THE NORTH SEA BATTLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1916, Page 10

THE NORTH SEA BATTLE.

GRAPHIC S'fORIF.S OF TIIK FIGHT. ••si'Hßoi'xi)i-:i) i:v siif.li.s." FATI-: (>!•' GERMAN SHIPS. Many stirring incidents of the great naval battle in the Xorth Sea are described by oflicers and men of the liritish Navy. The following narratives, which came to hand by the last mail, give a vivid, picture of the great light:— Watching the action from the upper bridge of the light cruiser Phaeton, a potty officer was enabled to obtain a commanding view of the battle. Though his vessel was engaged practically all the time, and the enemy fire was concentrated on her, and though she encountered submarines, she escaped with no further damage thiui a hole in her side.

The following are extracts from the letter:

Wo won a marvellous victory. We were accompanied by battle-cruisers and four battleships of the Queen Elizabeth type. We steamed at a leisurely speed despite the fact that submarines had been recently reported. The Galatea and Phaeton were in company, the former being the leading ship. At 2.10 p.m., while >wc were scouting, the Galatea iioisted the signals, "Prepare for immediate action." "Enemy in sight."

HOTLY ENGAGED. At that time we were proceeding at 22 knots, but wo accelerated the speed to 32 knots. Of course, at the first signal every man went to his proper station. We sighted two enemy destroyers attacking or boarding the steamer Fjord, but, needless to sav, they did not trouble much about her when we made our appearance. We opened lire at. them at 2.28 p.m., and they replied, but were considerably out of range. We were just beginning to enjoy ourselves when the appearance of three heavy enemy cruisers considerably increased our danger. The Phaeton and Galatea were still in company. We sent in salvo after salvo, but nothing struck us, and when we had learned all we could we turned to port and started to meet our main battle fleet. By this time we were in the midst of shells, and although we were being hotly engaged we decreased our speed to 25 knots in order to allow the enemy to close in a little. But heavier shells caused us again to increase our speed. We were never out of sight of the German fleet. '

HARD PRESSED. The Inconstant and Cordelia, the two other ships of our squadron, came tearing up, repeated our signals, "Enemy in Isight,'" and opened fire at tJhem. "Cease lire" was shortly afterwards given, although their shells, coming from bigger guns, could still reach ua. Ours were outside the range. Then ether light cruisers came up, but, realising that we were outside the range, no more shells were fired from the Phaeton at that time.

At ;1.2S a submarine came alongside, but More Ave could turn our guns on lier she had disappeared. Next our battle-cruisers carne up and our 15in 'battleships promptly opened up the action, which lasted till .5.40 p.m. —two hours 12 minutes—when we were reinforced by our battle-fleet. During this time our small fleet were engaging practically every ship of the German Navy. We were beginning to get hard pressed. Two of our battle-cruisers were sunk and niost of t'he others were seriously damaged. Two of our cruisers crossed our how. I do not know whether tliey wore the Defence and Black Prince or the Defence and Warrior. But the Defence fired four or live salvos, when she had an explosion aft. When the smoke had cleared we could still see her ploughing on with everything aft gone. She. fired another salvo, and immediately went up forward. All we saw was the flash of her guns, a cloud of smoke, and then a terrible (lame which practically enveloped her. When it cleared nothing was discerned.

enemy: vessels sunk. One shell went through our two funnels, another salvo dropped on our port quarter, and helped to shove us on a hit. We were practically surrounded by shells, and the terrible roar of our guns, coupled with the deafening sound of the enemy shells and the hot air blast, made the experience, one which will never be forgotten. We saw a cruiser—l think it must have been the Warrior—looming out of action with her bridge gone and severely damaged. We were ' watching the German fleet and .saw two 'of their ships go. Jt was nothing short of a miracle, that we came out of action safely, seeing that we were the first engaged and had practically all the enemy lire concentrated on us and the Galatea. We were right in the thick of it. But the end came with no casualties; not a single shell had taken elt'eet on any of the crew. A salvo of big shells dropped over our stern, and then came some shells over our bridge. One of these got entangled in our foiestay. It twisted round it three times and then bounced away still screaming. It was a pretty hot action.

Dlill'TLW TO DESTRITTIOX. GERMAX CRUISER'S FATE. Writing of the light cruiser and destroyer fight, a midshipman says:—"l saw a destroyer hit by a projectile, crumple up and disappear; another was hit by three projectiles, with the same result. One of the cruisers, which had broken down and stopped, drifted down about half-way between the lines and received fearful punishment. She also was torpedoed. For a moment, When the fog lifted, I saw clearly the Kaiser. She was on lire in two places aft and one forward, and we could see that she would not remain afloat much longer. During the nif." itt they were harassed constantly by destroyers, and we could see Hushes all along the 'horizon. After '»bout 1 ■p.m. nothing more was heard from them, and, as far as we know at ! present, the ships that could make good their escape did so. We wore at our action stations for il hours."