MONITORS IN ACTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 185, 14 January 1915, Page 3

MONITORS IN ACTION.

SHELLING THE GERMANS. RAPID, ACCURATE FIRE. ENEMY'S HEAVY LOSSES.

Renter's special correspondent at Dover gives the following account of the bombardment of the German posi- ( 'ins between Nicuport and lliddelkerke , ! the combined Britisli and French ; ladron on Trafalgar' Day. The vess were in continuous action for twelve ' -urs. The action began at f o'clock ' the morning of Trafalgar IV •, when

i'i<! squadron, steaming some i ■ > miles off the shore, shelled the -nemy's trenches, situated three mile: inland. The sailors remained at their posts until six in the evening. The (ire was rapid and incessant, one British vessel firing no fewer than 1000 lyddite and shrapnel shells.

The fire of the squadron caused the greatest execution in the German trenches and batteries among the dunes, and between them the Allies' vessels destroyed a German battery of field artillery, dispersed a German bridging train collected to force the passage of the Yser, blew up an ammunition column, killed General von Tripp and the whole of his staff to the west of Westcnde, and by the fierceness of their fire, com- I pelled the enemy to evacuate its posi- j tion before Nicuport. Some of the guns discharged 14 shots a milmle. The damage done to the enemy was clearly discernible from the vessels.

j An attempt on the part of the enemy ; to got tlieir range by sending up an ! aeroplane which dropped 'smoke balls, was ineffective. At tlie end of tin* day tlie whole coast for a distance of four I miles from Nieuport to Westendc had been completely evacuated, and was a dense mass of black smoke and flame. It was afterwards reported that in the action the Germans lost at least 4000 killed and wounded. The crew of one of the monitors watched the Germans bring up one of their big guns. They allowed them to get into position, to take the* range, and even to put the shell into the breech, when one of their six-inch guns "let drive." The first shot told, and a further five shots hit every time. The gun and men were smashed to pieces.

BAPTISM OF FIRE. In a letter to his mother, Litut-Com-mander W. A. Selbv, of IT.M.S. Mersey, one of the monitors engaged of! the Belgian coast, wrote:—"We have had our baptism of fire. We were actually under fire from 10.15 a.m. to 10.45 p.m., mostly shrapnel. We had three men hit. Cp the mast we were lucky, as one shell burst just above, and the bits were dying all around, but nobody was touched. Wc were fired at by four batteries, so while it lasted, it was very hot, and the shells were dropping all round us. We silenced their guns, and then hurried to shell their troops, and, I think, did them no good. We fired away most of the afternoon, directed from shore by wireless. We have now liad three days of scrapping, and have covered ourselves with glory. We managed to silence the German guns on four occasions, and in the afternoon tho Belgians signalled to tell us that the German troops were massing at . ''We opened fire, and the Belgians say we did so much damage that we accounted for 1000 Germans killed and wounded in half an hour. Good work! We also wiped out a. battery of six German guns, killing all the ' crews, and smashing two guns to bits.

GERMAN- STTOOTTXG WTT.TX Must after lunch the Germans had another go at us, but their I've was very wild, and then never hit—sonic shots passing 1000 yards over, and some 500 yards short, but not a sngle bit. Three of us and five destroyers opened fire on them with every available gun. It was a fine sight, and the noise absolutely dreadful, but I think \vc must have blown them to smithereens. I am nearly deaf for the moment. "P.S.—Later: Just heard that wc destroyed a whole supply train, and twenty ammunition waggons of the Germans. Wc thought we had set a house on fire, but it must have been the waggons."

llow desperate was the fighting along the Yser was revealed in a few vivid sentences which a German officer spoke to a Dutch journalist:—"Seven times we crossed the Yser," he said, "and seven times we were driven back with terrible losses, so that at least our dead formed bridges over which we tried to cross, only to be repulsed once more."

Roth banks of the Yser were lined with dead, and the waters were red. All kinds of equipments of war were floating down the stream. lAll the German prisoners lvere thoroughly worn out. and tjiey related stories of terrible privations.