DODGING TORPEDOES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 March 1940, Page 6

DODGING TORPEDOES

GRAF' SPEE IN RIVER PLATE • BATTLE. EXPERIENCE OF BRITISH SEAMEN ABOARD WARSHIP. LONDON. January 20. Archard D. Dixon, twenty-one-year-old sheep farmer, who was working his way from New Zealand to join the R.A.F. when his ship, the Tairoa, was sunk by the Graf Spec, on his arrival at Tilbury, described how the pocket battleship swerved to miss torpedoes during the battle of)’ Montevideo. -We were wakened just before 6 a.m. by the sound of the buzzers and we heard the men dashing to action stations.” hd said. "We leapt from our bunks and tried to figure out what was happening. "We felt the Graf Spec alter course. Her guns fired. She altered course again. We felt her speed increasing until we felt sure she was racing from danger. We know she was not attacking. because her stern guns were doing all the firing, "We saw the wounded coming down. Thon the Graf Spec began to rock as she zigzagged. Later the commander told us that he had been dodging a torpedo attack. Two large torpedoes skimmed past the racing battleship.

“At 10.10 our narrow escape came. At that moment the Graf Spec—and ourselves —should have been blown sky high. Our cabin was directly above the magazine. A British shell struck the roof of our room and exploded on an armour-plated girder. Two large splinters tore through the walls and a smaller piece hit one of our men on the arm.

"Later 'Jericho.' the master-at-arms, came into our room and told us that thirty-eight of the Graf Spec crew had been killed. Then ho picked up a large shell splinter from the floor and smiled. 'Made in England, ja'? he said. “He told me that a young German sailor I knew had both his legs shot away. He had asked I hern to cover him wit a blanket and then he shot himself with a revolver. Jericho said it was a pity, as the lad had been engaged to a girl in Germany. “Next day I saw Captain LangSdorff

He had some slight wounds on his face and his arms folded across his breast. At 6.15 that evening they let us ashore."

Captains of five British ships sunk by the Graf Spec, who were prisoners in her during the River Plate battle also arrived home this week. They are convinced that Captain LangsdorfT would not have scuttled his ship but for orders from Hitler. They all described Captain Langsdorfl' as the type of man who would not willingly have sunk his own ship. He would' they said, have' gone to sea again to fight it out after the Graf Spec had been repaired. Describing the battle. Captain Patrick Dove, of the Africa Shell, said: “I was able to see some of it. because a skylight above us was blown in by a shell. Masterly shooting and daring tactics by the British ships won the day. A game of bridge was being played at one point when the battle was on. and a shell-burst blew 'Dummy's' hand oil' the table. After the battle Captain LangsdorfT said to me 'You English people are very hard. You come back and ask for more'."