THE LAST OF THE BLUCHER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1754, 1 September 1917, Page 4

THE LAST OF THE BLUCHER.

INTERRUPTED GAME OF GOLF. Speaking at a Navy League meeting in Hertfordshire, Rear-Ad-miral L. Halsey said when the first order came to the battle cruisers before the action of Dogger Bank, he had gone ashore for a game of golf. “In the afternoon a midshipman came rushing to me with orders to get up steam. We went back to the ship, and in a short time we wore under way. There was a thick fog, and we went at full speed through it for some hours. I need hardly say how glad we were to run out of it. At seven o’clock the next morning we sighted the British flotilla of destroyers, which had left its base to the south of us and was making full speed towards the spot where we expected to meet the enemy. Suddenly the flotillas opened fire. The signal went up for “full speed,” and away we went. The men down below stoked away like the heroes they are, “At 8.15 we sighted the German ships about 34,000 yards away, goring for all they were worth —unfortunately in the same direction as we were. We managed to pick them up bit by bit, and at 9.15 we had our orders to open fire at a range of something like 21,000 yards. The shooting was good, but the trouble was that when we had begun to get the- range we only had between 30 and 40 miles which we could go. The Blucher fell back, the guns caught her nicely, and in a very short time she was knocked out of the fight and sunk.”