killed every member of the turret's crew. 

 From my position, when the smoke and dust had blown away, I looked down into a mass of twisted machinery, amongst which I seemed to detect the charred remains of bodies. 

 At about 7.40 we turned, under cover of our smoke screen, and steered south-west. 

 Our position was not satisfactory, as the last information of the enemy reported them as turning to the southward; consequently they were between us and Heligoland. 

 At 11 p.m. we received a signal for divisions of battle fleets to steer independently for the Horn Reef swept channel. 

 Ten minutes later we underwent the first of five destroyer attacks. 

 The British destroyers, searching wide in the night, had located us, and with desperate gallantry pressed home the attack again and again. So close did they come that about 1.30 a.m. we rammed one, passing through her like a knife through a cheese. 

 It was a wonderful spectacle to see those sinister craft, rushing madly to their destruction down the bright beam of our powerful searchlights. It was an avenue of death for them, but to the credit of their Service it must stand that throughout the long nightmare they did not hesitate. 

 The surrounding darkness seemed to vomit forth flotilla after flotilla of these cavalry of the sea. 

 And they struck us once, a torpedo right forward, which will keep us in dock for a month, but did no vital injury. 

 When morning dawned, misty and soft, as is its way in June in the Bight, we were to the eastward of the British, and so we came honourably home to Wilhelmshaven, feeling that the young Navy had laid worthy foundations for its tradition to grow upon. 

 We are to report at Kiel, and shall be six weeks upon the job. 

 

 

 

 Prev. P 11/119 next