BIG GAME HUNTER AS A SCOUT.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 November 1915, Page 12 (Supplement)

BIG GAME HUNTER AS A SCOUT.

HOW THE KONIGSBERG WAS RUN TO EARTH. WARSHIP DISGUISED AS AN ISLAND. Port Elizabeth, Aug. 2. Lieutenant Philip J Pretorius, R.N. V.R., returned to the Rand recently after participating in the pursuit and destruction of the German cruiser Konigsberg in the_ Rufiji River, of which I send you the thrilling account. Incidentally, he has experienced enough adventures to last the average man a lifetime. Lieut. Pretorius, sirice the beginning of this century, has been hunting big game in Central Africa. Early this year he got back to the Transvaal after an absence of 17 years, and placed his services at the disposal of the Government for the fighting in German East Africa, every mile of which is known to him. Further, he is said to speak fluently every native language of Central Africa.

After a holiday with his parents at Nylstroom he was ordered by General Smuts to join the Goliath and place himself at the disposal of Admiral KingHall.

As intelligence officer, Lieut. Pretorius took up his headquarters at Mafia, in the delta of the river where the Konigsberg lay, and was soon in charge of an organised body of natives, who, working to his instructions, located to a nicety the positions of the mines, torpedoes, land batteries, and the Konigsberg. On the morning of July 5 the attack began. Two 'whalers led with minesweeping ropes. The Welmouth and the Mersey followed. The Mersey opened fire at eight miles' range, directed by aeroplanes, and five hits were scored in a short time. The German guns replied furiously, but their shells fell short into the sea. The shooting by the British Navy, says the lieutenant, was marvellously good. The Germans had an observation station in a tree,, three men operating from a barrel giving their guns the range. Our gunners put a 6-inch lyddite shell into the barrel, blowing away half the tree.

This was a warning, however, for our ships to get back out of the known range, hut this could not be done before one German shell struck -the edge of a gun shield on the Mersey. The attack was renewed at 4 Trcloek in the afternoon, and subsequently the native scouts reported the damage. On the morning of the Sunday following the attack was resumed, and with the further information available the Mersey was able to score nine hits in 15 minutes, and the effect was to set the Konigsbcrg on lire from stem to stem, leaving her a complete wreck. The remaining Germans escaped in a tug higher up tlio river. For this special kind of river fighting the Mersey—one of the special type of war craft used for bombarding the Germans in Belgium—was painted like an island, green, and decorated with palms and trees.