“ONE & ALL SUPERB”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 December 1939, Page 7

“ONE & ALL SUPERB”

THE EXETER’S MAGNIFICENT FIGHT ACTION AGAINST GRAF SPEE. STORY TOLD BY COLONIAL GOVERNOR. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) RUGBY, December 19. According to an account of the action between the Exeter and the Admiral Graf Spee which has reached England from a British colonial governor, Wednesday was a cloudless day, calm and with perfect visibility. Exeter, Ajax and Achilles, in company, sighted a battleship which was believed to be the Admiral Scheer throughout the action. The enemy spotted the high mast of the Exeter soon after six and opened fire at about 121 miles. The Exeter returned the fire, the vessels steaming parallel. The first salvo from the German eleven-inch guns fell short. The second fell directly astern. The third and fourth missed, but the fifth scored a hit and the seventh a direct hit. The impact of a shell on the forward turret killed outright eight out of the fifteen of the crew of the gun turret and made havoc of the bridge immediately above. The Exeter closed, receiving three or four more hits from eleven-inch shells and coming under the fire of the Graf Spee’s 5.9 inch guns. She returned shot for shot, till only one eight-inch gun could be fired, and that by hand. Numerous shells which fell alongside riddled the ship's side and upper works on bursting. The steering gear was damaged just after seven o’clock and for the following forty-five minutes the captain steered by a boat compass from the after control, just forward of the mainmast. Through a chain of some ten sailors, directions were conveyed from man to man to the after steering wheel and engine room, until the ship was no longer serviceable as a fighting unit and fell out of action. Numerous fires broke out on board, but were kept under by gallant men throwing burning material into the' sea and below deck, where the outbreaks were most numerous, by the staunchness of the fire parties. The intrepid and cool officers and men were one and all, in the captain’s words, superb. When a salvo hit the Exeter’s bridge,' the captain was unscathed. He said the men of the engine room staff were beyond praise. They raised full speed in twenty minutes, which normally takes two hours.