THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1919, Page 8

THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND.

A GERMAN VERSION. Mr. Lewis R. Freeman, formerly official correspondent with the Grand Fleet, and who was chosen to accompany Admiral Browning on his visit to Kiel, has published an account of his memorable expedition under the title "To Kiel in the Hercules," which is published by Mr. Murray. Mr. Freeman, after trie surrender of the German fleet, was appointed keeper of the records of the Allied Armistice Commission, when Admiral Browning proceeded officially to Kiel to complete the work of surrender. Here he was able to see the condition or the people in Northern Germany, the local abundance of food, the poorness of transport, the progress of experiment and practice at the great naval air stations, with their wonderful installations. He was also able to contrast the character and moral of the Zeppelin crew with the ordinary flying service; and to note how far discipline under the Workmen's and Soldiers' Councils had penetrated the fighting force. Mr. Freeman made good use of his opiurtauii'ws, and the result is a book of (Teat, interes: Tie! chapter in the book which' will probably attract the greatest amount of aiuntion is an account of the Jutland battle given by a German commander who took part in it. He discusses the various phases of the fight in a fair and reasonable spirit, his exposition of the poinis in which each of the contending fleets excelled are generally confirmatory of British descriptions of the battle. The Germans, he states, relied upon their torpedo attack as the only chance they had of destroying the British fleet, and he proceeds: "Almost the identical conditions under which we had planned and practised to run our torpedo barrage were reproduced at Horn Reef, when the British battle fleet came into action near the end of the day, but it failed because the English Admiral anticipated it—probably because he knew in advance, as you always seemed to know everything we were doing or intended to do, what to expect—by turning away while still at the extreme limit" of effective torpedo range. Most of our torpedoes went for almost nothing, so far as damage to the enemy was concerned, in that 'barrage,' and it would have gone hard with us had there been enough daylight for the English fleet to have, continued the action. Its superior speed would have allowed it to make the range whatever its commander desired, and eves before half of the battleships were firing we were absolutely crushed by sheer weight of metal, and it would not have been long before every one <,>f our ships would have been incapable of replying." This version seems to justify Admiral Jellicoe's turning movement U» avoid the German torpedo barrage. The German commander further stated thaty, although the losses of British ships weite greater than those sustained by the* German fleet, the terrilic bombardment of the battleship squadron had so demoralised the German crews that they mused to run the risk of another battle Iwith the British, and ultimately became \o insubordinate that their officers werA powerless to control them. \ With regard to the attitude jof German women towards naval prisoners and British sailors at Hamburg afifc", v,V armistice, the author quotes an old sergeant as expressing in nautical 'phraseology his disapproval of the immoral overtures made to his men by declaring that "fifty per cent, of the girls of the lower classes of Hamburg would sell themselves for a cake of toilet/soap or a sixpenny packet of biscuits." The author adduces official testimony to the prevailing moral degeneracy iii German seaport towns. ■