SHIPS v. HOWITZERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 August 1915, Page 12

SHIPS v. HOWITZERS.

WITH THE I'LEET OS' TEE DARDANELLES. TO!RILLR\G DAILY DUELS. Renter's correspondent on board his (Majesty's ship Oormwallis, sends, under date May 21, the following account of the work of a "flanking ship" told off to lire at batteries in the Dardanelles which may be causing the Army trouble: A3 we glide in past Kum Kale we get the first shell of the day astern of us. It drops in the water well to port, between us and a destroyer lying close to the ISedd-el-Bahr side. It is a morning greeting from "Asiatic Algy," a howitzer battery concealed behind the ridge just 'beyond Kum Kale. "Algy" is also 'known as ''Wandering Willie," from an annoying trick he has of shifting his position. The Germans have built a sort of little railway behind the ridge, and the guns are shifted along it when necessary. But for this "Algy's" career would long ago have 'been over, for he is silenced every day by one ship or another, and has been a good deal knocked about. The Agamemnon has the credit of having knocked out several of his guns in a single morning, but new pieces were 'brought up, and "Algy" still turns up smiling. His second shot goes high over us, with a menacing squeal, clears the destroyer, and 'bursts in the water beyond her. Direction correct, range a hundred over would lie the spotting-officer's comment on the shot. L's, "Algy" has not seen, 1 although we are closer to him than the destroyer. He cannot see us over the ridge any more than We can see him, but he has somebody spotting for him on the hither side of the ridge, who 'tells him where we are. "Algy" knows that tlhis means a drenching with 6in shell for him, and he hurries up to have the first word, knowing that we shall 'have the last. His next shot comes whistling over the ship between the masts, so. close that in the main-top one feels, or thinks one feels, a very waft of death go by. It just clears us, and bursts in the water. "Went right past my bloomin' ear-hole," murmurs one of the seamen, while the others grin delightedly, as sailors always do when a projectile goes near them.

THE TIME FOR BREAKFAST. Suddenly, crash goej one of our starboard Oin guns, and after that "Algy" is kept busy. Round after round goes 'hissing over the water to the Asiatic shore, lind throws up a cloud of white smoke on the ridge behind which the shells burst. "Algy's" fire gets weaker; his shots drop with a plop in the water astern, and by and by are heard no more. We are by this time far enaugh in for our fore-turret to open fire. The ship's nose is (pointing up the Strait, and our target is now a 'battery some miles up on the European aide, which has lately been dropping howitzer shells in our lines 'in very inconvenient places. A tremendous roar, an explosion that makes the ship vrbmtc, and the 12in projectiles go rocketing away with a noise like a train vanishing into a tunnel, the sound coining back in wa.vos. After a few rounds we swing round and repeat the dose with our aft-turret. A big battery far' up the Strait, which evidently has only a vague idea of where we fue, fires one or two big projectiles, which drop in the water a quarter of » mile away. It is nearly 8 o'clock, and time for breakfast. As we move out, "Algy" fires a last futile round after us, and officers and men come trooping out of turrets and casemates, linger awhile to exchange chaff and gossip about the bombardment, and vanish below for breakfast. Meals must be eaten out of range or the enemy's guns. The ward room and the fo'c's'le are aibove the armor Ibelt, and the decks are not impervious to shell fire. After breakfast the bugle sounds again, and everybody returns to his station. We are going into the entrance again. The programme as described for the first bout is repeated. This time "Algy," who re-opens on us as we come in, is fairly soaked with projectiles from us and a French battleship which comes in after ua. About 11 we turn and come out for a "stand easy" of about half an hour, and then return for a last bout with "Algy" and his un'aptiscd brother up the Strait.

"ALGY" MAKES A HIT. Thi s time "Algy" hits us. The whistle of one of liis shells ends in a crash and a flying of splinters in the waist. A sin howitzer shell has passed clean through the sides of a cutter and burst on the deck below. ..Nobody hurt, although our young lieutenant' of marines, who was putting his head out of' his gun casemate at the moment, found a cloud of small splinters flying round»it. We let loose our port batteries on "Algy," firing salvoes of three rounds at a time. The smoke-'bursts fairly dance along his ridge for some minutes. Then we steam out. The job is over for us for the day, and another battleship passes in to take our place. The crowd gathers round the spot where the shell fell in to see the damage. It is practically nil. Two not very large holes have been bored through the sides of the cutter, and the wooden planking has been torn up on the deck in one place, revealing the iron plate 'beneath, which is.slightly dented downward* The bursting charge must have, hcen a weak one. A good many of "Aigy's" projectiles seem to have been filled by Turks, although the shells are all made, abroad. This shell is a formidable Oin armor-piercing .projectile, the nozzle undented by its collision with the dc:k. It is marked with a broad arrow, and the experts declare that it is of British make. The engineer commander sends for a file from his kingdom below, tries the metal, and pronounces it good chilled steel. There was a time when we sold arms and munitions of war to Turkey, just as Krupp sold such things to Relgium. We nursed the steel, if not the pinion that impelled it. Our job over, we lie off the northern coast the rest of the day, and watch the British artillery ashore exchanging compliments with "(V.lipoli Hill," a battery which has its habitat in a nullah behind the Turkish trewhr:. on the northern side, of the pcnin-sula, and wants a deal of locat-

SHELLS PIEBOK DECK, The Iwwitzer batteries ashore are, of course, not a serious menace to tlie ships, although a. shot here or there mi{!'ht do damage by falling on the deck ,nr the roof of a casemate. The latest ships were designed to meet attack flora aircraft, and are protected to same extent against dropping Are, but tho shlpa of ten years apo were designed for plain straightforward sea fighting, and the designers put all the armor where Miey thought it would be needed, on the sides.