LAST OF KONIGSBERG

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9173, 13 October 1915, Page 8

LAST OF KONIGSBERG

PLUGGED TO DEATH GRAPHIC STORY OF THE FIGHT. From Our Special Correspondent: BONBON, August 31. The following- account of the end *of the IConigsberg is contained in a letter from an officer of the R.N.V.K., serving m one of the . monitors:—“There is plenty to writ© about, or ought to be, as we have at last finished the most important thing we-came all the way Out here for. We have destroyed the Konigsperg; she is now lying up., the. river Rufigi a useless wreck—Burnt out. The Severn, and Mersey, had a month hard at it Suing up in Tireue Bay. ■ The men worked from, sunrise to sunset, and had one afternoon free Only during the whole time. The last few days were taken up practising with the aeroplanes. We anchored off shore and fired at a targe! the other side of the island., The aeroplane told us where the shots fell and ive corrected the aim till the’target was hit. • ■ "Tuesday, July 6th, was the day of the first'attempt, and one of the worst . r ever had or am likely to have. We were at, our stations from 8.45 a.m. till 4.45 pan. and XI hours of-that were under tire. The engine-room people, were not relieved the whole time, and they were down there, the whole time- in a temperature of 132-135! It was hot up in the top, but child's play to the en-gine-room. We hit the IConigsberg six times at least, and. I believe set (her on lire —that.was early in the day.. Then we lost the target, and 1 doubt whether we hit' her again, though we triedall day till 4 o’clock. The Konigsberg was dropping salvoes Of four very close indeed. We got cheered when we finally emerged, but the job had not been completed ■ ■. , i ‘ ''After two or three days—no rest, not a bit—-work tightening up the ship, we finally left about 8 o’clock on Sunday, July 11th. All personal gear had been cleared out of the ship—there was not even a chair or a bed, nothing in fact but what was useful. A tug took'each of us' in tow, and away wo went. ' The tug was a bit of■ guile to deceive the Germans, .if they were on the. look out, as When we. neared the ’Kikunja mouth of the Eutigi river, again we cast olf the tow and, headed straight for the entrance. \W went to- general, quarters at 10.40 a.m-, and were inside the entrance by 11140.’ . How Well we Seemed to. know the place! T’-knew- exactly where the beastly field guns at the mouth . would open fire,-and. exactly when they would cease—as we pushed in, and so if their shots went over us (they would land on the opposite bank among their ; own troops. ; 1 /

“Very soon came the-soft whistle of the shell, then again and again—but we were nearing the-;- entrance, and they turned on the 'Mersey. They hit hdr twice, wounding two men and knocking down the after Bin gun crew; none were hurt, however. We left the Mersey at the place where we anchored last, time, in the hope that she would draw- the Konjgsberg’s fire and leave us a' free hand. ’ The- Konigsberg, however, fired one salvo at-her and then Tor the rest of the day concentrated on us. She was plugging us for seventeen minutes before we could return her fire.- The salvoes of four were dropping icloser than ever, if possible, and afterwards almost every man in the ship found a bit of German shell on board os a souvenir. They 'were everywhere—on the decks, round the engine-room, hut not -a soul was .even scratched.

"We went on higher up the river than last time, and finally anchored just at the top of ’our’ old island. As the after 6in gun’s crew were securing, the stern anchor two shells fell, one on either side, within Bft of the side, and drenched the quarter-deck. It was a very critical time. If she hit us we'were probably finished—and she came as near as possible without actually touching. We had no sooner anchored and‘laid the guns than the aeroplane signalled she was ready to spot. Our first four salvoes, at about one minute interval, were all signalled as 'Did not observe fall of shot.’ We came down 400, then -another 400 and more to the left- The next was spotted as 20v> yards over and about 200 to the right. The next 150 short and 100 to the, left. The necessary orders were sent to the guns, and at the seventh salvo we hit with one; and were just over with the other. We

hit eight;.times in the next twelve shots! “It was ' frightfully exciting. The Konigsberg was now firing salvoes' of three only. The aeroplane signalled all hits were ,forward—so we came a little left to get her amidships. The machine suddenly signalled ‘Am hit; com-ing-down; send a boat/ And there she was, about half-way between us and the Konigsberg, planing down. As they fell they continued to. signal our shots, for we, of course, kept on firing. The aeroplane fell in the water about 150 yards .from the Mersey and turned a; somersault; one man was thrown clear, but the other had a struggle to get free. Finally both got away, and were swimming for ten’ minutes before the Mersey’s motor-boat reached them—beating ours- by a short head. They were uninjured and as merry as crickets 1 ■ ■, 1

' "We kept on firing steadily the whole time, as wo knew we were hitting—about one salvo a minute. The Konigsberg was now' firing two guns: within 17 minutes of our opening fire, I notice, and logged it down, that She was firing two. In ,a very short time there was a big explosion from the direction of the Konigsberg, and from then : on she was never free from smoke, sometimes more, sometimes less—at one moment belching out clouds of black smoke, then yejjdw, with dull explosions from time to.time. Wo kept on firing regularly ourselves, one salvo to the minute —on perhaps two salvoes in three minutes—but the gunlayers were told to keep cool and make sure of their aim. There was one enormous explosion which shot up-,twice as high as the KOnigsberg's masts,, and the resulting smoke was visible’even from our deck. The men sent up a huge cheer. Tor some time now we had no reply from the Konigsberg. ‘ - ■

“At 12,53 I fancy she fired one gun, but I was not certain. She certainly did not fire’afterwards. As our guns were getting ’hot wo increased the range, os when hot'the shots are apt to fall short. Tine, columns of. smoko, black, white and yellow, and occasional dull reports rewarded us, but we were making no mistake and kept at it. Another Aeroplane turned up, and we now signalled the Mersey to pass on up stream and open fire nearer. She gave .us a great cheer as she passed. We raised our topmast and; had a look at tho Konigsberg. She was a fine sight. One mast was loaning over, the other was broken at the main top, and smoke was pouring out of the mast as out of a chimney. The funnels were: gone, and she was a mass of smoke and “flame from end to end! -.Wo hud done all the firing which had’’(destroyed her. The Mersey only started afterwards. That, was part of, the plan. Only one .ship was to fire at a time. ’The Mersey fired about -20 salvoes and made several hits,’and then we prepared to leave cue -river. ‘ -i ,

"Before, wo went the gunnery lieutenant and myself went to the top' o£ ;the mast to get a better view, and 1 .took a photograph of the smoke, resting the, camera on the very top of the topmast! The captain came up, too, and there were the three of us clinging to the lightning conductor with one arm, glasses in the other and our feet on the empty oildrum we had fixed up there as a crow's nest. Two tugs were waiting r9 T er- the bar, and'after giving us a cheer-took us in tow to help us back quicker to Tirene., "The . Weymouth, with the Admiral on board, came round, and then, passing us at speed, all hands lined the ship, and, led by the small white figure of the Admiral on the bridge, gave us three splendid cheers. It was one of the finest -sights I have ever seenWe answered back —and what a difference there was to our cheers of Tuesday last- We made about three times the -noise. By 8 o’clock we were hack at Tirene Bay as fresh as paint. No one complained of a headache even. It took us about three hours to cross Mafia Channel. It was a- beautiful evening, , and hard to believe we' had just left-ia ship (about three times our size, and which under any other conditions would‘have made mincemeat of us in five minutes) a flaming mass of twisted ironwork.” .