SUBMARINE E15.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1916, Page 6

SUBMARINE El 5.

•DARING EXPLOIT. HOW THE VESSEL' WAS BLOWN UP. Australians are performing so many brave deeds in the war that news of a fresh exploit is accepted as a matter of course (says the Sydney Sun;. It will, however, surprise many to learn that the hazardous work of destroying the stranded submarine El 5 at the' Narrows of the Dardanelles to prevent it falling into the hands of the Turks was partly directed by an Australian. The officer in second command of the splendid feat was Lieutenant Arthur Brooke-Webb, who modestly tells the story in Blackwood's Magazine. This is the story of the submarine Elo. She went up the Dardanelles at daylight on April 17 to endeavor to tor-' pedo a Turkish ship at the Narrows, and the brother of her captain, who was on the staff, went up as an observer in an aeroplane at the same time, as he wanted to see what his brother was able to do.

To his horror he 'saw El 5 run ashore in Kephez Bay, some miles this side of Chanak, on the Asiatic sh'ore. Later another aeroplane reported that the conning tower was closed, and a Turkish destroyer was standing by her, evidently with a view to salvage operations.

The Admiral was very anxious that she should not fall into the enemy's hands undamaged, so he gave orders for her to be destroyed if possible. The conning tower and a little of the whale-back were showing above water. Submarine BO went up, but could not do anything, as the current was too strong. Stye fired one torpedo, but could not see if she hit. That night two destroyers went up the Straits to attack El 5. They got fairly near her, but saw nothing to fire at. Aeroplanes also had endeavored to drop bombs on her without success, beng unaole to come down close enough on account of the Turkish aerial guns. Next morning BU, the famous submarine that dived under the mines some months ago and sank a Turkish ship, went up to try her luck, butjcame back and reported sbc could do nothing owing to fog. In the afternoon the Triumph and Majestic, the two patrol battleships at the time, were ordered to enter the Straits and endeavor to destroy El 5 at long range, spotted by an aeroplane, but not too close inside the line of the mine-swept area. Each ship fired her turret guns at 10,500 yards, but with only a, target of a conning tower of a submarine at five and a-quarter miles it was found impossible to hit. During this operation the Triumph was hit for the twenty-third time by a howitzer, but no serious damage was done. Now, five methods had been tried to destroy El 5, and had failed, viz.:— (a) Aeroplanes dropping bombs. (b) Submarine attempt by 86. (c) Destroyer attack. (d) A second submarine attempt by 811. (e) Battleships at long range. As a last resort the Admiral sent the following signal: ''Two picket boats from Triumph and Majestic are to attack El 5 to-night with torpedoes fitted to dropping gear. Lieutenant-Commander E. G. Robinson, of Vengeance, will be

in charge of operations. Only volunteer crews to be sent." This officer was ordered to take charge, as his ship had been on patrol as the El 5 struck, and lie knew exactly where sTTe was. ' You can imagine the order rather as■fconished us, as it-was almost certain death to take small steamboats right up under the enemy's guns, and Trito water every inch of which was covered with powerful searchlights. The captain of the Triumph said he would allow e'Hier X. myself, or Y (another R.IST.R. officer) to volunteer, but we were under no obligation to go, as he did not think there was much chance of our coming back! X said he had too many responsibilities in England, so Y and myself were left, and both of us were, of course, as keen as mustard. THROWING DICE FOR A COMMAND. I was many years the senior, and therefore had the prior right, but I did not want to take an unfair advantage over Y, so offered to throw the dicej the best of three throws to win. We eadi won one throw amid some excitement in the mess, and then in the final [ easily beat him. At 5 p.m. we hoisted out our picket boat, and fitting the dropping gear. We also placed a Maxim gun in the bows, rifles, ammunition, and a lifebelt for each man. I was ordered to cut down the crew to the smallest possible number. Many men wanted to go; but I settled on two seamen gunners for the Maxim, four seamen torpedo men (two each side), one leading stoker, two stokers, and a torpedo petty officer to act as coxswain. So altogether we had one officer (myself) and ten men, also Lieutenant-Commander Robinson, who was in command of both boats, and Midshipman Woolley, also from the Vengeance. Whilst it was still light the captain kept about three miles outside the entrance, with our boat on the ship away from the shore, so that the enemy, even with powerful glasses, could not have any idea of what was going on. I At 6 p.m. the weather looked very suitable—overcast, with a slight haze I over the land, and indications of light rain; but later it cleared up, and became too fine for our liking. At 15 p.m. the Majestic's boat arriv- | ed, with Lieutenant C. H. Goodwin, R.N\, in cliarge; and shortly after we pushed off, with my boat leading and the Majestic's following about SOO yards astern. Wc s-teamed about eight knots, as the current was strong; and until we reached the beginning of the dangerous area we chatted —to keep our courage up, perhaps. As a matter of fact I wasn't in much of a funk, and felt fairly cool, for I have been under Are a good many times, and I recognised that I had got a chance that does not often come in a man's life.

SHRAPNEL GREETING. It was a bit eerie, though, steering along in the pitch dark, with all lights out in the boat, towards the distant searchlights, not knowing whether death or life awaited me. The whole distance was about 12 miles from the ship, the last five being the really dangerous part. L'p to wiere one's only danger was mines, and, as we only drew sft, we hoped we would go over them all rig-lit, though it was quite on the cards that we would bump a floating mine. We kept nearly in the centre of the channel to avoid being spotted by the Suandere No. 7 searchlight, which was not a very high one. We had come along quite unobserved until we were abeam Si it. Bggsiwt the mailer MtrcUifhti

without much trouble. Unfortunately the men stationed near the Suandere searchlight saw us and started off firing fi or 12-pounder shrapnel. Tims the ball opened We still had three or four miles to go. We continued our way and approached the other searchlights. The alarm having been given, all the other searchlights came on and sent their beams searching round to pick us up, and as each beam struck us bang would go. another gun. A few seconds later wc would hear the ping as the projectile whizzed past us, or a sharp metalling craciv as a shrapnel burst just over our heads. Presently we arrived in the vicinity of the stranded submarine. By this time eight searchlights were trained on our boat, and we were being fired on from six directions. The noise of the guns and the splashes in the water and the powerful beams of the searchlights must have made an effective scene. Personally, however, I had not muvh time to consider the artistic side of it, as I was steaming zig-zag courses to puzzle the gunners, gradually getting nearer to the place where we thought El 5 was. The Majestie's boat had been filed on, but not to such an extent, as we being the leading boat received at first most of the enemy's attention.

FIRST TORPEDO MISSED. We saw a dark mass which we thouglit must be the submarine (there was no searchlight on it, so we could not make sure), and the order was given to fire one torpedo, which we did, but as we heard no explosion concluded we had missed. The current was very strong, and it looked like a whirlpool in Kephez Bay, so steering was very difficult, and it was an effort to keep one's head with the noise of guns all round us and the dazzle of the searchlight?. We steamed up a short distance, and turned round, intending to close again and fire our other torpedo, but suddenly saw the Majestie's boat in trouble, and the crew calling out for help. It appeared that coming up behind us, and whilst the searchlights were focussed on us, one of the beams passed us, and shone right on Elo, and the Majestie's boat wa-s luckily only 200 yarns away, and saw it. Godwin immediately fired one torpedo, which did not strike [ the object. At that moment his boat was struck by a shell under the waterline aft, and commenced to take in water rapidly. He gallantly turned his boat towards El 5 again, steamed in a bit, and fired his second torpedo, which caught El 5 just in front of the conning tower and on the forward whale-back of the hull, making a fine explosion. I consider this was a very brave deed, as. Godwin Knew he was in imminent danger of sinking, but ran in again to have a second shot.

RAIN OF PROJECTILES. When we saw them their stern sheets were awash, and it looked as if they might have to swim for it. We manoeuvred the boat to go alongside, but the current was terrible, and it made the handling a very difficult matter. The enemy saw the disaster, and redoubled their efforts. The sea all round us was a mass of splashes from projectiles, some of them loft to 20ft high, whilst the water where the shrapnel burst was pitted as if by heavy rain. How it was we were not hit I cannot say—one would imagine it was impossible to come out of such an inferno. All I can say is that God preserved us, and not a s'l'ot actually hit, though we were one and all wet with the splashes. After some difficulty we got alongside the Majestic'* boat, and they jumped on board. We were very delighted to hear that they had been successful, and had clone the job of torpedoing El 5. As we steamed round again, preparatory to heading out, we saw a man crawling out of the other boat's stern sheets. He had been forgotten in the hurry of the moment. It looked like suicide to go back, but of course we could not leave him there, so manoeuvred close again and shouted to him to get into the water and swim towards us, which he did, and we hauled him into the boat unconscious. Godwin ) who looked after him, had him put down the forepeak, and it was found that his legs had been crushed through the explosion of the shell which struck the boat. He was the only man in the stern-sheets, and in the dark they overlooked him when it came to abandoning their boat.

CONSIDERATION FOR WOUNDED. By this time we thought we had better clear out, so turned our nose towards home and steamed away at halfspeed, still under heavy fire. We did not like to go full speed, as we thought it would shake up the wounded man too much.

The enemy evidently thought that there were men still on the sinking boat, as they kept their searchlights on her and concentrated a heavy fire also. They must have wasted a few hundred rounds. This enabled us to steal away quietly, and as there was about a fourknot current running, we soon got some distance away. We had steamed over two mine-fields to get to El 5. Half-way down the .Straits we fell in with a destroyer, whieli had been ordered to stop there to support us, if necessary. THE OLD NAVY TOUGH, ' We reported what we had done, and then resumed our way out of the Straits. We first went to the Majestic on the outer southern line of patrol. When we got alongside her and asked for a doetor, he found that the wounded man was dead. The commander of the Majestic, with the true old Navy touch, instead of congratulating us all on the success of the expedition and his people on their lives being saved—only asked if they had saved any of the boat's gear! Having put the party on board, and the dead man, we shoved off and tried to find the Triuntph. which was about three miles away. 'At uightime in war, when all lights are out a-.T'l dead lights down, it is hard to see even a Wg sh'PHowever, we fount! the Triumph, am! arrived alongside at 3.10 a.m., having had an exciting time and an extremely interesting adventure. After hoisting my boat in I went and reported myself to the captain on the bridge, who was very nice about it all, and also said he had not expected to see us again.

Lieutenant-Commander Robinson was in charge of operations, and in my boat, and I carried on under him, To him the greatest credit is due, and I am glad to say he has been promoted to commander for his gallantry displayed on this and several previous occasions. As I write this on the 23rd the captain has sent me down a copy of the following signa' which has been received from the Queen Elizabeth: "The Vice-Admiral has just read with much pride the report of the torpedo attacks on the wreck of El 5 by picket boats of Triumph and Majestic. He congratulates all those who took part in this gallant enterprise, and their success was of the greatest value. The names of the crews have been telegraphed to the Admiralty at their reoue«t."