DOVER PATROL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 19 August 1933, Page 11

DOVER PATROL

THE BROKE INCIDENT ADMIRAL EVANS’S STORY DRAMATIC RAMMING Stories of sea patrols and of antiquated vessels whose crews engaged in hand-to-hand fights in fog and darkness with Germany’s destroyers were broadcast by Vice-Admiral E, R. G. R. Evans, Commaiyler-in-Chief of the 'Africa Station on Empire Day (reports the Cape “Times”). The work of keeping the seas was largely performed by fisher folk, Naval Reserve men, and Volunteer Reserve men with little or no naval training, he said. They were led by a sprinkling of oflicers and highly-trained seamen from the Navy. The Dover Patrol was equipped with obsolete vessels—a dozen destroyers of the “Tribal” class, quite fast, but far too lightly armed, and twelve dirty little pre-war craft of hardly any fighting value with three or four light cruisers to support them if attacked by overwhelming forces.

GERMAN TROOPS SHELLED “The Admiralty had evidently thought things out well when the selection of vessels for the Dover Patrol was made,” he said. “The Germans did not know what submarines were held in readiness to rip open the steel hulls of any of their attacking ships that might come our way by day. At night they were hardly likely to risk battleships or cruisers in Dover Straits under conditions most suitable for attack by destroyers.” Shortly after the Battle of Heligoland Admiral Hood took command ef the patrol, and led the destroyers close into Ostend Road, shelling the right wing of the advancing German army. “We got so close inshore that the enemy opened fire with their light field and machine guns; but we inflicted considerable damage and we had few casualties.”

After this'first assault Army Headquarters asked for ships with bigger guns to firo further inland, and some antiquated gunboats were added to the patrol, followed by the old Revenge mounting four 07-ton guns and firing enormous projectiles which whirled over and over in the air.

“ABSURD LITTLE VESSELS” Demands for naval assistance still came from the Army, and Winston Churchill—with perhaps a vein of humour—sent two absurd little vessels across to the Belgian coast. They were known as “flat-iron” gunboats, built about 1875, and they literally crawled about like tortoises, one firing a 22-ton gun and the other a smaller weapon.

“What damage they inflicted I cannot say, but I admired them for their plucky obstinacy. They took hours to get into position, and once within range of the enemy guns they stopped there until the day was spent, and- then plugged stolidly homeward to their anchorage for another load of shell.”

After the aircraft carrier Hermes was torpedoed and sunk everybody began to see submarines. The fins of blackfish and porpoises were reported as periscopes, and all sorts of wreckage with anything vertical sticking out. Tlie destroyers hardly spent an hour of their resting time in harbour without receiving the signal “submarine sighted in position—. Proceed at full speed and search area.” “I now commanded a destroyer called the Viking,” ho continued, “she was a sort of freak ship with .six funnels, and if ever I did anything wrong —and that was pretty often—l was given away by those six funnels. SUBMARINE SUNK “Although we wero fitted with the most primitve anti-submarine devices, including a sort of Heath Robinson arrangement called the ‘modified sweep,’ we managed to get a submarine quite early in the war with this contraption. “It happened this way. A thick fog was rolling up the channel, and as it lifted we sighted the grey form of a conning tower just emerging from the sea a mile away. We went full speed at her in the Viking, firing our foremost gun and eagerly hoping to ram; but the submarine dived before we could strike her, and the fog closed down again. “Rapping out wireless signals, we called all the Dover destroyers to our position. Each time we sighted the periscope, when the fog shifted slightly, the search was drawn in closer, and at last the ‘modified sweep’ of the destroyer Ghurka caught in an obstruction and was exploded. “After a few seconds the submarine reappeared with a great list to starboard like a huge disabled fish. The conning tower hatch was thrown open, and the captain shot up with his hands above his head. Boats were lowered and the crew of the submarine taken prisoners. “She turned out to bo US, and the Admiralty were so delighted that we had sunk a submarine with this funny Heath Robinson contraption that the Distinguished Service Medal was awarded to the man who pressed the electric button and blew up the submarine.” THE BROKE INCIDENT Gradually more schemes and more weapons were devised, and the patrol at last—in 1917 —got enought craft and reliable anti-submarine devices for its task. One other adventure was told by “Evans of the Broke”—the story of the fight between the Swift and the Broke and six modern Gerniaii destroyers on a dark overcast night. The enemy vessels had slipped past in the dark to a position close off Dover, and were firing on to the shore. “Directly we sighted the gun flashes we made for them at full speed. The Swift was the senior officer, and —his ship being faster than mine— he left me rapidly dropping- astern. '‘The Swift, meeting the six enemy destroyers retiring at full speed, engaged each vessel as she passed down the line; and we in the Brokb approached apparently unobserved. RAMMED AT 27 KNOTS

I “When wo were certain of securing a I)it we fired our port foremost torpedo. Directly it had left the tube we put our helm over with the intention of ramming the vessel in case it missed “We watched the torpedo speeding through the water by its phosphorcs-

cent wake, and suddenly there was a sharp explosion—and we put our helm over and headed away, and made ready to ram the next vessel in the enemy line.

“By this time we were fairly close, and after a few thrilling seconds the Broke crashed into the unfortunate German, hitting her abreast of the after funnel while we were steaming twenty-seven knots.

“Yv’e hit her witii such force that she heeled over on her side, and her guns would not bear upon us to their maximum depression. We were firing upon her with the three guns that would bear and with the anti-aircraft pom-poms, while officers and men from the bridge were shooting the enemy down with revolvers. “Suddenly a crowd of them rushed to our stem and clambered on board over the anchors. Most of them met with instant death from our wellarmed seamen and stokers.

“But another enemy destroyer, passing close to us, fired heavily, and one of her shells, exploding on tiie Broke’s forecastle, exploded two of our lyddite shells and killed all but two of the foremost gun’s crew. “Then we piped the after guns’ crews and boarding party up on the forecastle, and a haiul-to-lmnd light ensued with the last of the Germans who had managed to clamber on hoard. “Eventually we steamed right over the destroyer we had rammed, and left her with no light and no life on board sinking rapidly by the stern. “We made to ram another destroyer but the vessel ahead of her put a shell into our fore boiler room and killed everyone down below. This ended our ability to steam and manoeuvre.”

When the fight was over and the Broke steamed away with 150 German prisoners Vice-Admiral Evans went below to “point the moral” of the encounter. But lie found the crew engaged in feeding bacon and eggs to the Germans—and he retired with his homily unspoken.