STORY OF GREAT WAR

Hokitika Guardian, 30 November 1929, Page 7

STORY OF GREAT WAR

ACTIVITIES OF GERMAN RAIDER WOLF.

SMUGGLING INFORMATION TO THE BRITISH.

AUCKLAND, Nov. 2(3

Memories of the days .‘•pent 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, Ton gi, read a paragraph in the “New Zealand Herald” relating to some remarks made by Sir James Alien 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 bottlo by a- prisoner ol war on the raider. Mr Pyne was one oi' 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 bottlo had been found,” Mr Pyne writes. He then describes the capture of his ship and his efforts to send messages to ssome British country. .

“The exploit is olio 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 tlio Wolf off the coast of New Britain on August 0, 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 'wore immediatdfy 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 Rabaul. After we were captured those were inflated and tied to bottles containing messages and thrown overboard from the Matunga at night, AVe 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 detraction.

ON BOARD THE WOLF. v “When, wc 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 shl)p ealpturod. by.\ the. • raider /away in tho 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 Dig minefield was laid. It was extremely risky to attempt to throw anything overboard from the Wolf, as tiie sentries were numerous and very strict add wc were constantly warned that any prisoner attempting to communicate with the shore would he 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 E’st Indies,” he 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 liis 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 wlmt 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, lie sent the sentry over on the deck with a mighty push

and, lurching to tho rail, ho flung everything ’overboard. It was dark and the sentry 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 planed Captain Meadows under arrest. He was confined to the cells for several days, but ho got out of it by convincing the Germans that it was an accident and that he bumped tho 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 bis great risk in vain, and that, although the bottlo 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.”

STATEMENT BY SIR JAMES ALLEN.

DUNEDIN, Nov. 26,

linterviewod Ihv aJ “Daily Times’’ reporter ,to-night, Sir James 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 rtlie 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 instituf ed iby the Marine Department, with the result that the ship was declared ,to have S met its fate by an internal explosion. MESSAGE PICKED UP.

Later news wa,s 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 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 tho Auckland-Australia shipping, however, there was one instance of neglect of orders which resulted in t ra gedy. 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 nune and was sunk. Sir James stated that be had not previously been aware that more than one British prisoner had been concerned in the incident aboard the Wolf. Ho was greatly interested, however, to learn of the part that had been played in the affair by Mr Pyne.