The British Navy in BattlePollen, Arthur Joseph Hungerford
History
The British Navy in Battle
Pollen, Arthur Joseph Hungerford
Great Britain. Royal Navy; World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations
remembered that _Glasgow_ only had two 6-inch guns, only one of
which--the bow gun--could be employed in these conditions, and that the
_Leipzig’s_ 4.2’s completely outranged her 4-inch. It appears to be a
universal practice with the Germans to mount all their guns from the
largest to the smallest, so that they can be used at extreme elevation.
It will be remembered how the _Koenigsberg_ showed the most perfect
accuracy of fire at nearly 11,000 yards with guns of a calibre that in
pre-war days few in the British Service would have thought it possible
to employ at greater range than 7,000 or 8,000 yards. These efforts
of _Glasgow_ to manœuvre _Leipzig_ into contact with Cornwall, gave
_Dresden_ a chance she was not slow to take. She was much the fastest
of all the German craft, and managed, between four and five, to slip
completely out of sight and escape.
This escape was made easier, and all the shooting throughout the two
cruiser actions was made much more difficult by the sudden change in
the weather that has already been noted as having begun shortly before
4 o’clock. A drizzling rain had set in, and not only had it become
practically impossible to use rangefinders owing to the poor light, but
it became extremely hard to detect the fall of shot and so correct the
fire. In considering these two fights then, the extremely difficult
conditions that prevailed must be taken into account. Let us deal first
with the pursuit and destruction of _Nürnberg_.
“KENT” V. “NÜRNBERG”
At 5 o’clock _Kent_, after a chase of nearly four hours, was getting
within range of _Nürnberg_. _Nürnberg_ had crept away to the eastward
of _Leipzig_, so that by the time fire was opened, a considerable
distance separated this from the other engagements. In point of fact,
when the action began, the rain and increasing mist hid every other
ship from sight. It was _Nürnberg_ which was first to open fire and,
so far as could be judged, the range must have been about 11,000 yards
or slightly over. _Kent_ held her fire for another ten minutes, as if
waiting to see what the _Nürnberg’s_ guns could do at this range. She
could of course, only use her two guns on the quarter-deck, and the
after gun on the port side. To the astonishment of the _Kent_ all her
first salvoes were right over. The range would have been a long one
for a 6-inch gun; it seemed almost fabulous for a 4.2. Ten minutes
later _Kent_ opened with her bow turret, and for the next half hour
an active duel was maintained. The _Kent_ had sheered off a little
to the left so as to bring her forward casemate guns also to bear.
There was no doubt about the _Nürnberg’s_ shots falling over close,
and the _Kent’s_ guns seemed from the ship to be fairly on the target.
But for a considerable time there was no evidence that they were
hitting, and _Kent_ was certainly not suffering from _Nürnberg’s_ fire,
astonishingly accurate as it was. But suddenly, soon after half-past
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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