The Jutland Battle

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 56, 9 June 1916, Page 5

The Jutland Battle

SURVIVORS’ STORIES.

EFFECT OF GERMAN GUNNERY.

| TERRORS OF THE FRAY.

(Received 8.45 a.m.) k London, June 8

iA survivor of the destroyer Fortunc says: The German battleships let iip a- L ns with their eleven-inchers All the boats were shot away and wo took to the rafts. Of twenty-three rafts, only seven survived the terrors lof the night. ! A member of the Malaya’s crew staj tes; A fourteen-inch shell struck one lof our guns and killed every man in {the battery, and not an atom of five I remained. Another shell struck the turret, disabling the ammunition i hoist, but work was carried on by {hand. A shell entered the canteen, killing f-.ur. The Malaya’s splendid 'speed enabled her to settle the Hiudenburg. We put shell after shell into her, and saw her turn over and sink. One of our officers was decapitated by a shell splinter. A quantity of cordite ignited and a sailor threw himself on the heap and rolled on it until the flames were extinguished. AN ENEMY ADMISSION. THE LUTZOW AND ROSTOCK SUNK. WARNING TO NEUTRALS. . TV*. Amsterdam, June 8. A German official explains that the Luthow and Rostock sank eu route to harbor. The loss was not admitted previously for military reasons. The Telegraaf declares that the admission should he a warning to Neutrals to accept German communiques cautiously. BUSINESS AS USUAL. MORE CHEERY REVIEWS. , London, June 7. The Times’ city editor says that owing to the more favourable battle accounts the early depression has been completely thrown off. Markets are firm and business is practically equal | to that of last Monday, and, it is believed, even to that of Saturday. The small re-action would not have occur red if the first announcement had been differently compiled. The whole press adversely criticises | the Admiralty’s first report, the Kven- ■ ing- News describing it as depressing and apologetic, with a bad effect both 'hWe arid in France. The Star suggests that there could tye-abler management of the Admiralty publicity department. It describes j the official issue of Mr Churchill’s |

The Westminster Gazette says that the Admiralty’s first chilly announce. nailed groat German bluff to (1 o *inconc ei v able harm in the world. liGermaii press tone is markedly its subdued reserve iudica!tiri;g a. growing knowledge of the real the German losses. The coriimbnts of the press in other couna complete reassurance by later news. mefvFrench ex-Minister of Marine, M.JXaneshan, writing to the Petit Parisian, says that the German fleet was absolutely powerless before the British--fleet, and Admiral Tirpitz I correctly decided to confine the navy

to cowardly submarines. M. Horbctte, in L’ Echo cle Paris, says - that the Germans’ effort to break the blockade was unsuccessful. Britisli bravery and German flight have strengthened the blockade by sacrifice, and victory. The Russian Admiralty thinks that the strategic advantage of the victory was wrested from the British. The New York Tribune considers that the Germans avoided a general action and tip. admiralty of the Atlantic remaps unchanged. GERMAN ACCOUNT DISAGREES WITH BRITISH. (Received 10.25 a.m.) Amsterdam, June 8. The German account contends that the British assertion that they vainly tried to overtake the Germans is contradicted by Admiral Jellicoe’s statement that the Grand Fleet returned to Sea pa Flow in the Orkneys on the first of June. Our numerous torpedoflotillas, which wore sent out after the battle for a night attack to the northward of the battlefield, failed to find the British Main Fleet despite a keen search. We also rescued survivors from various sunken vessels. The participation of the British Main Fleet was proved by the admission that the Marlborough was disabled, also that our submarine sighted a vessel of the Iron Duke class heavily damaged. We did not use mines as .they would lie equally dangerous to jour Fleet as to the enemy’s. German airships wore exclusively used for reconnaissances.

GERMAN CLAIMS TO VICTORY. (Received 11.30 a.m.) Amsterdam, -June 8. The German account continues: The naval victory was gained ty leadership, effective gunnery, and torpedo-

mg. Hitherto w<? hove not contradicted I any British allegations of German lossesalso, the allegation that wo lost the Pommem, not the 1906 vessel, but a modern Dreadnought. Wo 'actually lost the Lutgow, Poxnmern, Wiesbaden, Elbing, Frauenlob, Bos- ! took, and five torpedoers. ■ Tho Gorman losses hereby closed, i and the statement repeats the allegation. which denied by the British Ad- , miraity, that the British lost the Warspitc, Princess Royal, Birmingham. and also that the Marlborough sank before she reached port. The statement concludes ; The battle of Skjager Rack remains a German victory, even on the British admissions i since they lost 117,750 tonnage, com--1 pared to our 60,720.

A GUN-LAYER’S STORY. SEEN FROM THE TIGER. REMARKABLE MANOEUVRES. j (Received 12.30 p.in.) 1 London, June 8. j 'A gunlayer of the Tiger, in an inter- ■ View, stated that after the Lion opened fire at 18,000 yards, the shooting of neither squadron was good at the outset, but soon the British battle cruisers. commenced in earnest. The speed of each salvo was remarkable. Then the Germans began to get the ! range. One shot cut away part of the 1 Indefatigable’s fire-control. J Everyone about four o’clock realisled that the Germans, besides having j a preponderance of guns, had more than double the number of vessels. 'They commenced concentrated fire 1 with every gun. First, they turned on j the Lion, but hardly a shell hit; asjphyxiating projectiles fell behind the bridge. Two squadrons approached eacn other for twenty minutes, then the | enemy suddenly bore away, seemly j breaking off the action. Wo turned, also manoeuvring for fifteen minutes, when the German i squadron again approached, their guns concentrating on the Queen Mary. They had been vainly seeking the range, when, strangely enough, every shell seemed to strike the Queen Mary at once like a whirlwind; she rolled slowly to starboard, with a Injge hole in her side, and disappeared beneath the water, which rushed in, overturning her within a minute and a-half. Only her keel was visible, and then that disappeared. We were engaged by two battleships at fifteen thousand yards, besides half a dozen submarines, whicli were popping up everywhere. Two submarines were sunk within ten minutes of the loss of the Queen Mary. A battleship rammed the first/ and. the Xew Zealand’s ■ quickfirers blew the second to pieces. There was a remarkable change when the Valiant, Barham, and Warspite came up. They concentrated their fire on the end vessel of the Ger-

man line, and within two minutes this vessel, which was a .three funnelled I battle-cruiser, disappeared, only dense smoke and steam indicating • -ae spot (where she had been. She put a [lucky shot through the Barham. We [saw another huge German vessel lyjing helpless with disabled engines, ; but she continued to fire salvoes with [deadly effect till the Barham and Vali'ant, at four thousand yards, literally crumpled up her gun-turrets aft, iwhich disappeared in sixty seconds; her masts followed, and then slowly :and horribly methodically great tonshells from the British vessels hit her jin the same place at the same time | with wonderful precision and dug ! holes in her until she blew up. j Subsequently fifteen destroyers in !arch formation attacked us. Our ! secondary armament sank three, one latter another. . Crippled, and curious to see, was one which had lost her j funnels,guns, torpedo tubes, mast,and j bridge, still travelling at fifteen j knots, her decks a mass of flames. The Tiger did not escape lightly, the superstructure being riddled and the decks ploughed up, but the fatalities wore few, GERMAN ADMISSIONS. The High Commissioner reports:— London, June 8 (6.30 p.m.) The Admiralty' announces that the German official account of the Juliana [engagement admits this morning the loss of the Lutzow, the Rostock, and the Eibing, besides the Pornmern, and the Frauenlob, whih was announced in the German official communique of 11st June. But the loss of the Wiesbaden is now withheld.