ABOUT THE EMDEN.

Northern Advocate, 26 November 1914, Page 5

ABOUT THE EMDEN.

STORY BY EYE-WITNESS

COLOMBO, November 24

The Sydney's -wounded, and bhe Emden's survivors, who have been landed here and sent to hospital, tell a gallant story. The "Times" of Ceylon published the following narrative of an eye-witness, of the engagement:— "At seven o'clock on the morning of November 9 the Sydney receiyed a wireless message stating that a German cruiser was off the Cocos Islands. At 9.40 a.m. she* sighted the Emden, which opened fire at 10,000 yds, carrying away the Sydney's forecast mul range-fin Cer , . The Sydney replied Hi oat effectively. "!'%. would have done your heart good to have heard the yells of joy of our chaps as our shots went home. Most of our lads we're quite ,young, but they were not in the least afraid. They gloried in it. "The first salvo damaged the Emden. We soon shot away successively the foremast, a funnel, and a second funnel. At each success our lads shouted, 'Hurrah! There's another! She's a goner!' The Emden was .badly damaged and on. fire aft. She went ashore at 4.20 p.m. > "The Sydney chased and captured the collier Buresk, but she sank owing to the crew smashing the valves. The Sydney then returned to the Emden, sending boats to pick up ■ the Germans in the water, but as the German flag was still flying on the Emden, and she refused to answer a demand to surrender, the Sydney was comrelled to fire again. Five minutes later the German ensign was haule-d down. "If it is true, as we have been told by many German 'prisoners, that they fired no less than 1,460 shots at us, then their shooting must Wave been vera , poor throughout the action. It is very clear that our shooting was far superior. The trajectoiry of the Emden's guns Was more pronounced than ours. She seemed to drop her skots on board when she was anywhere near us, while our shells went far straighter and appeared to do a good deal more damage when they got home. "The Emden's shells completely, failed to penetrate our armour-plate. One shell came very near doing a lot of mischief. It struck the edge of the ar-mour-plate within a few inches of one of the ward-room portholes. All out wounded were in the ward-room l with the surgeon and his staff." According to the German wounded, the Emden left Tsing-tao on July 31. Her engines had been working for three months without a break. They deny that they flew the Japanese flag wlien they entered Penang. They were flying the German flag. The only thing they did was to put on a dummy fourth funnel. One man said: "As far as I saw everybody on the Sydney proved Mm. self a real ilittle hero. They never stopped working, and the way they kept the guns served was a fine example of Australian pluck."