H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 31 October 1914, Page 3

H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND

IN ACTION AT HELIGOLAND. WITH THE BATTLE-CRUISER SQUADRON. AN OFFICER'S ACCOUNT. H.M.S. Now Zealand, in the- First Battle-Cruiser Squadron, took a prominent- part in the naval action in Heligoland Bight on August 28th, when the ■ German cruisers Mainz, Koln, an \ Ariadne. and two destroyers were sunk and several others seriously damaged. The first account of the part played by the New Zealand in the first naval acii..n of the war has been received in -a letter from an oflicer in the battle-crui-uM'. written to friends in Christchurch. The .story of the fight, is simply told as follows: THE GENERAL SCHEME. "You will have seen all about the action of the. 28tht of August in the papers, but I will try and gi ve you. m> views on it in brief. The general scheme was that, the destroyers should go into Heligoland at daylight a.nd try to draw the enemy's cruisers out- so that thev ci'iilcl be engaged by us and the First Light Cruiser Squadron. It. was successful, and at 8.15 a.m. on the 28th we got a signal saying the destroyers eff Heligoland were in heavy action with the enemy. They drew them (the enemy's destroyers) out, and small cruisers came with them. GERMAN SUBMARINE FIRED AT. "At about 10.40 a.m. the Invincible, who was just ahead of us, opened fiTe with her 4in. guns on a submarine. "We sighted it on our pert bow and fired one shot, when it dived, and came up again on our quarter. 1 just managed to get my turret trained on it when, once more it dived, and didn't- appear again. The destroyers spent some time looking fo-r it without result-. "Why it- didn t hit us goodness knows! FULL SPEED INTO ACTION. "At 11 o'clock the weather got- thick, and* we heard heavy firing ahead, for which wo went- off at full speed._ the squadron were then in. the following order : —Lion (flagship), Queen Mary, princess Roval, New Zealand, and Invincible. The Light Cruiser Squadron; were soon sighted on the starboard bow, j heavily engaging the enemy, who were out of siglit from us in the fog. They were fcur ships in line ahead. On the ' port bow there was a flotilla, of destroyers chasing a submarine,, with shells falling amongst them. THE BIG GUNS SPEAK. "We> were now <*oing about 26 knots, dasliino- towards where "the firing was coming" from. We- soon sighted the Mainz, a small cruiser, pn the starboard bow, put out of action by the Light Cruiser Squadron, who had then stopped flrinf at her. She looked like a coal hulk—no masts, onl funnel standin <*. ana burning amidships. Oil we dashed past her at about a mile or less away. Soon we heard the Lion open fire at- something on the port bow. ShortIv afterwards the Queen Mary opened fire, and a few minutes later the Princess Royal. "NEW ZEALAND, OPEN FIRE " \nother five minutes, and the ordei came 'New Zealand, open fire!' Off went the fore-turret. Mine . being in the stern, wouldn't train on the enemy, who was well on the bow. Ihe second turret fired, and then the third. 1 felt mv guns ought to be firing, but owing to file smoke of the foremost guns, 1 couldn't- see anything of the enemy. One oC mv gun-la vers, a., hot-headed Irishman named ° /saw the enemy, but the trainer couldn't, whereupon —filing his cap, amidst frightful oaths, at him. \ll the guns' crew burst- into peals of laughter. 0 Eventually the smoke, cleared and we started, but after firing fourteen shells at her,_ 'Cease Fire!' was sounded. ENEMY'S CRUISER SINKS. "I could see' that- the enemy's ship was burning, and that two of her funnels had gone, and also both masts. Desrtovers' then started to close in, to see if they could pick up any wounded, butas they got near a flash was seen to come from her, and it was thought- that she had fired again. The destroyers , then retired, and the Lion opened lire , a .rain, and after a. very few shots the J enemy suddenly sank by the bows, her j Qtern coming \vell out of th© prater as , she went down. The rang© during the whole act-ion was only about 4000 yards j I saw the whole thing from my peri scope in the turret-. Although L could «ee the German criuiser's guns going on, I didn't know till aft-eTwards that -she had been firing at the ship. They tell me a good many shells fell over us, and a few fell short, but none hit us. If Liiev had, I' don't- think t-liey would have done a great deal of damage, as she only carried 4in. guns. ''l don't think we -can judge the German gunnery at all by this show,, as we had some twenty-four 13.5 in and sixteen 12in guns firing at her five 4in guns, which must have absolutely moralised her during the first few minutes. It was net at all a 'glorious victory.' In fact, X should call it sheer Not one of their *IOO men is now--alive. In my opinion, they were ct-out fallows to 'stick it' to the end, and not haul their flag down when they saw they hadn't a chance of doing us any damage.

SUBMARINE AND MINE. "The Princess Royal had one man wounded, otherwise I don't think there were any casualties in our squadron at all. The Light Cruiser Squadron had a few, and the destroyers several, including Lieutenant Westmacott, a good felloyr. The extraordinary luck of the thing' was that during -the action we were missed by a submarine, and passed a very few feet from,a mine, Ithink the whole thing was' frightfully lucky, but still —'nothing venture, nothing have.' Our men behaved splendidly during the whole thing, and the cheer that went up in my turret when _ -they heard the enemy's, cruiser was sinking was a revelation."