NAVAL DIVISION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23057, 7 June 1938, Page 13

NAVAL DIVISION

NEW CHIEF OF STAFF CAPTAIN H. E. HORAN, D.S.C. ARRIVAL FROM ENGLAND To take up his appointments as Chief of the Naval Staff, New Zealand, awl First Naval Member of the Naval Board. Captain H. E. Horan, D.S.C., arrived from England by the Remuera yesterday. So that lie may keep in close personal touch with the Government, Captain Horan's headquarters will be at Wellington and he will leave for the South to-day.

Describing him as an intrepid destroyer commander and the first British naval officer to win the Distinguished Service Cross in the war, the News of the World in a recent article re-

Latins to Captain Hornn's appointment stated that he received his baptism of fire as a lieutenant of 24. This was during the first real naval action of the war, when he was second in command of the Liberty in the Harwich Force under Commodore —now Admiral —Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt. Following a report by British submarines that German destroyers had carried out distant night patrols, returning in the morning, Commodore Tyrwhitt's force was ordered to carry out- a surprise "scooping up" operation at 8 a.m. on August 28, 1914. After tip and run tactics and the sighting and engaging of enemy vessels in misty conditions off Heligoland, Commodore Tyrwhitt, in the Arethusa, informed Admiral Beatty that he was hard pressed. Destroyers Under Heavy Fire Beatty dashed in with his battlecruisers just as heavier German vessels appeared which would have tipped the scales in their favour. The Arethusa, already much damaged, was heavily engaged by the cruiser Mainz, and Tyrwhitt ordered the destroyers to attack. The brunt of the enemy's well-directed lire was concentrated on the Liberty's division of four "greyhounds." One destroyer, H..M.S. Laurel, was badly hit and limped away at slow speed. Her smoke partly hid the Liberty, next astern, but a shell crashed in near the bridge, brought the mast tumbling down, and killed the captain, Lieu-tenant-Commander Barttelot. PettyOfficer Beadle, at the wheel, was wounded, but lie stuck to his post for over an hour. Mentioned in Despatches Lieutenant Horan immediately took command in the tangled mass of wreckage on the bridge of the Liberty, made extemporised arrangements and communications, and loosed off his torpedoes. He continued firing until the Mainz passed out of sight in the fog, to be finished off by the British cruisers which came into the fray. The Germans lost three cruisers, Ariadne. Koln and Mainz, and a destroyer, but no British ships were lost, although the Arethusa and the destroyer Laurel had to be towed home. Lieutenant Horan was specially mentioned in despatches by Commodore Tyrwhitt for having taken command and "brought his ship out. of action in an extremely able and gallant manner under most trying conditions " For his services he was awarded the first naval Distinguished Service Cross of the war. He was also given command of a torpedo boat,,and later commanded the destroyers Archer. Urchin and VTessex until the end of the war. Captain Horan will be joined by his wife and daughter on .Tune 29. when they will arrive from England by the Bangitiki.