RAID ON CUXHAVEN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2390, 20 February 1915, Page 8

RAID ON CUXHAVEN

BRILLIANT ACHIEVEMENT

SIGNIFICANT OBJECT LESSON

AIRCRAFT AND SHIPS IN ACTION London, January 0.. Christmas Day, 1914, will bo memorable in the annals of warfare as dawning on a sight new in the history of mankind. For the first time in warfare man waged war simultaneously in the air, in the water, and Tinder the water. Tlie attack delivered by the British Navy .by, aircraft, warships, and submarines on the German naval base at Cuxhaven and the German warships lying in German sea roads , was daringly conceived and r brilliantly executed. Seven British seaplanes, escorted by light cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, started from near Heligoland to make an air attack on German warships, in, Schillig Roads, off Cuxhaven. Tho attack was delivered, at daylight on Christmas morning. It was directed partly at the Gorman ships in the roads and partly at v the - works at Ouxhaven itself. As soon as the seven British seaplanes which'made it were seen, the startled Germans hurriodly rushed out from their stronghold, and attacked the supporting ships with two Zeppelins and two or three hostile seaplanes,-assisted by several submarines, but not before the British airmen had .dropped their bombs on the pre-determined point of attack. Then ensued an extraordinary combat. The enemy's aircraft and submarines. attacked the British ships from above and below, and the opposing seaplanes waged a duel in the air, like angry dragon-flies attacking each other, and dodging the shells fired,from below from anti-aircraft guns. All the honours of the combat remained with the British Navy. The anti-aircraft guns of the British cruisers easily put tho vaunted Zeppelins to flight. Tho German bombs fell harmlessly,'while the-skilful handling of the swift British cruisers enabled them-to. avoid the submarines as well. For three hours the ships had to remain in the neighbourhood of Heligoland, in order to pick up , the returning airmen. They succeeded in embarking three out of the seven with their machines. The British submarinespicked -up three more of the pilots, but the final one—FlightCommander Hewlett, a son of the famous novelist—was picked Hp; by a Dutch fishing boat, and taken' to Holland;

' Dashing and Prompt Reply, - The Navy's dashing and prompt reply to Germany's piratical raid on Yorkshire coast has several significant features. It was an object lesson, to the whole world that the old British spirit which made the Empire still survives, and that British!daring',.enterprise and resourcefulness on'the;sea...are still as marked as they' were in, the. days, of Nelson. The exploit is a striking-proof of how entirely Great. Britain is mistress of ■ the sea's. It was u brilliant achievement'oil the part of the, Navy to send, such diverse types as' cruisers, submarines, destroyersand' ■ seaplanes across,the Nbrth Sea to. penetrate the most important points, on the German roast, 300 miles from the nearest, English port, and, in the words of. the Admiralty • report, Remain "for three hours off the enemy's coast without being molested by any surfaco vessel." German warships which attack uiifortilied English towns 1 and murder women and children kept inside their harbours during those three hours without attempting to . engage the British ships. The exploit has proved that the Gorman squadrons are not so secure in their harbours and. behind thfeir fortifications as was imagined, and the people of Germany have been considerably startled at the ease'with which the British cruisers inad& their way through the mine field; in the German Bight, which was believed to be an iinpregnabla defence to the German coast. Not the least gratifying feature of the attack .was the success achieved bv British seaplanes on the first occasion of their use in. warfare, which is ■extremely, satisfactory to those naval experts who have , always insisted that the waterplane was likely to prove Great Britain's best aerial weapon in warfare. The British exploit caused the greatest anger and } alarm in Germany. Though, the amount of damage" done by L t_ British .-waterplanes was strictly hushed up, and the German Press comments ' reserved ; and meagre, there is reason to believe that the consequences of the attack were great. Owing to tho fog at- the time of the raid the 'air pilots were unable to see the, extent of the damage done by their bombs, but the missiles , were all. disoharged on points of military significance. From German sources it-has transpired that many of the attempts of the ■ British waterplanes reached their aim.' So seriously was ■ the raid regarded by the Kaiser that he summoned Prince Henry ot Prussia, to his* headquarters to con-. Mr with him and Admiral von Tirpitz. Ine Kaiser asked for an exhaustive report as to the, damage done at Cuxhavon. _ The . conference took place in the Kaiser's private rooms, and lasted several hours, after which .Prince-Henry returned, to Kiel by special train, with instructions.

raicuug force and the Gorman defenders' was the first one in which, aircraft and ships have opposed one another, arid the first time in which ships have oncountered Zeppelins. Prom the brief Admiralty account of the engagement, it is apparent that Zeppelins can be driven away by ships' guns, and that it is not easy to drop bombs from seaplanes so as to hit moving ships. It shows also that against ships iii movement submarines may' be unable to discharge their torpedoes with effect, that the German airships; of which so much was expected, should have failed m their first naval action is a fact of special significance. The Admiralty report 6ays tliat the two Zoppelins wero 'really put to flight": by tho. guns of tho convoy cruisers, but unofficial reports reveal the additional, information that one of! the airships was badly damaged, and had to take to immediate night. "Tho Zeppelins are practically useless against our 6hips,"' said a member of the crow of one of the British vessels engaged. "A Zeppelin flew over us and two of his bombs dropped eloso to us, but . we banged away , at him, and he turned and got away out of our fire." Arethusa. and' Undaunted. Tho British cruiser convoys included the Undaunted and the Arothusa, two of tho new oil-driven cruisers which were ordered by Mr. Churchill whon bo took office. They have already made their mark in the naval warfare. The Arethusa was in the fight in tho Heligoland Big Tit 011 August 28, where slio led the destroyer flotillas, and was directly engaged with the German eruisors. It was for the gallant conduct of her officers and men on this occasion that the Admiralty gave directions for a brass plate, suitably inscribed, to bo placed on her quarter-deck as a permanent memento of tho engagement. Tho Undaunted is her sister ship, and she also was distinguished by the part sho played as leader of a destroyer flotilla 011 October 17. On tb(it occasion four German destroyers were engaged and sunk. She was thou tinder tho command of. Captain Cccil Fox, formerly of tho Amphion. It was remarkable tluit none of tho convoy was damaged during three hours' engagement, cither by submarines or aircriift. Their escape was a high tribute to the British seamanship displayed oil the occasion. British destroyers executed swift circling movements around lwit oruijet gauadrcm, and auceia-

fully frustrated the submarine attaoks. All the torpedoes directed at tho British cruisers fell harmlessly into tho water. The Arethusa and tho Undaunted beat off tho Zeppelin attacks with ease, and tho bombs dropped by German airmen fell wide, tho nearest being twenty yards distant from tho vessel aimed at. "The British vessels," said tho Admiralty report, "remained for three hours off. the enemy's coast without being molested by any surface vessels, a.nd safely re-em-barked three out of tho seven airmen with their machines. Three other pilots who returned later were picked up, according to arrangement, by British submarines, which were standing by, thoir machine being sunk." Surely the ocean ha 3 seen no stranger sight than that revealed in the last sentence of dry officialdom 1 The imagination of a Jules Verno nover conceived anything half so strango as this actual event or flying men dropping from the clouds to the sea, and entering into a strange grey monster which sank with them beneath the water. The Admiralty dispatch did not trouble to mention why the submarines were detailed for this duty. The reason gives an added touch of picturesqueness to a remarkable record. A submarine is easily seen from' a' height by airmen, because its submerged body 6hows black, in the water. The seaplanes could not be taken on to the submarines, so they had to be destroyed. While the German raid on tho' oast coast was directed against practically defenceless English towns, the British raid was one of the utmost military significance and value. Cuxhaven, tho fortified port at the mouth of the Elbe, has for the past year and a half been tlie principal German naval airship base. There, in a series of revolving sheds, each capable of housing two of largest Zeppelins, the German . Admiralty has mobilised 1 a vast fleet of dirigibles arid airships. The' scheme of making Cuxhaven thei base for German, naval airships was carried out in the belief that Cuxhaven was the ideal station for an air fleet whose task it would 6ome day, be to make an air raid to the British coasts.. It is also a fortified torpedo station. The fortifications at Cuxhaven are for the protection of the Elbe estuary and the passage to the entrance of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal.' The town itself belongs to the State of Hamburg, and is 71 miles by rail north-west of Hamburg. It has a good harbour, constructed in 1891-9G, with a depth of 26} feet, and an outer port 1000 feet long by 800 feet wide. The Hamburg Amerika Steamship Company used the port as the place of arrival and'departure of their small steamers.