IN A RAIN OF SHELLS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 205, 1 September 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

IN A RAIN OF SHELLS.

THE ACASTA'S FEAT. SAVED IN NICK OF TIME. The Acasta, one of the British destroyers which the Germans claimel to have sunk in the Jutland battle, came in (says a Home paper) under tow ot another destroyer and assisted by three tugs, and her arrival in the felling darkness was an impressive little picture. There was enough light to show the scars of act : on and the half-masted pennon, indicating that she was bringing home her dead —six of them —from the gr.cat encounter on the other side of the North Sea. One of the Acasta's crew told the story of her part in the fight. She formed part of a flotilla that steamed into the Skager Rack on the Wednesday afternoon. The duty of these vessels was to draw on the enemy, and they were soon in the thick of a running fight, which rapidly developed. "I never thought," said the sailor, "that the Germans had so ninny ships in one fleet. It was a fair ding-dong light with the guns, only the liritisli ships were almost hopelessly outnumbered. • : It rained shells. They fell thickly around the Acasta, but the b : g gun shooting was rotten. Had the conditions been reversed, with British big ships battering German destroyers, tlu* destroyers would have been scrap :ron in ten minutes. We bad been in the fight about forty minutes when a shell smashed into the engine room and through the stores, killing liv,e of our tneu. This shell did for us. the Acasta being almost 11 «■ Ipless owing to the dam. age. Shells still came from all quarters, aiid we thought we soon should be sent to the uottoni. It was a case tii the whole Gorman fleet aga'nst four cruisers and half a dozen destroyers. ''"Then out of the mist we saw other big battleships come rushing into the fight. We thouglit-at first they wee Germans and that it was all up. But it was our own battleships, and a great sight they made as tlmy came pounding alonir, blazing with their 10-incli guns. "Thp men on the lending ship gave -.,« a cbeer as she passed. They saw we wo'-o disabled. Our battleships marie splendid shoot'ng. We saw one of them blowing two German cruisers to nits '.r i!i a few well-directed shells from nor !i t guns. One of the German vessels Seemed to be nliiiO'.t l'ftid out on her beam ends. \)) about twenty minutes the battle parsed away from us.''