LITTLE STORIES OF THE NAVAL BATTLE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 199, 11 August 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

LITTLE STORIES OF THE NAVAL BATTLE.

For want of a better title the incidents herein re'ated may be called "Some Little Stories of a Great Fight ' But they are "little" oul yin comparison with the tremendous environment of their setting. As tales of individual heroism, of coolness, and of wonderful escapes from the gap : ng jaws of death some at least of them are without patallel in history. They aH describe "happenings'" of the naval battle in the North Sea, and enab'e lis to p'cture realistically how fully the British fleet maintained' its great uadin'ons on that memorable day. Does our sea history tell any finrv fighting story than that of the destroy. or Onslaught's duel with a German Dreadnought? Although the foeman was dozens of times larger than the On. siatight (apt name) and powerful enough to crush her with a. single b'ow, tho Onslaught ran fearlessly under his yuns, so close that lie could not depress his li'g weapons sufficiently to bear upon her. And when she had got within sure striking distance the brave little destroyer drove two torpedoes into her giant opponent's hull and sank him. At the time she was so dose to the enemy's guns that the flame from their muzzles as they were tired across her swept. decks, killing every officer and man uyon them. Just before this happened her sub-lieutenant had gone be'ow to see about some ammunition. Returning to deck and seeing what had occurred there he sprang to the wheel and took the Onslaught safely out of action.

No vessel engaged made a more thrilling escape from overwhelming odds than del tho light cruiser Chester. In the fog she found herself being pelted from all sides with heavy projcictiles end unable to see where they were coming from. Suddenly the fog lifted and revealed to the Chester that sho was ringed round with some half-dozen largo German slups, any one of which was powerful enough to blow her out cf the v ater. il Finis" seemed assuredly written to her career. But the Chester's captain had been trained in the fchool that teaches men never to quail or blench in the face of danger. Putting on full speed, he made his ship dodgo hither and thither amid the fall. ing shells until ho accompl'shed tho seemingly impossible and wrested her from tlie enemy's grip, though not until she had suffered many casualties. # * * We'rd things occurred when the hea\y calibres were turned upon unarmoured craft. There was; one destroyer that seemed immune from harm. Secondary batteries appeared unable to hurt her. Eventually a loin, shell from one of our battleships caught her, and the destroyer disappeared 'instantaneously, as though some magician had whisked her away. No vestige of lv was left after the shell exploded. Not did our own destroyers come through their gallant dash at the enemy with out undergoing some strange expert en cos. One of them, while between two fires, was about to launch a torpedo when a projectile sent the tube flying skyward and the torpedo was fired from it while the tube was actually rising m th;j air.

Many men had hairbreadth escapes such incidents are among the commonplaces of warfare everywhere, but one would have to look through many oatt!e record's to parallel the experience of' one of our bluejackets, if indeed it could be paralleled at ail. He was sight'ng a gun and had his eye to the eyepiece of the telescope when a shell knocked the gun clean overboard and the man with tit, yet the only injury hj.« received was a black eye caused by the eye-piece striking him. A midshipman b'own up into the air when his ship sank and fell into tlie sea, barely escap'ng death from striking floating wreckage. Twice was he drawn far down into the depths by the suction of linking ships, and each time fought b:s way to the surface again. At. last. when almost finished, lie was picked up by a passing destroyer, and for five iong hours lay exhausted upon hef decks while she' was fighting the enemy, and all the time shells were hurtVng ore,- him. Though but a boy in years, ths urddy can claim to be a veteran 'it war experience, for he was present at the Falk'ands 'battle and subsequently saw hard lighting at the Dardanelles.

Our sailors wore as light-hearted as they were courageous right through the engagement. Aboard one ship the younger members of the crew, when Gorman shrapnel was bursting on the decks, ran laughingly after the bullets .iiul picked them up for souvenirs. In another ship the men as they worked tluir guns kept jocularly remarking as they fired each round, "Tin it's another gift from the woman of England"—this be : ng a reference to thu employment of women in munition f.i - tork's] a branch of feminine activity that hr.s deeply ".lack.'

An.! the nonchalcnt ni;i:im in »vii -h the sai'ors regarded th> ir vound- was something wonderful. Occasion" ■..» lh'% bad its pathetic aspect, as in the case of a man wlio went to tlie dossing staton with all the lingers blown off on-> bind.

■'That's rough luck for you," remarked the surgeon. ■• It ain't se bad," answered the mai. "I ain't got it half so bad as my brother." "Whoiv is he, then 5 Bring him hove," said the surgeon. "I caul," rjuietlty rcpl'ed the man. ;t H"'s drowned in the Invincible. 1 ju-i sen him go down." J. -1.