The Invasion of 1910.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13192, 1 June 1906, Page 3

The Invasion of 1910.

Copyright by William Le Qu'eux, 1908 Published by Special Arrangement.

With a Full Account of the Siege of London. By WILLIAM LE QUEUX.' With Naval Chapters by H. W. Wilson. v SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS INSTALMENTS.

The narrative opens in London soon after dawn on Sunday morning, September 2, 1910. X breakdown in the telegraphic communication with Yarmouth creates some uneasiness, and after many inquiries as to the cause a telephone message is received from Beecles that German soldiers—hundreds of themwere pouring into the place. The people at Bcccles thought the tiermans had landed at, Lowestoft "By midnight' on Sunday the news bad spread everywhere. ~ Though the "full details of the naval disasters were not yet to band it was vaguely known that our ships had been defeated in the North Sea and. many of them sunk On .Monday morning eager thousands poured into the city by every train from the suburbs and towns in the vicinity of the metropolis, anxious to ascertain the truth for themselves, wild with excitement, indignant that our land forces were not already mobilised and ready to move eastward to meet the invader. As soon as the banks were opened there was a run on them, but by noon the Bank of lingland had suspended all specie payments. Having described the sensation created in England by the first vague news, the authors proceed to describe the actual methods adopted by the Germans and the subsequent happenings. On the afternoon of .September 1 the North Sea Fleet, under Admiral Lord Ebbfleet, lay at anchor off, Rosyth. in the. Firth of Forth. It mustered sixteen battleships', four of them of the Dreadnought class, a squadron of armoured cruisers, eight ships strong, but no rovers, as its torpedo flotilla was taking part in the torpedo manoeuvre* in the Irish Sea. At nightfall six of the battleships' steam tor-pedo-boats .were, stationed outside the Forth Bridge, while further out to sea was the fast cruiser Leicestershire, with all lights out, in midChannel, just under the Island of Inclikeitli. Abreast, of her. and close inshore, were three small ships, torpedo-boats, to the north, and another three to the south—in all, twelve torpedoboats and one cruiser.

A PROPHECY FULFILLED. GERMAN LANDING AT WEYBOURNE HOOP. This iirst authentic news of the position of the enemy, combined with the vague , rumours of other landings at Yarmouth, along the coast, at some unknown point north of Cromer, at King's Lynn, and other places, produced an enormous sensation in. London, while the Central News interview, circulated to all the papers in the Midlands aud Lancashire, increased the alarm in the manufacturing districts. In Liverpool—still in fear of bombardment—in Manchester, and Birmingham, where the excitement had reached a terrible pitch, the revelation of the establishment of a" German military base in England produced a wave of angry indignation. Where was the Government? Where was the army'.'' •''•'■ At the first rumours the price of food had risen everywhere, and many were already hungry. Bakers, grocers,' provision merchants and butchers now kept closed, fearing' raids, and only sold sparingly at their doors, and' high'prices;" The tone of the press was indignant, but melancholy. • The reports, at first discredited, .were now. known to be, alas! too true. What was London doing? That was the question which .was being asked everywhere throughout the provinces. By Tuesday night the mobilisation, muddle was everywhere apparent. Though the enemy had been on English soil since dajwn on Sunday " hardly" a single" reservist had yet received his notice to join. People gaped at the Royal Proclamation calling out the reserves, but until men knew their places of assembly how could they move? Twice the Cabinet Council had met, and certain decisions had, no doubt, been airrived at; but at present those were kept strictly secret. The much-advertised Committee of Imperial Defence, who had in the past made such a great demonstration of activity, but had really achieved nothing, were, it was said, holding. meetings amd arriving at decisions to take/steps to : repel the invaders. •,' ,' ' ' . The special edition of the London Evening News, issued about six o'clock on Tuesday -evening, contained a remarkable story which' threw some further light upon the German, movements. It was, of course, known that practically the whole of the Norfolk arod Suffolk coast was already held by the enemy, but with the exception of. the fact that the enemy's cavalry vedettes and reconnoitring patrols were out everywhere at a. distance about twenty miles from the shore England was entirely in the dark as to what had occurred anywhere else but Lowestoft. What was in progress was carefully kept a secret by the enemy. The veil was. however, now lifted. The story which the Evening News had obtained exclusively, and which, was ea.;irly read everywhere, had been related by a man named Scotney, a. lobster-fisherman, of Sheringhann, in Norfolk, who had.mad.".. the following statement to the chief office of coastguard at Wainfleet, in Lincolnshire: ~- "Just before dawn on Sunday morning I was in the boat with my son Ted off the Ro'-rn Friend taking up 'the lobster pots, when we suddenly saw- about three miles off shore a mixed lot of curious-looking craft strung out right across the horizon and .heading apparently for Cromer. There were steamers big and little, many of them towing queer flat-bottomed kind of boats, lighters, and barges, which, on approaching nearer, we could distinctly see' were filled to their utmost capacity with men and! horses. "Both Ted and [stood staring "d. the unusual sight, wondering wi-v.avm" it meant. They.came on very quickly, l'uwer-:r—so quickly, indeed, tied. ;-.e though! Ik best to move on. The biggest -.1; ",;.- v..-ir (long to Weybourno Gap. where I bey r.ioorvo v. the twenty-five-feet o'i water that ;vr-y in close to the shore, while some snAhet steamers and the flats were run. up lib:'and dry on the hard shingle. Befort v;.;* I noticed that there were unite a numb.;.: .>'; foreign warships in the filing, with sewn! destroyers far away in the distance, boih in east and west. "From the larger steamships all sorts if boats were lowered, including apparently many collapsible, whale-boats, and into into these in a most orderly manjjer ? from every gangway arad accommodation-ladder, —Germans we afterwards discovered them to be to our .utter astonishment—be •■ wan to descend.- ;..; "Those hosts Were at once taken charge of by steam pinnaces and cutters and towe-.J , to the beach. •When we saw this we were 'utterly dumbfounded.' Indeed, at" first .1 believed it to be a dream, for ever since I was a lad I had heard the ancient rhyme my old father was so fond of repealing: He who would old England win Must at AVeybourne Hoop begin. "As everybody knows. Nature has provided at that lonely spot every advantage for the landing cf hostile force:,, <a<! when the Spanish Armada was .expected,_ and again when Napoleon threatened an invasion, the place was constantly watched. Yet nowadays, except for the coastguard, it has been" utterly unprotected and neglected. ; " The very first soldiers who landed formed up -quieklv, and under the charge of an officer ran up the low hill to the coastguard station, I suppose in order to prevent them signalling a warning. The funny thin" was, however, that the coastguards had "already been held up by several welldressed men— of the Germans, I suppose. I could distinctly see one man holding one of the guards with his back to the wall and threatening him with ? revolver. "Meanwhile, from all the boats strung out along the beach, from Sheringhani rh'ht across to the Rocket House at .-Salthouse, swarms of drab-coated soldiers were disembarking, the boats immediately returning to the steamers for more. They must have been packed as tightly as herriiv'S in a barrel; but they all seemed to know where to go to, because all along the various places little flags were held by men, and each regiment appeared to much across and assemble at its own Hag. "Ted and I; sat there as if we were watching a play. Suddenly we saw from' sonic of the ships and bigger barges horses being lowered into the water and allowed to swim ashore. Hundreds seemed to gain

While the Leicestershire'* wireless instruments were signalling a steamer was matte out appreaching It.ciikcilii . A flashlight signal was made to her, but she made not the faintest ie epoiisc. She looked to or about 2iOC'lons displacement, and she steered straight tor the Leicestershire. Through the water came two streaks of bubbles and foam, moving with lightning speed. One passed right ahead of the Leicestershire; the other swept towards the British cruiser's stern ; there was a heavy expiation ; the whole hull of the cruiser was violently shaken and lifted perceptibly up in the water: a spout of water and smoke rose up astern, and the enSines cea*ed to work. The Leicestershire had been torpedoed by the stranger. Warned by.wifeless telegraphy that destroyers had been sighted, British crews wore on the qui vive. There was not time at this eleventh hour to weigh and put out to sea; the only possible course was to meet the attack at anchorage About half-past two a.m. IS German destroyers and large torpedo-boats were seen to lie approaching at impetuous speed. In a moment the air trembled with the concussion of heavy guns; the quick-firers of the flee! opened a terrible lire, as straight at the British battleships came the German destroyers. Four destroyers went to the bottom in that furious onrush; 10 entered the British lines; the others tinned back. Fifth ship in the starboard British line lay the great battleship Indefatigable." Four torpedoes were tired at her by the German derovers: three of Hie four n-tssed her, two of them only by a hair's breadth, but the fourth cut through the steel net ami caught her fairly abreast of the poit engineroom, about the level of. the platform deck. The story of the naval battle is broken at this point, and will be resumed later. A chapter isfdevoted to the confusion at (lie British. War Office, and news comes through to London that three vessels had been sunk in the Mrdttay, evidently with the object of "bottling up" the .numerous men-of-war being hurriedly equipped for service in Chatham Dockyard.

the beach even as wc were looking at litem. Then, after the first lot of horses had gone, boats full of saddles were towed (last, following them. It seemed as though the foreigners were too busy to notice us. "From the steamers there continued to pour hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers who were towed to land and then formed up in a sort, of solid squares, which got bigger and bigger. "Horses innumerable—quite a thousand, I should reckon—were slung overboard from some of the smaller steamers which had been run high and dry on the beach, and as the tide had now begun to run down they landed only knee-deep in water. Those steamers, it seemed to me, had big bilge keels, for as the tide ebbed they did not heel over. They had. no doubt, been specially lilted for the purpose. " Out of some they began to hoist all sorts of things, waggons, guns, motor-cars, large bales of fodder, clothing, ambulances with big red crosses on them. flat-looking boats —pontoons I think they call.them;.,, and great piles of cooking pots and pans, square boxes of stores, or perhaps ammunition, and as soon as anything was landed it. was hauled up above high-water mark. In the meantime lots of men had mounted on-, horseback and ridr'"n off up the lane, which leads into Weybourne village. A"l first half-a-dozen started at a time; then, as 1 far as I could judge,. about fifty more stalled. Then larger bodies went forward, but more and more horses kept going ashore as though their number was neverending.. ; They must -have ' been stowed mighty close,'and" many of the ships -must have been specially fitted :tip:'for them. ?" "Very soon T saw cavalry swarming up over Buckleburgh, Warborough, and Telegraph Hills, while a good many trotted away in the direction of Runton and Shcringham. Then, soon after they had gone— that is, in about an hour and a-half from their first arrival—the infantry began to move off, and as far as I could sec they marched inland by every road. Large masses .infantry marched along the Slier-. iugbain-Road;* aritl seemed to have a lot of •officers on horseback with them, while up on Mucklebiivgli Hill I saw signalling in progress. By this time they had a quantity of carts and waggons landed and, a large number of motor-cars. The latter were soon started, and, manned by infantry, moved swiftly in ' procession after the troops. The great idea; of the Germans was apparently to get the beach clear of everything as soon as landed, for all stores, equipment, and other tackle were pushed inland » as soon as disembarked. "The enemy kept on landing. Thousands of soldiers got ashore without any check, and all proceeding orderly and without the -slightest confusion as though theplans were absolutely perfect. Everybody seemed to know exactly what to do. From where we were we could see the coastguards held prisoners in their station with German sentries mounted around, and as the tide was now setting strong to the westward Ted and I first let our anchor off the .ground and allowed ourselves to drift. It occurred to me that perhaps I might be 'able to (jive the alarm at some other coastguard slst-ion it I could only drift away unaoti'.-.d in the busy scene- now in progress. "11 was for. us, at all costs, to give the alarm, so gradually we drifted off to the nor'-westward, in fear every moment lest we should be noticed and fired at. At last we got around Blakcney Point successfully and breathed more freely ; then, hoisting our sail, we headed for Hunstanton, but seeing numbers of ships entering the Wash, and believing them to be also Germans, we put our heii.i down and ran across into Wain Swatch way to Gibraltar Point, whe; ■ i saw tH chief officer, of coastguard, and told h-: •< a'.' lie extraordinary events of that im»tK'!-,j;.k morning." The report addt i that the- officer of coastguard in que?ti',va l.'id, three hours Wf.>re. noticed st;.*>»{»> iv.;wls coming up > . '.)£ Vi ; i.;'t, an.ci •■'■<■- r»li*eafi? fried to report ,t - :ck-uf.:»' '; if. his divisional inspecting i -,: T ,-.c-f-i ■•; '.!;>!.wi-.'h, hut CffilM obtain no ' sAVftinuateaUoa. An ho.f later, ever, i -'. sad bt-.-.::•> apparent liul a still hither ; laidin.2 was being; ellvctwi .-v. tire south •; sic-fs of ii.p Wash/ ; ** .;il probibiliiy at Kingv i.ytn-. • The fi;.i?>r"jii«n Scotaey'a statement bad been sent by special messenger from 'Wain- ' fleet to tb-s" Admiralty on Sunday 'evening, ! Lvi owing to' 'hi-, dislocation of the railj vr-i's traffic roith of London the messenger w>ik unable to reach the offices of the coastI'gaard in Victoria-street. Westminster, until j Monday. The report, received by the Adi iiiir.i'-r, -"'»-' l been treated as confidential corroborated, lest undue public alarm ' should bo caused. . It bad then been given to the pre*., as revealing the truth of what had actually happened. ~" The enemy had entered by the back door of England,' and the sensation it caused everywhere was little short of panic. (To bo continued daily)