A Wild Fight

Levin Daily Chronicle, 14 May 1918, Page 4

A Wild Fight

AUSTRALIANS AT ZEEBRUGGE. j SIDELIGHTS ON THE «REAT RAID. 1 Stories of Australians from Zee-_ I brugge show an adventurous zest equal < to that of the old British seadogs (writes the Sydney "Sun's" London correspondent). Details confirm the almost unimaginable risks and the calculated rush and fury of the onslaught. The five Australian seamen among the Vindictive 'a crew landing party included Stales, of Adelaide, who was among the first ashore, and led a party of bombers, who attacked the machine-gunners. He said:— " 'They were as thick as thieves, but we found cover and gave them hell until the retreat sounded. Some of the boys had rifles, and bayonetted the Germans who were trying to cut off the demolition party which blew up the sheds. We specially trained with the j bluejackets for six weeks." _ | Rudd, a youthful Sydney man, said that the mole defences were terribly i strong. The Germans had long trenches ! full of machine-guns protected by masses of barbed wire. "It was a wild fight, the screaming and bursting of shells were fearful. Every man who returned to the Vindictive carried a wounded ; comrade. As the tide had receded we had to slide down to the deck like sacks ji of flour. How the Vindictive survived [ beats me. The funnels were holed like pepper pots, with dead and dying everywhere. '' Stoker Burke, a West Australian aboard the blockship Thetis, said: — "The ship was riddled while steering to the canal, but it got there. A man could walk out of the shell-holes. The harbour was lighted up with extraordinary brilliancy. I saw the captain of the Vindictive pulling alongside as. if he owned the place. No decoration is good enough for him. After the lodgment of .the Thetis we escaped in a little scooter, with the shells following us for two miles. We reached Dover in eight hours. He found the Thetis's skipper unconscious alongside the wheel and rescued him. Take it from me, as a dinkum Australian, nothing is wTong with the British naval officers." The question of all is, "Shall wo get an Australian trip out of this?" Bush, a Manchester seaman from the Iphigenia, stated that the utmost courage and skill was shown by Lieutenant Billyard Leake, who is 22 years of age, and was born in Tasmania. He is the son of the owner of Harefield Hospital. He fought gamely as a midshipman at Rabaul, and was gunnery lieutenant on the Warspite at Jutland. His younger brother has the Military Cross for valour in France.