CADETS’ LUCK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21303, 15 January 1944, Page 4

CADETS’ LUCK

FOURTEEN N.Z. MEN

SCHARNHORST ACTION

SERVED IN CRUISER

(By Telegraph—Press jvssn-—Copyright.) (Special Correspondent.) (9 a..m) LONDON, Jan. 14

To take part in the great naval battle resulting in the sinking of the Sehgrnhorst only two months after arriving in England from New Zealand and during their first sea-going trip in a warship was the luck of 14 cadets who were training to take comrpissions. Their job in the battle was supplying the guns of H.M.S. Sheffield, which fired several salvos at the Scharnhorst, hitting her, it is believed, with the second salvo. They are Ordinary Seamen W. E. Brown, Auckland, R. W. Jones, Auckland, W. Jarvie, E. W. Hindle, E. Brayshaw, W. R. Hocking, D. H. Davies, all of Wellington, P. Bell, Matamata, L. C. Linehan, Tauranga, B. E. Lamb. Christchurch, HV D. Bell. Lake Wanaka, H. G. Perrin, Palmerston North, F. P. Brady, Napier, and A. H. Donovan, Dunedin.

Ordinary Seamen Hindle said: “The captain kept the ship's company in? formed of the course of the action by reporting it over the ship's loudspeaker system. For the most part wo were kept too busy to see anything, but once I was detailed to carry bread from the bakery to the galley for the evening action meal. I could see on the horizon the Duke of York and the Scharnhorst exchanging salvos. You could tell the Scharnhorst by the flashes of the different type of cordite she was using.” Ordinary Seamen Brown said: “Most df us managed to see the final stages Of the battle which in the distance looked like a fireworks display. The Scharnhorst was firing in 'all directions at everything, including starshells. We did not, of course, see the Scharnhorst go down because it was dark and she was too far away, but there was a great cheer when the captain announced that she was sunk.”

At a Russian port Ordinary Seamen E. H. 'Hart, Wanganui, and R. Burrell, Palmerston North, transferred to the Sheffield from a destroyer. They were in the same course as the others. All Will eventually undergo further training in H.M.S. King Alfred, where hundreds of New Zealanders have already been commissioned.