MORE ACCOUNTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 3, 5 January 1944, Page 4

MORE ACCOUNTS

SCHARNHORST’S END NO ONE-SIDED FIGHT Recd. 7 p.m. Rugby, Jan. 3. Graphic accounts of the destruction of the Scharnhorst, given by officers and men of H.M.S. Duke of York, appear in the British Press. The latest are those by Leading Seaman R. Daly, Able Seaman Litton, and Paymaster Lieutenant T. B. Homan. “The first indication that we were nearing the enemy,” said Daly, “was a starshell fired by the cruiser Belfast in the distance. Soon we turned and fired a starshell too. Ours fell right over the Scharnhorst, and I could see her plainly, travelling at full speed. Our 14-inch guns then opened up, and the first salvo fell short. With the second I distinctly saw four hits, u h'.ch showed four red flashes along the ship. As our job was as look-outs against detroyers coming to make torpedo attacks we shut our eyes every time we heard a fire bell ringing, otherwise we would have been temporarily blinded by the flash. Immediately we heard the guns go off we looked up and saw our shells racing through the sky like shooting stars. Th? shells from the Jamaica could be followed all the way from the ship to the target.” Destroyers Under Fire. Litton said: “There was a lull, and we were told our dtstroyers had gone in to make a torpedo attack. A short while afterwards I saw two huge flashes and our ship snook with an explosion. I could see the destroyers coming out from the attack, and the enemy certainly sent something ar. them. Thousands of tracer bullets and shells seemed to be flying at them at tn? same time. The destroyers let go. too. After a while our 14-inch and 5.2-inch guns opened up again, and a cruiser astern also began to fire. Fire seemed to be coming from the other side of the enemy, which indicated that three cruisers which had been shadowing him during the day were also making contact. We got many hits and I saw a great fire break out on board, and I noticed that she was firing from only the alter turret and trying to put up a smoke screen. The next we saw was two destroyers lighting up the area with searchlights and picking up survivors.” Lieut. Homan said that during the action every now and then there would be a very short period of absolute silence while the guns reloaded and th? range was corrected. Then the overwhelming noise would start again. The whine of shells and the fountains of water thrown up around the Duke of York just off the bows and what seemed a few yards off the beam removed any ideas that the fight was one-sided. “The Duke of York was undoubtedly lucky,” he said, “but she was masterly handled by the captain, to whom a lot is owed for bringing us through undamaged.

“When the Duke of York closed the range the second time I observed definite hits on the Scharnhorst, which showed dull red patches. Her firing was now fairly erratic, although even now a spout of water would mark her shells landing uncommonly close. At the end the enemy appeared to b? slowly circling and a cloud of thick smoke was hanging over her. The Jamaica left us to go in and fire a torpedo, but I could not see the Scharnhorst, as the smoke from her fires obscured the vie\v. The cruisers played searchlights over where she was last seen, and the action was over. Again all was very dark and quiet.’’— 8.0.W.