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
now being obtained, and the effect of the lyddite became immediately
apparent. First one and then another of _Leipzig’s_ guns ceased firing,
and by ten minutes to seven a big fire started forward. A few minutes
before _Cornwall_ had heard the news by wireless of the sinking of
_Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_, and officers and men redoubled their
efforts. The range was closed still more, the hitting became more
intense, but the enemy in spite of his losses and damages kept every
gun that could still work firing, and was actually hitting _Cornwall_
frequently right up to five minutes past seven, but in another five
minutes two of her funnels were gone and the ship was blazing fore and
aft.
_Cornwall_ thereupon ceased fire, expecting the enemy to strike his
colours, but he did not do so. So _Cornwall_ closed about 5,000 yards
and gave her a few more salvoes of lyddite. At a quarter to eight
there was a loud explosion on board _Leipzig_ and her mainmast went
over the side. At 8:12, it was of course dark by now, she sent up
signals of distress. Both _Cornwall_ and _Glasgow_ now lowered boats
as fast as they could be repaired and manned, but they were not able
to reach the enemy until after 9 o’clock, and before they did so the
ship turned over and sank. Only six officers and nine men were rescued
from the water. Heavy as the casualties must have been, there were in
all probability more than these unwounded at the end of the action,
and all of those not killed, wounded as well as unwounded, might have
been saved, for the ship was not actually in a sinking condition from
_Cornwall_ and _Glasgow’s_ fire, and had been sunk by the orders of her
own officers.
_Cornwall_ was hit eighteen times, but did not suffer a single
casualty. _Glasgow_ had one man killed and five wounded. One of the
_Leipzig’s_ officers said that from a quarter past six till seven, that
is when the range had been brought down to about 7,000 yards, some
rounds out of every salvo fired hit the ship. The effect of the lyddite
appears to have been appalling. Men were blown to pieces and the ship
was littered with ghastly fragments and relics of humanity. When the
ship could reply no more, for there was no ammunition left for such
guns as might still have been worked, the captain called the survivors
together and said any one who liked could go and haul the flag down,
but he would not do it. Nor did any one volunteer. About fifty jumped
overboard, and when the ship sent up signals of distress there were
only eighteen left alive on board. All but one of them were saved.
D. ACTION WITH THE ENEMY TRANSPORTS
“A report was received at 11:27 A.M. from H.M.S. _Bristol_ that three
ships of the enemy, probably transports or colliers, had appeared off
Port Pleasant. The _Bristol_ was ordered to take the _Macedonia_ under
his orders and destroy the transports.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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