TEN HOURS IN TURRET

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 7, 10 January 1944, Page 5

TEN HOURS IN TURRET

ACTION WITH SCHARNHORST

(Special P.A. Correspondent.)

LONDON, January 8. Lieutenant C. W. J. Crocker, an Englishman who married a former Wellington girl, Miss Willow Horton, ] and who before the war was a member of the literary staff of the "Dominion" for 18 months, commanded one of the forward turrets of H.M.S. Norfolk, the cruiser which first sighted the Scharnhorst, was the first to hit her with Binch shells, and first to be hit by her, but was in for the kill. Lieutenant Crocker had the unusual experience of reporting the launching of the Scharnhorst and helping to sink her. Before the war, when second in i charge of the Berlin office of the "Morning Post," he described the Scharnhorst's launching. Lieutenant Crocker's gun crew was at action station for 10 hours during the action. Though the Norfolk was hit twice by 11-inch fehells, one of which caused a few casualties, nobody in Lieutenant Crocker's turret knew their ship had been hit till after the action. It was their job to keep the guns loaded and trained. The guns were actually fired by an English gunnery officer, who was also in action against the Bismarck. Lieutenant Crocker was the only one with New Zealand connections in the Norfolk. He previously served in the submarine Trident for 18 months. The following New Zealanders were in the battle against the Scharnhorst, in addition to those previously mentioned:—Lieutenant H. Boyack, R.N.Z.N.V.R., in the Jamaica; SubLieutenant D. L. Matheson, Plumber B. H. Barker, and Joiner J. B. Hickey, in the Duke of York; and Ordinary Seamen K. Percin, E. W. Hindle, H. D. Bell, E. Brayshaw, L. C. Lynham, D. A. Davies, W. R. Hocking, R. W. Jones, D. E. Lamb, and W, Jarvie, in the Sheffield.