A BAKER IN THE BATLTE

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13656, 26 August 1916, Page 6

A BAKER IN THE BATLTE

EYE-WITNBSS OF THE JUTLAND TIGHT., A REMARKABLE NAMIATTYE. f The following letter was addressed by' tlie linker of H'.JI.S. , an cyc-iritiics* »l the ureal, battle, lu the head teacher and children of liif old school, Longwirk, Uui-ks:— My dear Miss Watson and Children,— T guess you are expecting a few lines about the great action. On Wednesday afternoon we suddenly had the. news the enemy was not very far ahead, our next report was that our battle-cruisers'arid fast battleships were very heavily engaged with the enemy, not far ahead. We did uot, personally speaking, place much value on this, for we. had been very close on many other occasions and warn doomed to disappointment. Shortly after this heavy cannonading could be plainly heard, and 'soon, we appeared on the seen* of action, , At the time I had ob'Olb'of dough proving (rising) in the tins, and as my bakehouse is situated on the upper deck it is very exposed. 'My orders were to leave it and get under cover below armour as soon as the position became critical. Twenty minutes before we commenced action, or, 1 should say, opened lire, 1 went to the. commander and obtained permission to remain in the bakehouse until the last moment, which was the tiring of the first gun. This order gave me the opportunity of witness the opening of the battle 'fleet action. ' ■■' • While my dough was proving in the tins I went out on the quarter-deck.'and witnessed ft most magnificent spectacle, one never to be forgotten. The whole visible horizon, which was not more than'tour miles, was one long blaze of fliime; the bulls of the enemy's ships were not visible to the naked eye, but could be seen dimly through the haze with the telescope, and the only means we had of knowing the enemy was there were by spurt's of flame from the enemy's guns, 1 was so intensely interested that I could not realise the risk until observing a cruiser near on fire, Saving My Bread. I went back to the bakehouse and endeavoured to save my batch of bread. My staff, which consists of three men, had gone down under cover. The- tire party by this time had orders to extinguish my fire; the dough required at least twenty minutes more proof. But being very loath to waste the material ami labour, I put the tins in the oven and chanced to luck, if it was possible to save it later, though my superior officer had given me orders to leave everything at any critical time. Having done this 1 hastened down below, By the time I got to my station we were in the thick of it. Several minutes Inter I got a book out to read, entitled "The Meditations of Marcus Anrelius," and had not read much when we received tlie news that the Invin-. cililp had gone down and we were passing close by her. A few minutes later we got the report of a second ship blown up, ahd then a third. The next report was that the ship next to ns was on fire, but this was quickly got under. Needless to say, no more reading, Shortly after some enemy destroyers appeared''suddenly out of the mist' ■to attack the, ship. We opened tire with our anti ; torp'c(la, armament, "anil the leading destroyenwas observed to 'tie-hit and to catch'-'fire'aft. She quickly turned and dropped out of station, and shortly after was observed to tutu over. At the same time one of our heavy guns Jired at the same line of destroyers,, and when the smoke and splash of the projectile had cleared away the second ) boat in the line was missing. The others took to flight and disappeared in the | mist. Tim shows you the awful havoc of modern gunfire. At the same time| we, wm blazing away at a battlecruiser, whjch was observed to be j heavily on fire and stationary. After about two hours' engagement there came a short lull. It was known that'the enemy's battle fleet had turned back (and left their battle-cruisers to their fate) to. avoid 'coining into contact with onr whole fleet. Shortly after this we had to take.cover, as our main armament had opened five at what Was'' supposed to be the Derfflinger. • Baked Without Tire. I discovered just before going to" my action station that my batch of bread hud actually baked without any (ire, and turned out fairly, creditably. And though we did not know how long the bakehouse would• 'remain intact I was anxious to save it, knowing full well we might be glad of it if anything happened. 1 went to'my action station. Firing had commenced again, but J "requested the fleet surgeon to allow me to go and draw my oven; he was very reluctant,' but eventually consented, at my own risk, I asked for two volunteers out of our staff, and without ami hesitation two came forward.' Of course, our risk' was no greater than auy others,, but I tell you this; to show the spirit that prevailed, No one seemed excited; everyone I met seemed perfectly cool, as though we were carrying out an ordinary evolution; in fact, we had a gramophone playing some of the time. This'engagement-did not last very long, and darkness set in—the most anxious time for a''battle fleet. W witnessed several attacks of the enemy's torpedo craft. We saw one of the enemy's light cruisers blown dean out of the water in one of these attacks, just astern of us. Our light cruisers and destroyers did some won-, derful work that night; they kept our battle fleet safe; not one ship was hit. But o:u-' must' pay tribute, to the enemy. They are' brave men, and fought splendidly. Several instances were observed during the battle where their vessel was awash and they blazed away with one gun. It is a pity their battle fleet did not show some of this spirit. The gun flashes, searchlights, star-shells (which the enemy use), and the explosions made ut grand but terrible spectacle, for we realised hundreds of brave men were going to their doom. But we did not seem to realise the full extent of our danger; I suppose we had waited so long to get at them it was in the blood and we wanted to square accounts, as it were. A Midnight Batch. 'There was not much sleep iu the ship that night.- I made n batch of dough at midnight and then lay down on the lockers with my life-saving belt on. T thought at the' time one might just as well sleep as keep awake, for should anything happen there would not be much chance of being saved iu such a night us that. 1 had n couple of hours' refreshing sleep. We. were, fill iilert as the i'lhwii ■ broke and I went on deck again. It was a beautiful morning. Half an hour after dawn «'(■■ heard • very heavy cannonading, and half an hour later we saw the cause of the gunfire, for dropping front the clouijs from the was a Zeppelin. We hail a lovely view; this was the, first one a great many of lis had seen; if was visible for about fifteen minutes, and it .maiucuvrcd very gracefully, It received a very warm reception from our battle 'licet'.' We, fired our heavy guns at it, ami i| was jlasl si-en crossing the rays of the risiiij; sun :in.[ dis;i|.ip<'iimi!;'in tlic clouds. This little scrap was verv imposing from a spectacular point of view. We patrolled the battle ground for many hours after this, as. wo'had heard

one of tin- enemy's battle cruisers was helplessly adrift,'but 1 think .she must have sunk. TMs patrolling was the most pathetic, incident during Dm whole business, for we were constantly passing wreckage ami i|(>;ui boilies," cither floating «r on rafts-comrades ami foes. This,is what goes home to von; but one does not grumble if one'has the spirit of a Briton. One feels prowl' they have done their hit and taken their chance. .Tin; battle cruisers foughl' the' whole Oereman .Navy until we came mi the scene of action! This, I think, is worthy of all our traditions; tliey have only scratched Britain's sure shield; we hope to strike home next time if the elements are favourable to us. • With every good wish. I remain, yours sincerely,— June (I, 11)16. 11.M.5.