H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 136, 2 November 1914, Page 6

H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND.

IN FIRST NAVAL IWi'Ti.E. STIRRING ACCOUNT BY ONE oV HER OFFICERS. Christchurch, ( _ ..,- ■!.< 11.M.'.. New Zealand, in the First Battle Cruiser Squadron, took a prominent part in the naval action :ir igoland Bight on August 28, i.,h: German cruisers Mainz, Ko.n, .>n,; Ar.iuine and two destroyers were sun a .uiti ntli.ci.i seriously damaged. The first account ui the part played by the New /'.-aland in the firsi naval action 01 . •> v.-;u ha:. been received in a letter frohi an ufhVeiin the battle cruiser, writt-.n t„ friend* in Christchurch. The story of the fight is simply told as follows:

THE GENERAL SCHEME. "You will have seen all about the action of tho "28th in the papus, but I will try to give you my view.-, on it. In brief, the general scheme wuj Liiat the destroyers should go into Heligoland at daylight to try to draw the enemy's cruisers out so that they could he engaged by us and the first light eruiwr squadron. It was successful, and at 8.13 a.m. on the 28th, we got a signal faying the destroyers off Heligoland were in 1 Ka-vy action with ihe en.n.- The.drew them (the enemy's) .Ivimyrrs out ami small cruisers came with them. "At about 10.41) a.m.' tin- i..v,mibh-, which was just ahead of Us, \ L <n ;i liro with her 4in. guns on a subinarin■ . We sighted it on our port bow ;., .:: 1 one shot when it dived, and came u;> again on our quarter. I just managi i to get my turret trained on it when once more it dived and didn't appear ayain The destroyers spent some time looking for it, without result. Why it didn't hit us goodness knows.

j FULL SPEED INTO ACTION. "At II o'clock, the weather got thick, and we heard heavy firing; ahead, for which we went off at fu,l speed. The squadron was then in the following order:—Lion (flagship), Queen Mary, Princess Koyal, New Zealand, and linvincible. The light cruiser squadron was soon sighted on the starboard bow, heavily engaging the enemy, who were out of sight from us in the fog. There were four ships in line ahead; on the port bow there was a flotilla of destroyers chasing a submarine, with shells failing amongst them. "Wo were now going at 26 knots, dashing towards where the fighting was coming from. We soon sighted the Mainz, a small cruiser, on the starboard bow, put out of action by tin- light cruiser squadron, who had then stopped firing at her. She looked like a eoa! hulk —no masts, only one funnel standing, and burning amidships. On we dashed past her, about a mile or less away. Soon we heard the Liou open fire ftfc something on the port bow. Shortly afterwards tha Queen Mary opened fire, and a few minutes later the Princess Royal.

"NEW ZEALAND OPEN FIKE!" "Another five minutes and the order came, 'New Zealand, open fire!' Oil' the fore turret. Mine being in stern, couldn't take train on the enemy, who was well on the bow. The second turret tired, and then the third. I felt my guns ought to be tiring, but uwing to the smoke of the foremost guns, I could not seen anything of the enemy. One of my gunlayers, a hotheaded Irishman, namud , saw the enemy, but he trainer couldn't, whereupon Hung his cap, amidst frightful oaths at him, and alb the gun crew burst into peals of laughter. Eventually the smoke clear; ed and we started; but after having fired fourteen shells at her, 'Cease fire!' was sounded.

"I could see that the enemy's ship wa3 I burning, and that two of her funnels had gone, as well as both masts. Destroyj ers then started to close in to see if J they could pick up any of the wouud--1 cd, but as they got near a Hash was seen to come from her, and it was j thought that she had fired again. The i destroyers then retired and the Lion opened fire again, and after a very few •■ shots the enemy suddenly sank by the hows, lil'4 stern coming well out of the water as she went down. "The range during the whole aetien was only about 401)0 yards. I saw the whole thing from my periscope in the turret. (Although I could see the German cruisers' guns going oil' 1 didn't know till afterwards that she had been firing at this ship. They tell me a good i many shells fell over us, and a few fell short, hut none hit us. IV they had 1 don't think they would have done a great deal of damage, as she only carI ricd 4iii. guns.

A GENEROUS TRIBUTE. "I don't think We can judge tile German gunnery at all by this sitow, as we has some twenty-four I,'J.oin. guns and 16 12-iu. guns firing at her five 4in. guns, which must have absolutely demoralised her during the first few minutes. It was not at all a glorious victory. In Tact 1 should call it sheer butchery. Not one of their 400 men is now aUve. In my opinion they were very stout fellows to stick to the end and not haul their flag down when they saw they badn't a chance of doing any damage.

"The Princess Royal had one man wounded; otherwise I don't think there were any casualties in our squadron at all. The light cruiser squadron had a few, and the destroyers several, including Lieutoant Wostmaeott, a good fellow. The extraordinary luck of the thing was that during the action, we were missed by a submarine and passed a very few feet from a mine. I think the whole thing was frightfully lucky, but still, nothing venture, nothing have. Our men behaved splendidly during the whole thing, and the cheer that went up in my turret when they heard the enemy's cruiser was sinking was a revelation."