Hipper was a Bavarian, and came of the same educated middle-, cia&i stock as his great chief arid coleague, Admiral Scheer, wrote a bvbgra'pher in “The Titties.’’’ Tie was Soorhe ’at Weilbeim' and entered the j.vy in 1881; at the outbreak ofthe' Jreat War he was a’ rear-admiral jyiih ;.vo‘years’ seniority : and wak in command of the 'reconnaissance forces of .lie : High Sea Fleet. Every foreign rjquddron flying the German flag , was under sentence of death, while at home the German Fleet virtually remained in harbout. In the , circumstances, there was •' nothing f<W Hipper to do but to train his crews apd ’captain,? and keep his squadrons in' a higli state of fighting efficiency: GERMAN NAVAL CONTROVERSY ! Outing those weeks ’of inactivity and preparation" an enormous volume of correspondence was • exchanged between Admirals Tirpitz, Pohl, lrigenolil, Muller, and a score of younger officers. The question in; debate Under , aried:’ Was tj)-e ; German" Fleet ,isod to the best advantage; were' the restrictive orders issued <by 'the'' Emeror wi*e or foolish? Hipper did Hot contribute a sheet of .notepaper . j ci.e uistussion, and his name is Hardly mentioned in the vast dossier of recrimination which accumulated .n , j.irpitz’s r writing desk. ' me British iLeet quickly added fuel ’ o -the controversy by" the action " on; aigust" 28, 1914, near 'Heligoland, in ,hiclf three German" cruisers riverb unk. ' Tirpitz regarded the disaster as a'confirmation" of " everything hri hadbeen coritendirig; and he was in a '>eat measure right. Light .■/forc.s; had been" sent" to Sea:'" without" the’sup port of hoavy' 'ships, and those timid * measures were ( the" con sequence of re:trictibrii? placed upon those should' have been free to act-as" cif*-* cumstances- demanded: At this ■ moment' a letter' from Hipper would have been very welcbme to Tirpitz ,* he sent none.

Some weeks later is was decided that the Gei-man Fleet-should make’a; sortie ; -and Hipper was to take thei Ist and,'2nd reconnaissance squadrons over to the,English coast and bombard the coastal towns." The plan, howev--er,. restricted by the standing'lmperial,, ofder' that ‘ the buttle fleet" was- not: o go beyond the Terscheiliing-HornH : Reef line. The" result was curious; ' the Admiralty detected an impending movement, and sent out very inadequate forces under Admiral "Warrenclei: to meet it. If ingenohl had'disregarded the Imperial ordet he might' liave . falen upon Warrender’s isolated squadron and destroyed it. Instead,'he obeyed orders literally and turned for home. Meanwhile, Hipper bombarded Scarlorough and , Hartlepool, reassembled his forces, and ' made for home. -Our light forces came into contact with ,iim, but lie was never in serious danger of being intercepted and brought to action. The German public were much but Tirpitz, who knew hat oporptunities had , been lost, was more indignant" than ever, and his jorrespondence bebame even larger ,ncl more acrimonious. Hipper still •efused to contribute to it. DOGGER BANK ACTION The next pperation was entrusted entirely to him. He" was to "take the Ist and 2nd Reconnaissance Squadrons without battleship support,- . to the Dogger Bank and to surprise all .British Tight force? patrolling in the vicinity. The preliminary orders Here issued by wireless and were interceptd in Whitehall, so that when Hipper teacher "the Dogger Bank Beatty met him with the British Battle Squadron, a very much heavier force. In the long running " fight" which followed, the Blucher, large armoured cruiser, was sunk and the Seydlifiz damaged by a lucky hit in the after parti . The ; Lion was so severely handled that she Was brought back to Rosyth with great difficulty. - ' , . “The engagement was announced in England as a great success,” said ‘The Times,” “ and Mr Winston Churchill declared that it was now proved that British seamen were better gunners than their enemies, and British ships, guns, and shells the better design. He was vey much deceived. Exclusive of the hits obtained at close range upon the Blucher, the German battle cruisers were orily truck four time. - , and two of those hots falling vertically on to the Seyllitz and Blucher did enormous damage. The German shooting was a contrast to our wild cannonade, and it vas universally realised in Germany that the modest and reticent flipper bad trained his squadron to a high standard of efficiency and had fought them with exceptional coolness and skill. “With the tactics of the greater action which followed we are not here concerned. Hipper’s squadron was throughout' more heavily engaged ".than uiv other section of the German Fleet, 'and it maintained its high | standard of gunnery" and manoeuvre I to the end. As the two Battle Fleets ! approached the Invincible was sunk bv the Derfflinger’fl guns, and it was to tne battk cruisers that Scheer called

for assistance at the critical moment of the-battle. Hipper and his captains executed this last movement with their usual tenacity and precision, but it shook ouF complacency. In the middle of the afternoon Hipper, steering ahead" of the German Battle Fleet, fell "in with Beatty’s' battle cruisers. We had an enormoiis superiority in ships arid guns, but ’that availed us fib thing against the terrible fighting efficiency of Hipper’s squadron.... The Queen Mary and > the Indefatigable were destroyed-within, the hour, and Beatty retired" on ’the Grand Fleet with what' was practically a beaten forcd. The result was without precedent in British naval history. THE FIGHTING AT JUTLAND.

“The great trial of strength was made on May ' 31, 1916, and it sadly Cost’ them' -dear. Hipper’s flagship, LutZow, was so heavily damaged that ’he had to leave it in a destroyer, and it' was sunk-later. The Seydlitii, in which he had intended to rehoist his flag, had no wireless, so that he passed oli to ( the Moltke, which could not be stopped in the’hurricane of shells The action was practially over before Hipper was again in command of his squadron.” " ' ■ In August, 1916, the fleet was takenout i for • another sortie.?, and again Hipper led The scouting groups. The sortie nearly- ended in a fleet action, but .the ■ German .naval authorities wfa.-.e now: but Tittle: interested in-these excursions into ..the, North iSea. ' They .were unanimous; that submarine warfare must *be , if restarted.! "For six ‘months the controversy between the Chancellor '-and Navy raged without respite, and in the end the Navy had its ! way.:; fTtmitestricfled submarine warfare was. declared in February. 1917. and . was only , countermand?' 1 when the: .German, authorities :pef ; i' : tinned for an armistice. What wore Hipper’s views ‘on this great question? presumably,’ be endorsed Scheer’is' opinion. but he certainly took no par’" In the unscrulpulcus campaign agains the Chancellor, and continued to;'train and : drill his squadrons. He’ Was in’ command 1 of his scouting groups duiing the great t sorties of April, 1918, an operation which might have ended ,in a, great German success, and on August It, 1918, was appointed Coni-mander-in-Ciiief of’ the High Seas Fleet. <." | . ! Six weeks after Hippei - had taken .up his new-vpost, Ludendorff compelled. ,the : new T Chancellor; . Prince Max of T3aden, to 1 . petition for an armistice: and; on October S’Plgbheer—now Chief ;of Staff—instructed Hipper to take .the ; fleet to sea and to . the pritish Fleet in order to give the armistice a better complexion. The moniopiVre was.'well -thought out; rnd, ,jf Hipper -had executed it and, had scored a : success , comparable to his .'at'.:;. Jutland, the results .would have, been extraordinary. But the sortie- never took? place, for the , ■German seamen mutinied when the _fleet was putting to‘sea. Hipper resigned , liis post in Decemb r, 1918, and spent the remainder n-1 h : s life -in' absolute; -retirement r-TNo political drew' Kin/ from his seclusion.