A MODERN NAVAL BATTLE.

Northern Advocate, 19 April 1915, Page 3

A MODERN NAVAL BATTLE.

AX INFERNO OF FIRE AND NOISE,

A THRILLING NARRATIVE.

An office; , of the Meteor, the destroyer, which sustained some damage in the recent .North Se_a battle, supplies a wonderfully vivid account of the great fight. The narrative appears in the "Liverpool Daily Post," in which the officer states that prisoners from the Blucher declared that the second salvo from the Lion carried away their bridge, killing three officers. "The battle was raging with terrible fierceness now, and shortly after 10 o'clock a lucky shot hit the Lion the port side forward, for the whole,' German squadron had Concentrated their \ fire on her, with just an occasional salvo for the. Tiger. At 10.40 a.m. the Meteor was ordered !to / 'close' tho Lion and cover her. So we again increased speed and drew level with the Admiral, and this, placed us directly in the centre of, the two lines, the salvos from both squadrons continually' passing over us. What a terrible time we experienced then. It was simply 'Hell'! No other word will describe it, and how we survived it is impossible to : i£y. ' ' "We were absolutely in the line of

fire, shells whiistlitvg over >and all around us, arid now and again an enemy's broadside aimed directly at us. ( Try and imagine a frail destroyer, steaming 30 .knots, with four battle cruisers on either side belching forth flame and smoke continually, -the screech of the projectiles flying overhead seeming to tear the very air into ribbons, 12in shells dropping perilously near and raising' columns of water 100 feet into, the air a: few

yards' away, the spray, washing our deck '"■■ and drenching all hands. : Picture the awful crashing noise,, ttie explosions and flashes as shots took effecf, tliQ massive tongues of fire shooting up, v and the dense clouds of yellow and ; .black snboke which obliterated a whole ship from view as the shells burst on striking. And this, ii you can imagine it, will give you some idea of Meteor's posi-

tion in a glorious action. Its terrible, imposing -grandeur made one forget personal danger. TORPEDOED! "We had already been hit a couple of times, but without doing any material damage, and half of us missed death by inches; but it seemed that we possessed a charmed life- She (the Blucher) fell out of the line a raging furnace amidships, helpless, unable to steam, and her sister ships left her to. her fate. The battering she had undergone was something incredible,

and she was in her death agonies now, so we began to 'close , her, and found she was settling down, though" still on an even keel.

"Now was our chance. We approached her,, circling around, but even then she was not dead, for at precisely 12.5 p.m., with the very last round she ever fired, she sent an B.2in shell into us, which killed four men and wounded another. But what, a sweet revenge was to come. Two minuj.es later we discharged our torpedo. It hit her nearly I amidships. There was a tremendously violent shock. She heeled completely over, and" sank in .eight and a , half minutes, hundreds of men •fambering, over Her side, and standing there, just as* if it were the upper deck, waiting for the final,' plunge. : But there was no plunge. Slowly and slowly she sank, and, as she went, some were sliding into the sea, others taking mad running leaps. Af few seconds more there was not a sign of her left, except her dead and living, clustered in the water toge-. ther, and the agonised erjes of ".Mercy!" were horrible: to hear. r "We were about 300' yards away, and watched her go down, and I was particularly struck with the ease and slowness with which she sank. Not till tii'e waves had almost entirely closed over her did'the bow heave•slightly out of the water, and she disappeared stern first. -■ RESCUING SURVIVORS. '" :

"While the boats were rescuing the survivors a Zeppelin and a Taube put in an appearance. The Taube dropped about three bombs, one of which fell amongst the drowning men, and laterally blew four of theni to pieces. I suppose the idea of our rescuing an ; enemy was beyond the understanding of the cultxired pilot of that machine. But, oh! it must have been a rude, awakening to him when he returned; to find that it was one of their own ships he saw sinking, and his own ■countrymen he.had killed. "It was a g'orious fight They tried their very utmost to get away, and, although their destroyers succeeded, and never took any part in

the action, superior tactics compelledtheir battle-cruisers to an engagement. I think I can safely say that the Seydlitz, Derflinger, and Yon Mols tke will 'not make another appearance: for some considerable time; if, indeed, they are not almost beyond repair, for at least two of them were heavily on fire.

Never, before has there been a naval battle to equal it in intensity. A batt'e which raged for four hours between ships of such eno"mous size an<i destructive qualities, steamin? at 30 Vnots the whole time, and with aircraft and .submarines takiner part, is most certainly without parallel in the history of the .world." ■ ''.