The Children's Story of the War Volume 4 (of 10): The Story of the Year 1915Parrott, Edward
History
The Children's Story of the War Volume 4 (of 10): The Story of the Year 1915
Parrott, Edward
World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile literature
Perhaps the most thrilling feat of daring ever associated with submarine
warfare was performed by Lieutenant Guy D'Oyly Hughes on August 21,
1915. Lieutenant Hughes had already distinguished himself during the
operations of E11 which I have described above. He volunteered to make a
single-handed attempt to blow up a Turkish railway. A raft was prepared,
and on it were placed the charge, his clothes, a revolver, a bayonet,
and an electric torch. Round his neck he carried a whistle. Towards
dusk the submarine ventured within sixty yards of the land, and then
Lieutenant Hughes, stripped to the skin, went overboard, and pushing his
raft before him, swam to the shore. When he touched bottom he found that
the cliffs were too high to scale. He therefore started off again, and
swam along the shore until he reached a less precipitous landing-place.
Having dressed, he clambered up the rocks, carrying his charge with him.
After a stiff climb he reached the top of the cliffs, and proceeding
with great caution, made his way to the railway line, which he followed
towards a viaduct.
He had only advanced about five or six hundred yards when he heard
voices, and shortly afterwards caught a glimpse of three Turkish
soldiers sitting by the side of the line and talking loudly. After
watching them for some time he decided to leave the charge, which was
heavy and cumbersome, and make a wide circuit inland, so as to get to
the viaduct unseen. This he did, the only incident by the way being an
unfortunate fall from a wall into a farmyard, where his sudden
appearance startled the poultry and disturbed the household. He was not,
however, detected. When he came in sight of the viaduct he found that it
was guarded. A fire was burning at one end of it, and there were men
close at hand. It was impossible to destroy the viaduct, so he returned
to the place from which he had started, picked up his charge, revolver,
bayonet, and electric torch, and looked for a spot where he might do as
much damage as possible to the line.
Searching about, he found a low brickwork support over a small hollow,
and there he placed his charge. He was only 150 yards from the three
soldiers, who were still sitting by the line. He muffled the fuse pistol
as tightly as possible with a piece of rag; but when he pulled it the
noise was sufficiently loud to be heard by the soldiers, who stood up,
looked around them, and catching sight of the lieutenant, ran towards
him. He fired two shots at them, but missed, and hotly pursued, beat a
hasty retreat along the line to the eastward. A few shots were fired at
him, but he was not hit, and after running about a mile he found himself
close to the shore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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