TWO V.C. WINNERS.

Northern Advocate, 2 October 1918, Page 4

TWO V.C. WINNERS.

"Q" BOAT HEROES,

LONDON, Aug. 6.

The circumstances in which the late Lieutenant-Commander E. W. Sanders, of Auckland, and Captain Gordon Campbell won the V.C. have been' released for publication by Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord of the Admiralty, there being no longer any need for secrecy. The story introduces the "mystery ships," which form a special department in the hunting of submarines. These are known as Q boats. Speaking at the Palace Theatre to a gathering of service men of all the Allies, Sir Eric said the Q-boat was a decoy. She might be an ordinary old wind-jammer, or a collier, or a tramp; but she was something more. His story was that of QSO. A Q-ship looked like a merchantman, but on a button being touched she became, with the speed of a quickchange artist, a veritable man-of-war. QSO, on which were the two officers named, was an old collier, and sailed with sealed orders, which read:— "Submarines are sinking British and American ships in such-and-such a

position. Proceed there forthwith."' Her crew looked like a merchant crew, and a fairly undisciplined lot they appeared, but when they gor; out to sea a change took place in their aspect.

It was in the Atlantic at about eleven o'clock on a summer mornine , when a submarine was seen ixvm the QSO, which started to run away. Her maximum speed was eight knots. Her fires were stoked and volumes of smoke came from her funnels. The order was given by her captain to slow down to seven and then to six knots. A gun was fired—a two and a-half pounder. The submarine overhauled the Q-boat and shells burst on her decks, killing and V/ounding men. The Q-boat held on, and signalled that a submarine was following and shelling her, that the crew were about to abandon the ship, and asking for help. The signaller .in the submarine took in the message. An hour and a-half passed, and the submarine was getting well within range, when a "panic" boat's crew—a very undisci-plined-looking lot —left the Q-ship, one sailor taking with him a cage with a parrot in it. A shell from the submarine struck the poop of the QSO and blew one of the guns and the gun's crew into the air at a time when the submarine had only to proceed another 100 yards, and three of the guns of the QSO would have besn trained on her at 400 yards range. 'When it was disclosed that the QSO was not what she had pretended Ito be, but was a fighting ship, tht I captain signalled to the man-of-war j waiting below the horizon, who had i answered his first call for assistance, i to keep away, for the action was not ended. The submarine fired tor--1 pedo after torpedo. To allay the suspicions of the Germans the captain of the decoy again gave the signal to abandon ship, and some of the men jumped overboard, but the captain, with an officer or two and the picked gun's crew, still remained hidden, and blew off steam, to make the submarine's crew think that tha boiler was holed. Completely deceived, the submarine came up. Then shell after shell was fired at her, and she went down, her end being hastened by the fire from the warship, which had come up. The fight lasted from 11 a.m. until about 4 p.m.