TWO LOST CRUISERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18171, 17 August 1922, Page 7

TWO LOST CRUISERS.

]<». INCIDENT AFTER JUTLAND. GERMAN FLEET OUT. ' MORE HISTORY REVEALED. j [from our own correspondknt.] LONDON, July 7. A remarkable story is published in the current number of the Outlook which purports to throw farther light on an unfor- ! tunate incident of naval , warfare in August of 1916. On the 21st of that month, the Admiralty reported officially that on the previous Saturday, the German High Sea Fleet came out, but, learning that the British forces were in considerable strength, avoided engaging and returned to port. "In searching for the enemy," the announcement continued, " we lost two light cruisers by submarine attack—H.M.S. .Nottingham and H.M.S. Falmouth." It was added that one ! enemy submarine had been destroyed, and tho second rammed and possibly sunk. I At the outset, the writer, Mr. J. L. Bdderston, recalls that Scheer, who had just succeeded the cautious Pohl, was in- ; structed that his submarines were to obey prize law and visit and search their prey before sinking them. This did not suit Scheer, who recalled all his commerceraiding U-boats, and worked out a plan for using them to entrap the British Fleet. He intended to attack the English coast near Sunderland, proceeded the. writer, and his battle orders included a bombardment of that town by the whole strength of the German Navy. Scheer placed his submarines where he expected Jellicoe and Beatty to cross as j they rushed down to intercept -him. "On August 16, the High Seas Fleet shaped course for Hartlepool. Scheer left tho Second Squadron to guard the Bight. ! He had with him the new battleship j Bayern, not finished when Jutland was fought, and the Grosser Kurfurst and Markgraf in place of the Derflinger and Seydlitz, which had been too badly hammered to reappear. These ships went ahead with the battle-cruisers. The dread- , noughts followed twenty milea behind, ; and eight Zeppelins hovered overhead. But the Admiralty was not caught napping ; indeed Jellicoe had come out even before the Germans sailed. At five o'clock I the same afternoon the Grand Fleet started down the east coast. Moreover, j the E23. waiting in the middle of the I North Sea on the Germans' course, tor- ! pedoed the Wesfcfalen twice. Scheer sent j his stricken ship home, and carried on. Nottingham Torpedoed. " During the night Beatty's 'Cat Squadron ' came out, and was proceeding south thirty miles ahead of the Grand Fleet, when, at 5.55 a.m. the second light cruiser j squadron, which led the van, ran into the first, line of submarines off the Fame Islands. The Nottingham was torpedoed twice. News of this at one* reached Jellicoe, who ordered the Grand Fleet to turn round and make north, away from the enemy. This manoeuvre might have been still more criticised than the Jutland turn-away—but Che Admiralty has never told about it. Meanwhile, the Nottingham was torpedoed again before she could get to port, and sank. Tyrwhitt's Harwich flotilla was out, and sighted the enemy at 6.30 a.m., but could not attack unsupported. Scheer kept steadily on his course all the morning, fully informed by I bis Zeppelins of where the British_squadrons were, and what they were doing. " An TJnfought Jutland." " Some four hours after the loss of the Nottingham, Admiral Jellicoe decided to cover Newcastle. At noon he was 95 miles E. oil the Farne Is'anjds,* with Beatty ahead of him, steering S.S.E., and the German fleet 90 miles E. of Whitby, and still coming on. At half past twelve Beatty's squadrons were off Newcastle, 42 miles from the enemy, but here Scheer thought things were getting too hot, turned south, pushed off the Harwich ' light stuff ' that was hanging to his Sank, 'and started home at 2.35 p.m. j " Admiral Beatty was off in pursuit, I but Je'licoe signalled him before three to turn bacb at four o'clock, because of submarine danger. At 3.20 p.m., the commander-in-chief, on receiving a report of a submarine, ordered Beatty to turn back immediately. While returning, an hour and a half later, the light cruiser Falmouth was sunk by U66. Tyrwhitt kept after the Germans all the afternoon, and remained in touch, but could not do more unsupported. His orders from Je'licoe to make a night attack could not be carried out because of -bad weather ? and Scheer returned scatheless excepting for the! damaged Westfalen. Nothing has ever | been told the British publio about un- j fought Jutland, though communiques were - issued announcing the loss of the two cruisers sunk. 1 ' ; -