BATTLE OF JUTLAND

Nelson Evening Mail, 1 August 1916, Page 1

BATTLE OF JUTLAND

The American correspondent of . the ;■ Christchureh Press, writing oni June "3th ' states :—The Kaiser has 'been .busy mini'- .. mising his Fleet's defeat ;by the British off Skagerack, and his propaganda ap- , pears to have been concentrated upon; the United) States. Time after time ihe ■ ■wireless at SayviLle, Lbng Island, has; 'been burdened 1 with tainted dispatches emanating from Berlin, in an- effort to discountenance the •ever-growing sympathy for the .Allies' cause ini America, but news'froini neutral sources always up--sets the -wild assertions of the Teuton "lie factory" in Oennany's capital. One of the most emphatic 'claims of German officials is that •the {British DreadnoughtWarspd'te was sunk, in the naval battle off Skagerack. . In. proof of the statement of the British' . Admiralty ■ .that the Warspite .'had arrived safely ant port after -the North Sea .battle, the commander of the war-- 1 ship, himself ireceived the representative of an American news agency. and) described his vessel's miraculous escape from' the concentrated G-ermani <ire. Aaraericans aTe now convinced' that the German claim.' to have sunk the War-' spite ds another "terminological inexactitude as Winston Churchill would say. "I am stall commander of the greatest 'battleship in the world, and my men ?re as fine as. Nelson's bluejackets," said Captain F. M-. Phi'llpotts, the skipper of the Warspite, when taking- to the Yankee scribe. Captain- Phillpotts, s?id the American, was very modest and minimised his own part in the battle. But he was full' of praise for his men and what he termed the amazing powers of resistance of has ship. "I am not surprised that there hav& been reports' that the Warsipdte was sunk," he said, "as f.romi our position between- our fleet and' the German' battleships our escape from' such a fate was simply miraculous. Several times we disappeared fromi sight in the smoke and spray. Even some of our own officers on other ships believedi the gallant battleship had- sunk. As we left the fighting line we disappeared in a complete veil of spray. You ask me what results I saw that our fire had on the Germans? I saw that we registered by the after hit, enough to convince me 'hat the iGermans got a hiding which will keep them an port for many months to come. After two hours of act : 6n, in which our division of .battleships engaged the whole; German, battle fleet ini an effort •to (protect our battle-oiiuisers until Admiral Jelldcoe came up, the Warspite's steering gear went -wrong, and she ran amuck among the enemy. It must have annoyed the 'German gun-.pointers exceedingly to attempt to guage our erratic -mov-aments, for soon we nvtre almost in the midst of the German battleships and well between theiro and our battle line. I know of six 'German battleships which concentrated! their fire on the Warspite, and there may have been others which I could not see. Under a. worse pounding than the Loon 'received an the Dogger Bank fight, we remained in. action, without a single vital- injury, our chief difficulty 'being from' the mishap to the steering gear. "The fact j that we got oubvwas an absolute miracle. I Once repairs were quickly imade, we wanted to return, but found! we were I not popular. Sufficient .battLeshipsi were present to fill the line, and the possi- ' .bil'ity oi£ our running amruck among our , own friends was not -welcome. We I steamed home. The Warspite will he sailing the seas before the GerI lma-n flw|i cornc ou<- ■agai™'"