BALACLAVA OF THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 July 1916, Page 3

BALACLAVA OF THE SEA.

ARDENT'S GREAT VICTIM. GERMAN BATTLESHIP TORPEDOED AMIDSHIPS. ' North-East Coast Port. The crow of a British destroyer who have arrived here give a thrilling description of how a German battleship was sunk by a destroyer which, they state, was the Ardent. Our destroyers, led by the Tipperary, they say, went into action first, and, smash'ing past the German destroyers, rushed at the German battleships and cruisers, which opened a heavy fire. The British destroyers, nothing dauntied, dashed through a storm of bursting shell.!. One of the first enemy hits was on the Tipperary, which was struck by & liugc shell. She was instantly enveloped in a sheet of flame 'i ;l quickly sank. The other destrl.-vn never slackened, but manoeuvred skillfully to bring their torpedo tubes into nlay, while their guns were barking all the, time, and registering many hits. By this time the action was general. Our cruisers, which had quickly followed the mosquito flotilla, were letting go their big guns. A British cruiser dashed past a German battleship at tremendous pace and delivered a broadside at her. As the cruiser pressed forward the Ardent seized her chance, and, steer ing into position, let go a torpedo which seemed to strike its mark amidship:-.. The German vessel lurched and heeled and the crews were seen rushing about the decks.

The gallant little destroyer spun round and dashed off towards other German vessels, and that was the last .that the crew who witnessed her glorious exploit saw of, her. The German battleship slowly settled down, the crew leaving her meanwhile My informants state that they did not actually sec the battleship sink, for their own vessel went ahead into the thickest of the fight i

DESTROYERS' CHARGE. ATTACKS AT .THIRTY YARDS. BRITISH OFFICER'S NARRATIVE. \ . How the British attacked from beginning to end in the great battle has just beer told to me by an officer of one of the larger vessels that took part in the engagement. "What people have failed so far to realise" ne said, "is that there was upt a moment in the whole battle when the Germans were not trying to get away, and they would have done so early if we had not out them off by manoeuvring eastward and getting between them and Germany. "It was about hali'-past Hhree o'clock in the afternoon when the look-out reported boats ahead, and our light cruisers were the first in action. It was the Galatea, I think, that fired the opening shot, and from that moment the initiative rested with the British, except for one attack by the German destroyers which we repulsed. "It would take some time to collect all the features of this engagement, but I am sure that historians will say that in its details and as a whole it was one of the finest things in the annals of the British Navy. "I always knew that we had plenty of pluck, but I never realised.we had so much, ginger as was displayed 011 this occasion. If there was any fault at all, it was the magnificent one of small vessels often attacking opponents so mighty as to give hardly any chance of success. And yet many of •them were winning through by their audacity.

"OFF LIKE MAD* "Our destroyers were simply amazing. Directly they got the order from their squadron commander 'Destroyers to attack' they were off like mad, steaming 30 knots on hour, and racing up to within 30 yards of the biggest German bflttleship to despatch tliqir torpedoes. They were bound to suffer, considering the risks they took, for huge shells were being fifed at them all the while and any one of the big shells was capable of smashing them. But the hazards were justified by results. 1 "I saw four destroyers all converging at once on a German Dreadnought cruiser. They were travelling at top speed and stopped for nothing until they got within range. It was a kind of Balaclava charge on the sea, and they got their objective. The battleship—of the Hiudenburg class, although I am not sure it was the Hindenburg herself—was sunk by, I understand. the destroyer Onslaught during a night attack. The Onslaught went closely in under heavy fire, and caught the German battleship with a torpedo. "As is bound to be the case in the present-day long-range fighting, the engagement was broken oft' from time to time because the ships lost sight of one another; but the British were always returning to the attack, displaying hunger for the fight.

FATAL CHANCE SHOTS. "Nothing could have been finer than the way in which Sir R. Arbutlinot went in with his squadron, consisting of the Defence, the Warrior, and the Black Prince, to deliver an attack, unsupported. oil the whole German Fleet. His ship went down, but he kept practically the entire German Fleet at bay for a long while and did a tremejidous amount of damage. If our battleships had been able to get up a little sooner the reward of his daring would have been great. v "Admiral Hood manoeuvred his squadron of battle-cruisers magnificently when at half-past six in the evening they went into action, and it was really bad luck that the Queen Mary, Indefatigable, and Invincible were lost, because thej> were purely chance shots which brought about their destruction. The armour would jiuivo withstood any amount of shell-fire. I bill' n each case a shell took the top olf llie turret and the explosion went down , n f.lio magazine, with the result that " • ship blew up. X'he Invincible, which had sunk a ijerman light cruiser at 5.45 p.m. after 'an action lasting five minutes, tackled a vessel of the Derlilinger class. The (iereian ship was hit by the first salvo am! was getting several knock to every one site got home on the Invincible, when the shell came that caught the British vessel's magazine. The Invincible split in tlie middle and sank in ten seconds. There were only six

survivors, alid when they came up they witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of both the bow and stern of their ship standing vertically 50 feet out of the water. '•Commander Dannrenther and the others saved were picked up by a British torpedo boat alter being in the water half-an-hour. The ship tlicy had been fighting was subsequently sunk. The duel in this case took place at a range of SOIIO yards—comparatively short, but even so the light was so bad that one only sighted a boat at that distance. It was the mist that enabled the Germans to get away. They had a fearful hammering from which it will take them a long time to recover. They had 17 battleships against our four, but they were always on the defensive."

FIRST BLOOD TO SHARK, TWO HUN DESTROYERS TORPEDOED. FIVE HOURS' WATCH FROM RAFT. Portsmouth, June 4. Fate has spared several men of the Shark, the leading ship of the destroyer flotilla (six were landed at Hull by a Danish boat). One of thcin told the grand, terrible story of the fight: "It was foggy misty, and smoky, and the lines gaped like the jaws of hell spitting fire as she entered them. As the little Revenge ran on right into the midst of the fighting, so the little Shark ran on down this lane of death. Destroyers to the right of her, destroyers to the left of her. Firing from her deck amid a hail of shell from the enemy destroyers, the Shark began the fight (on the British side). As soon as she ran into torpedo range, still unscathed by the enemy's fire, she loosed a torpedo from her starboard side. Straight to its mark it went, and out of action, sinking fast, went the leading German destroyer. First blood to the English.

"No cheers went up. It was all too grim and bloody and busy a moment. Almost at the same time a port side tube fired, and again the mark was hit. In a spot of flame and smoke and a mountain of unlifted water a second German destroyer went down. And now the glorious run, scarce begun, was ended in the twinkling of an eye, for converging on the Shark from either side came two torpedoes. They struck us at the same time somewhere amidship, and in a minute all that were left of us were in the water. "I and two others found a raft. Ther* were seven or eight of our men on another raft, and that was the end of the battle fo'- us. It was not ten minutes from the time the first shot was .fired. In ten minutes we had downed a couple of German destroyers and gone down ourselves.

THE HINFIEXBURG ARRIVES. "For five hours we sat on the raft and watched the battle go on. We saw the big Germans come up. Five Hindenburgs (the heaviest class) we reckoned them to be, and the Zeppelins came up with them, scouting ahead and dropping bombs on our Fleet as they went. The firing was continuous 011 both sides, and tile way the smaller destroyers went under was terrible. It seemed to us on the raft that one big shell was sufficient. Just one great explosion and then one destroyer less. "We soon saw thai the five German big ships were concentrating their tiro 011 one vessel after another. Our own ships were lepl.ving and were also busy firing 011 the Gorman torepdo and destroyer craft and sinking one after the other. There was so much going on that I could not tell you just what happened 01 in what order. "As our raft drifted out of sight we men on it grew cold and exhausted, and one after the other we slipped into the sea, had a for exercise, and were pulled or again by our comrades. It was five hours before we were picked up, and one of our lot died 011 board." One of the survivors told the Danish skipper at Hull that the commander, with his leg blown off at the knee, still served the only gun left, helped by two of his men, till ship and commander went down.

THE NEW ZEALAND'S PART. A CHARMED LlFft London, June 0. The New Zealand undoubtedly l)ad 011 May 31 her greatest fight of nil, for she came into action when tilings were hottest, and remained there in the thick of it, engaged with the Gcri.van battle cruisers and the van of (lie battle iquadrons until the arrival of the Grand Fleet put the Germans to flight. There are rumors than our ship got back to her base with her funnels hanging over the side; but I think this can be discounted. When I saw the New Zealand just a week before the battle, she was carrying ihe flag pro teni of Rear-Admiral W. C. Parkenham, C.8., M.V.0., whose own flagship, the Australia, was enjoying an overhaul iit dockyard. The reason of her overhaul has been represented to be a serious collision with the New Zealand, and it is said in some quarters that Australians are very much annoyed that the Dominion ship should have been the cause of keeping the Australia out of this important engagement. As a -natter of fact, the ships were in collision, as I stated in one of my letters, but the damage was very slight. The Second Cruiser Squadron, to which the New Zealand was attached, was commanded by Admiral Pakenlmni, but Admiral Hood flew his flag as second in command of the Cruiser Fleet in the Invincible. This grouping was rendered necessary by the slower speed of the New Zealand, which could not keep up with the Lioi' and her consorts. Sir Albert Spieer has received a letter from his son, who is flag-lieutenant to Admire' Pakenlmm on the New Zealand. "Thip ship," he wrote, "bore a charmed li' a and suffered to the smallest exlent, though we were right in it the whole time." it is stated to have been about two hours before the Second Squadron came into action to the help of Admiral tyAccording to all accounts tlie New Zealand was then leading her squadron, and henceforth kept station just j behind the Tiger, which was the last ship of the First squadron. The Indefatigable followed her, and then the Invincible and Inflexible. As soon as they came into action these ships drew the brunt of the fire of most if the enemy fleet. The Invincible'.". duel with a modern battlecruiser lasted only about fifteen min- | utes. She pi i up a great fight, but the few years which she gave <l—-v in de-