STORY OF GREAT WAR

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 54, 27 November 1929, Page 10

STORY OF GREAT WAR

ACTIVITIES OF GERMAN RAIDER WOLF

SMUGGLING INFORMATION TO THE BRITISH DARING RUSE SUCCEEDS How valuable information concerning the maritime operations of the German raider Wolf was conveyed to the British naval authorities is publicly revealed for the first time in the letter published below. The writer himself was one of the large company of prisoners aboard the raider. Dominion Special Service. Auckland, November 26. Memories of the days spent as a prisoner of war on board the German raider Wolf and of a successful attempt to give information to the British Naval authorities concerning the vessel’s activities in the Pacific were revived recently when Mr. N. A. Pyne, Collector of Customs at Haapai, Tonga, read a paragraph In the -“New Zealand Herald” relating to some remarks made by Sir James Allen in a lecture on New Zealand naval defence. Sir James mentioned that the minelaying operations of the Wolf were discovered through a message thrown overboard in a bottle by a prisoner of war on the raider. Mr. Pyne was one of three prisoners who were responsible for the dispatch of the message.

One of the Romances of the War. “You can imagine how intensely interesting the paragraph was to me, and what memories it brought back when I explain that until I read it I was not aware that the bottle had been found,” Mr. Pyne writes. He then describes the capture of his ship and his efforts to send messages to some British country.

“The exploit is one of the romances of the war,” he continues. “I was purser of the Matunga, which, laden with stores and relief for the Australian Army in occupation in captured New Guinea, was captured by the Wolf off the coast of New Britain on August 6, 1917, after the raider had finished her mining operations in New Zealand and Australian waters. Our captain, navigating officers, wireless operator, and all military passengers were immediately transferred to the raider, but the rest of the crew and passengers were left on board with a German prize crew in charge. The Wolf and Matunga then steamed away to an uninhabited part of Dutch New Guinea. This journey took seven days, during which we on the Matunga had many opportunities at night of dropping bottle messages overboard. The prize crew was not very strict. ’ However, owing to the wide and unfrequented seas in this part of the world, we realised it was doubtful if any of these messages would ever be discovered. At the last minute, when the Matunga was leaving Sydney, a parcel of footballs was brought to my cabin for the soldiers at Rabauh After we were captured these were inflated and tied to bottles containing messages and thrown overboard from the Matunga at night. We were very anxious to let the authorities know that a German raider was at large, and that mines had been laid, and so perhaps save some of our people and ships from destruction. On Board the Wolf.

“When we reached Dutch New Guinea we were taken on-board the Wolf, and were amazed to find that the raider had already been out from Germany for nine months and had hundreds of prisoners in her holds, many of whom had been, there for many months,” Mr. Pyne continues. • “Among these was Captain Meadows master of the Turritella, the first ship captured by the raider away in the Indian Ocean five months previously. When I went on to the Wolf I had one football left which I took with me. When the Germans had taken all they wanted - from the cargo of the Matunga, the ship was sunk by bombs and the Wolf set a course for Singapore, where a big minefield was laid. It was extremely risky to attempt to throw anything overboard from the Wolf, as the sentries were numerous and very strict and we were constantly warned that any prisoner attempting to communicate with the shore would be instantly shot. However, Captain Meadows realised the value of a football in making a bottle conspicuous, and he was very anxious to get a message overboard. He had a knowledge of the location and extent of each minefield laid by the Wolf and valuable knowledge of the details of the armament of the raider and other particulars which would have been invaluable to the British naval authorities. A Desperate Attempt.

“So we arranged that we would make a desperate attempt to get a bottle message overboard when we were in the narrow seas of Dutch East Indies,” be continues. “A detailed message was prepared by Captain Meadows, and on the night of September 6, 1917, when the coast of Celebes was in sight, we decided to attempt to get a bottle overboard attached to a football. An Australian soldier named Chalmers had inflated the football hidden on deck, and our problem was to get the bottle containing the message up from the prisoners’ quarters below and past the sentries. Captain Meadows told me where to find the bottle, which I brought to him covered with his towel and pyjamas. I handed it to him and he casually made his way up a small ladder on to the poop toward a group of prisoners where Chalmers had the football waiting. Suddenly an alert sentry, evidently curious to know what Captain Meadows had under his towel and pyjamas, made toward the captain, but the latter was too quick for him. Desperate not to be caught with any evidence on him, he sent the sentry over on the deck with a mighty push and, lurching to the rail, he flung everything overboard. It was dark and the sentrv was not quite sure what.had happened, but he was in a great rage and had his big Mauser pistol cocked a few inches in front of the captain’s face. He appeared to be about to shoot him when an officer arrived on the scene and placed Captain Meadows under arrest. He wns confined to ttye cells for several days, but he got out of it by convincing the Germans that it was an accident and that he bumped the sentry by stumbling on a deck fitting. “It is very gratifying to know even at this late date,” concludes Mr. Pyne, “that Captain Meadows did not take his great risk in vain, and that, although the bottle had to go overboard without the last football to keep it company, the message reached those for whom it was intended and in time to be of some value to the authorities of .Great Britain and New Zealand.”

WHERE MESSAGE WAS PICKED UP STATEMENT BY SIR JAMES ALLEN Dunedin, November 26. Interviewed by a “Daily Times ' reporter to-night. Sir Janies Allen, who was Minister of Defence in New Zealand at the time of the incident, gave an account of the occurrence as it came before

the notice of the New Zealand Government.

The whole episode, he said, was introduced by the sinking of the Port Kembla, bound from Australia to Wellington, west of Cook Strait, on’ September 18, 1917. The ship it was then known was blown up, and an inquiry into the accident was instituted by the Marine Department, with the result that the ship was declared to have met. its fate by an internal explosion. Message Picked Up.

Later news was received by Sir James from the British Admiralty stating that a bottle had been picked up at the Celebes Islands containing a message from a British prisoner on board the German raider Wolf, stating that the raider had laid mines off North Cape and also west of Cook Strait. The Government took what precautions were possible, all ships leaving Auckland being instructed not to sail without definite official instructions as to the route to be taken, and machinery was ordered from England to undertake sweeping operations. This latter function was later carried out by trawlers which were commissioned for the purpose, and the seas in the danger zones were thoroughly swept. With regard to the instructions issued to the Auckland-Australia shipping, however, there was one instance of neglect of orders which resulted in tragedy. This was the case of the Wimmera, which, sailing contrary to instructions. which were to ignore the usual route and so skirt round the area in which the mines were known to lie. steamed across just off North Cape, and there struck a mine and was sunk. Sir James stated that he had not previously been aware that more than one British prisoner had been concerned in the incident aboard the Wolf. He was greatly interested, however, to learn of the part that had been played in the affair by Mr. Pyne.