JOSS, THE BATTLE GOD

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2968, 4 January 1917, Page 9

JOSS, THE BATTLE GOD

TWELVE-INCH SHELLS HURLED TEN MILES THRILLING JUTLAND FIGHT STORIES (By Rudyard Kipling, in the "Daily Mail.") ; London, October 26. The doorkeepers of Zion They do not always stand In helmet and whole armour Witli halberds in their hand; But, being free of Zion And all her mysteries-, _ Thoy rest awhile in Zion, Sit down and smile in Zion, Ay, even jest in Zion, In Zion at their ease. The gatekeepers of Baal They dare not sit or lean, But fume and fret and posture And foam and curse between; z For being bound to Baal, Whose sacrifice is vain, Their rest is scant with Baal; They glare and pant for Baal. They.mouth and rant for Baal, For Baal in their pain. But we will go to Zion P.v choice and not through dread, With these our present comrades . ■ And those bur., present dead; And, being free of Zion . In both her. fellowships, Pit down and bud in Zion— Rtnnd up and drink in Zion Whatever cup-.in-Zion .'.-:. Is offered to our lips. . As one digs deeper into the records, one sees the various temperaments of men revealing themselves through all the formal wording. One commander may be an expert in torpedo-work, whose first care is how and where his shots went, and whether under, all circumstances of pace, light, ana angle the best had been achieved. Destroyers do not carry unlimited stocks of torpedoes. It rests with commanders whether they shall spend with a. free hand at first or save for nightwork ahead —risk a possible while he is yet afloat or hanc; on coldly for a certainty. So in the old whaling days did the ban-

pooner brintr up or back off his boat till some shift of the great fish's bulk gave him sure opening at the deepseated life.

And then comes the question of r>rivate judgment. "I thought so-and-so would hapnen. Therefore, I did thus and thus." Things may or may not turn out as anticipated, but that is merely another of the million chances of the sea. Take a case in point. A flotilla of our destroyers sighted six (there,had been eight the previous afternoon) German battleships of Kingly and Imperial caste, very flarly in the morning of June 1, and duly attacked. At first, ./'our people ran parallel to tho enemy, then, as far as one can make out/ headed them, and. swept round sharp to their, left, firing torpedoes from their port or left-hand tubes. Between them they hit a battleship, which went up in flames and debris. But one of the flotilla had not turned with. the rest. ■ She had anticipated that the attack would bo made .on'another .quarter, and for certain technical Teasons she was not ready. When she was, she turned, and single-handed— the rest of the flotilla having -finished and gone j oh—carried out two attacks on the five remaining battleships. She got one of them amidships, .-ausing a. terrific explosion and flame above the masthead, which, signifies that the magazine lias been touched off. She counted the battleships; when: the smoke had cleared, and there were but four of them. She herself was not hit, though shots fell close. She went her way, and, seeing nothing of heisisters, picked rip another flotilla and stared with it till the end. Do I make clear the maze of blind htwhrd and wary judgment in which our men of the sea must move? ' ;

Some of the-original flotilla were chased and headed about' by cruisers aftor their attack on tho six batlleehips, and a single shell from battleship or cruiser reduced one of them to such a condition that she was brought home by her sub-lieutenant and a ii-id-shipman. Her captain, first "iiou'tenant, gunner, torpedo-coxswain,, and both signalmen wero either ki'lod or wounded; the bridge, with charts, instruments, and signalling , .wolit; all torpedoes were expended;.a gun was out of action, and the usual'cordite fires developed. Luckily, the engines were workable. She escaped under cover of a smoke-screen, which is an unbearable filthy, outpouring of the densest smoke, made by increasing the proportion of oil to air in the furnace-feed. It rolls forth from the funnels, looking solid enouiih to sit upon, spreads in a searchlight-proof pat of impenetrable beastilin?ss, and in still weather hangs for hours. But it saved that boat.

It-is curious to note tho subdued tone of a,boy's report when, by some accident of daughter, he is raised to command. There are pertain formalities which every ship mus* comply with on entering certain ports. No fullystriped commander would trouble io detail them any more than he would the aspect of his club porter. Tlie young 'nn. puts Jit all down, as who would say:—"l rang the bell, -wiped my feet on'-the mat, and asked if they were at home." He is most careful, of the port proprieties, and since he will be sub. again to-morrow, and all his equals will tell him exactly how he ought to have handled Ber, he almost apologises for the steps he took—deeds which ashore niight be called cool or daring. Service Does Not Cush. The Senior Service does not gush. Thero are certain formulae appropriate to every occasion. One of our boats, that was knocked out early in tho day and lay helpless, was sighted by -several of her companions. One of them reported her to the authorities, but bcjjng busy at the time said he did not think himself justified in hampering himself Tijltli. a disabled ship in tho middle of an action. It was not as if she was sinking, cither. She was only holed fore-and-aft, with a bad hit in her en-gine-room, and her steering gear knocked out. In this posture she cheered the pas!»'.iig sliips, and set about repairing her hurts with good heart and a smiling countenance. Sho managed to get under some sort of way at midnight, and next day was taken in tow by a friend. She said, officially, "hjis assistance was invaluable, as I had no oil left, and met heavy weather." AVhat actually happened was much less formal. Fleet destroyers as a rule do , not worry about navigation. They take their orders from the flagship, and range out and return on signal, ..\ke shecj)-dogs whoso fixed point is their shepherd. Consequently, when they break loose on their own they fetch up rather doubtful of their whereabouts —as this injured ono did. After sho had been so kindly taken in tow, she inquired of her friend ("Messago Captaf.n to Captain"), "Havo you any notion where wo aro?" ■ Tho friend replied, "I have not, but I will find out." So the friend waited on the sun with the necessary implements, which luckily had not been smashed, and in duo if.nio made: "Our observed position at this hour is thus and thus." The Tow (irreverently) : "Is it. Didn't know you wore a- navigator." Tho frienas, with hauteur: "Yes, its rather a hobby of mine." The Tow: "Had no idea it was as had as all that; but I'm afraid

I'll have to trust you this time. Go ahead and bo quiclc about it." T-huV reached a port correctly enou;;li. but to this hour tlio Tow, having known the friend at Dartmouth, insists that it was pure Joss. And Joss, which is luck, fortvne, destiny, the irony of Fate, or Nemesis, is the greatest of all battle-gj'ls that move on the water. As .1 will sbow you later, knowledge of gunnery, nnd a delicate instinct for what is iu tto enemy's minds may enable a destroyer to thread her way, slowly,. (speeding and twisting, between heavy salvos of opposing ileots. As tho tall natiTspouts rise and break with the chill smell of the salt sea, she judges whore tho next grovo of them will spout, if her judgment is correct,, siio umy enter it in her report as a little leather ir. her cap. But it is Josa whsa the stray 12-inch shell hurled by a giant at some giant ten miles away fails on Lei from heaveni and wipes out L-er auci her profound calculations. This was scon to happen to a Huii destroyer in mid-attack. .While she was hoing laboriously dealt with by a four-inch gun, something immense took her, end —she. was not. • ■. ..

joes it is, too, when the cruisfi's eight-inch shot, that should have raked out your innards from tlie ' iforward boiler to the wardroom' stove, doh'eoU miraculously, like a twjjj dragged through deep water, and, almoiit returning on its track, goes out tnibursten, and leaves you reprieved by the breadth of a nail from throe deaths in one. Later, one singlo spiuitoi, no more, may cut ! your oil-supply pipeu bs dreadfully, and completely as a broken wind-screen in a collision cut 3 tno surprised motorist's throat. Then jf« mustlio useless, fighting oil-fires ntile the precious, fuel gutters away, till you have to ask leave to escape while there are yet a. few tons left. : One thip which was once bled white by such a piece of Joss, siiggested.it wou'd te better that oil-pipes snoiild be led along certain lines which she'sketched. As if that would make any difference to Joss when he wants to- show what ho can do! ■ ' ! Wonders of Peril. Our sea-people, who have, worked with him for 800 years,- havo acquired something of Joss's large toleration and humour. Ho causes ships in thick weather or under strain to mistake friends for enemies. At such times if your heart is full of highly-organised hato, you strafo frightfully and efficiently till one of you perishes and tho survivor reports wonders which are duly wirelessed all over tho world. But if you worship Joss,' you reflect, you put two;and two together in a casual, insular way, and arrive—sometimes both 'parties arrive—at instinctive conclusions which avoid trouble. Witness this tale. ; It does not concern, the Jutland fight, but another little affair which took placo a. while ago in the North Sea. It was understood that a certain typo of cruiser of ours would not be taking part in a certain show. Therefore, if anyone saw cruisers very like them ho might blaze at them with a clear , conscience, for thoy would be Hun-boats. And ono of our destroyers—thick, weather as usual—spied tho eilhoiiettes of cruisers exactly like our own stealing across tho haze. Said the commander to his sub. with an inflection neither period, exclamation, nor interrogation mark [ can render: — "That—is—them." Said tho sub. in precisely- tho * same ' tone:—"That is them, sir." "As my sub.," _said the commander, "your observation is strictly in.accord with the:traditions of tho service. Now/ an man to man, what are they?" ' "AVe-el," said the sub., "since you put it that way, I'm d d if I'd Jiro." And they didn't, • and they wero quito right. Tho destroyer had been off on another job, and Joss had jammed the latest wireless orders to her at the last moment. But Joss had also put it,into the hearts;,of theboys to save themselves and others. I hold no brief for' tho Hun, hut honestly I think he has not ! lied as much , about the Jutland fight as,people believe, and that when ho protests he sank a ship ho did very completely, sink a ship. lam the more confirmed, in this belief by'a still small voice among the re'ports, musing aloud over an account of an unaccountable outlying brawl witnessed by one of our destroyers. The voice suggests that what the destroyer saw was one German ship being sunk by another. Amen!

Our destroyers saw a good deal that night on the face of the waters. Some of them who were working in "areas of comparative calm" submit charts of their tangled courses, all studded with notes along the zig-zag—something like this: .

8 p.m. Heard explosion to the northwest. (A neat arrow head points that way.) Half an inch further, along a short change of course, and the word Hit explains the meaning of: "Sighted enemy cruiser engaged with destroyers." Another twist follows. "9.30 p.m.—-Passed wreckage. , Engaged enemy destroyers port beam opposite courses." A long straight sketch without incident, then a tangle, and: Picked up survivors of So-and-So. A stretch over to some ship that thoy were transferred to, a fresh departure, and another brush with "Singlo destroyer on parallel course. Hit. 0.7 a.m. —Passed bows enemy cruiser sticking up. o.lß—Joined flotilla for attack on battleship squadroni So it runs ou —one little ship in a few short hours passing through more wonders of peril and accident than all the old'fleets ever dreamed. In years to come naval exports will collate all those diagrams and argue over them. A lot of the destroyer work was inevitably as mixed as bombing down a trench, as a scuffle of a polo match, or as-the hot, heaving heart of a football scrum. It is difficult to realise when one considers the size of the sea that it is that very size and absence of boundary which helps the confusion. To give an idea, here is a letter (it has been quoted before, I believe, but it is good enough to repeat niany times) from a 19-year-old child in a destroyer to his friend aged 17 (and minus one leg) in a hospital :— "I'm so awfully sorry you weren't iu it. It was rather terrible but a wonderful experience, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything, but, by Jove, it isn't a. thing one wants to make a habit of. I must say it is very different from what I expected. I expected io bo excited, but was not a bit. It's hard to express what we did feel like, tut you know the sort of feeling, one has when ono goes in to bat at cricket, and rather a lot depends upon your doing well, and you are waiting for the first ball. Well, it's very much tlie same as that. Do you know that I mean ? A sort of tense feeling, not quito knowing what to expect, flue does not feel the slightest bit f.'ijj.btened, and the idea that there's' a chance of you and your .-.hip lu.'irg scuppered docs not enter one's head. There aro too many other things to think about."

Follows the usual "no ship like rur ship talkec, and a note of where she was at tho time.

"Then thoy ordered us to attack, so we bustled off full bore. Being navigator, also having control of all the guns, I was on the bridge all tlie timo, and remained for twelve hours without leaving it at all. When wo got fairly close I sighted a good-look-ing Hun destroyer which I thought I'd liko to strafe. You know, it's awful fun to know that you can blaze oft' at a- real ship, and do as much damage as you like. _ Well, I'd just got their range on tho guns, and wo'd just fired one round, when some more of our destroyers coming from the opposite direction got between us and the enemy, and completely blanketed US) so we had to stop, which was rather rot., Shortly afterwards, they recalled us, so we bustled back again. How

any destroyer got out of it is perfectly wonderful. Hail of Shells. "LiLerally there were hundreds of progs (shells in water) all round us, from a loin, to a 4in., and you know what a big splash a loin, bursting in the water does make. AVo got washed through by the spray. Just as we were getting back a whole salvo of big shells fell just in front of us and short of our big ships. Tho skipper and I did rapid calculations as to how long it would take them to reload, lire again, time of flight, etc., as we hsd to go right through the spot. AVo came to the conclusion that, as they were short a bit they would probably go up a bit and (they?) didn't, hut luckily they altered -deflection, aud tho next fell right astorn of us. Anyhow wo_ managed to come out of that row without tho ship or a man on board being touched. i

"It's extraordinary the amount of knocking about tho big ships can stand. One saw them hit, and they seemed to bo one mass of flame and smoke, and you think they're gone, hut when the smoke clears away thoy are apparently none the worse, and still firing away. But to see a ship blow up is a' terriblo and wonderful sight; an enormous volume of flame and smoke almost 200 feet high, and great pieces of metal, etc., blown sky high, and then when the smoko clears, not a sign of the ship. AVe saw one other extraordinary sight. Of course, you know tho North Sea. is very shallow. AVo came across a Hun cruiser absolutely on end. His stern on tho bottom and his bow sticking up about 30 feot in the water, and a h'ttie further on a destroyer in precisely the same position. "I couldn't bo certain, but I rather think I saw your old ship crashing along and blazing away, .but 1 expect you have heard from some of your pals. But > the njight far and away the worst time of all. It teas pitch dark', and, of course, absolutely no lights, and tho firing seems so much more at night as you could sec the flashes lighting up the sky, and it seemed to rnako, much more noise, and you could see ships on fire and blowing up. Of course, we showed absolutely no lights. One expected to be surprised any moment, and eventually wo were. Wo suddenly found ourselvos within 1000 .yards of two or three big Him cruisers. They switched on their searchlights and etarted firing like iiothj'.ng_ou earth. Then they put their searchlights on us, but for some extraordinary reason did not firo on us. As, of courso, we woro going full speed, we lost them in a moment, but 1 must say that, 1, and I think everybody else, thought that that was the ond, but one docs not fool afraid or panicky! I think I felt rather cooler then than at liny, othor -t|in«3. I asked lots of people afterwards what they felt like, and'they all said the. same thing. It all happens in a few seconds; one hasn't time to think, but never in all my life havq 1 been so thankful to see daylight again—and 1 don't think I ever want to see another .ltfglit like that—it's siicli an awful strain, One does not notice it at the time, but it's the reaction afterwards.

"I never noticed I was tired till 1 got back to harbour, and then wo all turned in and absolutely slept liko dogs. AA'o wore 72 hours with little or no sleep. Tho skipper was perfectly wonderful. Ho never left the bridge for a minute for 24 hours, and was on tho bridge or in the charthouse the whole time we wero out (the charthouse- is an airy dog,'kennel that opens off tho bridge), and I'vo never seen anybody so cool and unruffled,. Ho stood thero smoking bis pipo as if nothing out of the- ordinary were happening. "Ono quito forgot a'l about' time. I was relieved at i a.m., and on looking at my watcli found I had been up there nearly twelve hours, and then discovered I was , rather hungry. Tho skipper and 1 had some cheese and biscuits, ham sandwiches, and water on the l/ridge, : and then I went down and brewed some cocoa and slip's biscuits."