"COOL-HEADED."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 46, 23 February 1940, Page 10

"COOL-HEADED."

ALL OF SHIP'S COMPANY. * MANY A WISECRACK. I "Throughout the action there was calmness aboard the Achilles. Perhaps there was a little nervousness, but everyone. was confident,"' said Reg Pope, A.8., of Dallington, Christchurcli, who was in the lower conning tower during the battle. "When finally the Graf Spee went into Montevideo, there was a general feeling of re.lief and satisfaction that we had done our job," he added. "Of course we would have liked to have sunk her, but we realised that at Montevideo she was more or less harmless. General rumours went round as to what was going to happen next, and it was believed that the Graf Spee intended to come out again as she was patching up her holes and taking stuffs, and her crew was working tically all the time. The people at Montevideo rather hoped she would come out and everyone there was hoping to be an eye-witness of the battle which they were sure would come off. "My most vivid impression of the battle was the cool-headed way in which each man of the ship's company fought, especially the youngsters. Nearly everyone found time to make a wisecrack. It is a peculiar fact, but on an occasion like that, one's thoughts always fly to home and the people who are dear to one. A lot of the men spoke afterwards of how, in the moments before battle, the events of their life flashed before the.m. The general desire which prevailed was to hop in and get it all over. It was expected that at^least one of our ships would go down.

"The most trying time was not the actual battle," said Seaman Pope, "but the anxiety, coupled with the rumours which circulated throughout the Graf Spee's stay in Montevideo.