Death severs war link

Press, 12 May 1980, Page 16

Death severs war link

Timaru reporter The death of Mr Herbert Reginald Walker at Dum edin has severed possibly the last link with-the destruction of the'.German light cruiser Konigsberg in July. 1915. ■ '■ Mr Walker served in the Royal New Zealand - Navy in World War I, taking part in the. memorable action against the German raider on the RUfiji River, Tanzania, which rises in the Livingstone Mountains and flows eastwards to the Indian Ocean. The Konigsberg entered the river in 1914 and forced her way so high up that

the mangrove swamps concealed her. Her engines needed a major overhaul, for which the parts had to be sent overland to the workshops of Dar-es-Salaam 'and by the time they returned the ship' had been found by the light cruisers Chatham, Dartmouth, and Weymouth; - : ; The three light cruisers’ gunfire was ineffective from seaward. Mr Walker recalled that the delay in making .an end to the •.Konigsberg resulted from .. the fact that two monitors 'with 6in guns, the Severn and ■ Mersey, had -■ to be brought to the scene. ? The . collier Newbridge

had been converted into a blockship before the monitors administered the coup-de-grace. With the aid of air observation, the monitors made short work of the Konigsberg, but not before they had suffered damage in : broadsides by the Konigsberg; : The raider had done a lot of damage before being driven up the river, and it was thought she might come down again unless either destroyed or blockaded for the duration of the war. The crew’s life was a miserable one. They were assailed by intense and

humid' heat, and tortured by insatiable insect pests. Mr Walker, a signaller throughout both actions in which the Severn and Mersey were engaged, was a resident of. the., former Beverley War Veterans’ Home in Wai-iti Road, Timaru (now the. site of the South Canterbury Returned Services’ Association’s administrative headquarters) until he was transferred to the Montecillo War Veterans’ Home in Dunedin. He was a former member of the South Canterbury branch of the E-Navalmen’s Association, and the South Canterbury R.S.A.