EXETER’S ACHIEVEMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 December 1939, Page 7

EXETER’S ACHIEVEMENT

BATTLE AT TREMENDOUS ODDS. ONLY ONE BIG GUN LEFT IN ACTION. A Daventry broadcast states that in her action with the German pocketbattleship. Admiral Graf Spee, the British cruiser. Exeter, continued to fight even when she had only one eight-inch gun fit for action. The first shot was fired by the Graf Spee at a range of 121 miles. It usually took the Exeter two hours to work up to full speed, but the engine-room staff, by a magnificent effort, achieved full speed in 20 minutes. In spite of the punishment she received, the Exeter drew closer until she came within range of the Graf Spee’s small guns and returned shell for shell. The one remaining eight-inch gun in action had to be worked by hand. An hour after the action started the steering gear of the Exeter was damaged. Many fires broke out aboard the cruiser and these were kept under by men throwing blazing material overboard and by fire parties below decks. The Graf Spee concentrated on the destruction of the Exeter. By brilliant manoeuvring, the Ajax and Achilles, darting from behind smokescreens all day long, scored many direct hits. The captain of the Exeter states that the behaviour of his officers and men was superb and there were many stories of heroism among the wounded.

British traffic is proceeding without interruption.” In a tribute to Sir Charles Forbes, in command of the Main Fleet, Mr Churchill said the Main Fleet had been more days at sea since the outbreak of war than was ever required in any equal period of modern naval warfare. He concluded by paying a tribute to the officers and men when the chance of honour came suddenly to the three cruisers in the South Atlantic, but he said that if the call had come elsewhere equal skill and courage would have been forthcoming.

“Rough and violent times lie ahead,” he said, “but everything that has happened since the outbreak of war should give the nation confidence that difficulties will be surmounted, problems solved and duty done.”