Part 1 (2/2)
The Harwich Force lost no time in going out to search for the enemy after the declaration of war. War was declared by Great Britain on August 4, 1914, and at an early hour of the morning following that fateful event the people of Harwich thronged the quays and the seash.o.r.e to witness the steaming out of the harbour at high speed of the entire Harwich Force. It was a scene of wild enthusiasm on sh.o.r.e, and the population loudly cheered the s.h.i.+ps that were hurrying off to fight the enemies of England.
It was at six in the morning of that glorious summer day that the force left the harbour, and then the s.h.i.+ps spread out in accordance with orders. At 9 a.m. a section of the force, consisting of the light cruiser _Amphion_ and some destroyers, were near the Galloper, when Captain Fox, commanding the _Amphion_, hoisted the cheery signal, ”_Good hunting!_” It was a signal that typified the sporting spirit in which our Navy went to work from the beginning to the end of the war.
Soon the chance came to this flotilla of firing the first shots that were fired in the naval war.
At 10.30 the _Konigin Luise_, a German mail steamer that had been fitted out as a mine-layer, was sighted. Chased by the destroyers _Lance_ and _Landrail_, she was brought to action half an hour later.
Then the destroyers _Lark_ and _Linnet_ joined in the chase, and by midday the other s.h.i.+ps had come up. The enemy had evidently been badly damaged by our fire, for she was steaming away at a considerably reduced speed. At 12.15 she was in a sinking condition; so her crew abandoned her and jumped overboard. But her engines had not been stopped, and she still went on slowly until at last she turned round on her side and began to settle down. Out of the _Konigin Luise's_ complement of one hundred men, forty-three, some of whom were badly wounded, were picked up by our boats. Of these, twenty were taken into the _Amphion_.
The mine-layer had evidently been at work on the English coast, possibly even before the declaration of war; for at 6.35 on the following morning, August 6, the _Amphion_ struck a mine. There was a violent explosion under the fore bridge. Every man on the fore mess-decks was killed, as were eighteen out of the twenty German prisoners in the s.h.i.+p. Captain Fox and the four officers on the bridge were stunned and badly burnt on hands and face. The _Amphion_ now began to settle down by the head, and her sides forward were turning black as the result of the internal fires. For three or four minutes she continued to move slowly in a circle before the word could be given to stop the engines. The men all collected on the quarter-deck.
There was absolutely no sign of panic. The boats were lowered quietly.
The discipline was magnificent. Within a quarter of an hour after the explosion the boats from the destroyers were alongside the _Amphion_, and all the survivors were taken off.
After this had been safely effected, the fire that was raging under the fore mess-decks having reached the magazines, another terrific explosion occurred in the _Amphion_. This blew away a large portion of the fore part of the s.h.i.+p, and quant.i.ties of wreckage began to fall over the surrounding sea, causing several casualties in the destroyers. One sh.e.l.l fell on board the _Lark_, killing two men of the _Amphion's_ crew and a German prisoner who had just been rescued from the _Amphion_. Thus this man, who had survived two disasters in the s.p.a.ce of a few hours, now fell a victim to the accident of falling debris.
It is worthy of mention that one of the destroyers' boats, while pa.s.sing through the floating wreckage, came upon an uninjured football that had come from the _Amphion_. The men were keen on salving it; so it was picked up and brought on board the destroyer, and it was used throughout the following football season whenever the s.h.i.+p was in port. The Hun prisoners, belonging to a race that professes to despise the British for their love of sport, were given food for thought by this incident.
CHAPTER II
THE HELIGOLAND BIGHT ACTION
CHAPTER II
THE HELIGOLAND BIGHT ACTION
The plan--The sweep by the Harwich Force--The destroyers in action--_Arethusa's_ duel with the _Frauenlob_--Off Heligoland again--Action with German light cruisers--The _Mainz_ sunk--End of the _Arethusa_.
The first naval action of the war was that in the Bight of Heligoland.
In this the Harwich Forces played a notable part. The Harwich submarine flotilla under Commodore Roger Keyes (now Vice-Admiral Sir Roger Keyes) had a good deal to do with the preparation for the battle. At the beginning of the war these submarines were sent to guard the approaches to the English Channel, their object being to prevent any portion of the German fleet from pa.s.sing through the straits and attacking the s.h.i.+ps that were conveying our first Expeditionary Force to France. While thus employed they did valuable work in observing the movements of the enemy light forces in the North Sea. Acting on the information supplied by the submarines, the Commander-in-Chief decided to send the fast s.h.i.+ps of the Harwich Force to make a sweep of the North Sea up to Heligoland and cut off enemy light craft known to be operating within that area.
August 28 was the day appointed for this raid. The Harwich submarines were sent out in advance to scout and to attack any enemy s.h.i.+ps that might issue from the German bases to support their light craft. At the same time, from the Grand Fleet base, a squadron of cruisers was sent to the westward of Heligoland in order to intercept the German light craft should the Harwich Force succeed in cutting them out and driving them to the west. Beatty, with battle cruisers and light cruisers, went to an appointed position to be in readiness to support the Harwich Force when the time came. Probably one of the objects of this expedition was to entice the German capital s.h.i.+ps to come out from their base and fight. If so, the expedition, though quite successful in its other aims, failed in that respect. For even at this early stage of the war the enemy refused to accept the challenge of the British Navy. The fighting took place within thirty miles of the German base. Within a very short time the enemy could have put an overwhelming force into action against our s.h.i.+ps. But he did not do so, and allowed his light cruisers and destroyers to be sunk within hearing of his pa.s.sive battles.h.i.+ps and battle cruisers.
So on the morning of August 28 the Harwich Force, composed of two light cruisers--the _Arethusa_, Commodore Tyrwhitt's flags.h.i.+p, and the _Fearless_, commanded by Captain W.F. Blunt--with forty destroyers, were sweeping round towards Heligoland. This, of course, was very early in the war, and the _Arethusa_, a brand-new s.h.i.+p, had had no time to carry out her gun practice and complete other preparations when she was ordered out. At 4 a.m. the _Arethusa_ and twenty of the destroyers were within seventy miles of Heligoland, sweeping down towards the island at twenty knots, the _Fearless_ and the other twenty destroyers following five miles astern. The weather was fine, but when it is not rough in the North Sea it is usually misty, and it was so on this occasion, the visibility being only 5000 yards. Just before 7 a.m. an enemy destroyer appeared on _Arethusa's_ port bow.
One of our destroyer divisions was ordered to chase her. This, as one who took part in the action put it, ”started the ball.” The fog lifted a bit, and the sun's rays occasionally broke through it. And now out of the mists ahead loomed several objects which proved to be enemy destroyers and torpedo-boats. It was evident that the Harwich Force had run into the patrols that it had been sent to seek out. A very brisk engagement was now fought between our destroyers and those of the enemy. In the course of this destroyer action, the 4th Destroyer Division, composed of the _Liberty_, _Laurel_, _Lysander_, and _Laertes_, engaged an enemy light cruiser and torpedoed her, but did not put her out of action. Both _Liberty_ and _Lysander_ were a good deal knocked about and had numerous casualties, the captain of the _Liberty_ being among the killed.
A curious incident occurred at the close of this destroyer action.
Another of our destroyer divisions had engaged and sunk an enemy destroyer. The British destroyer _Defender_ had lowered a boat to save the survivors, who were struggling in the water. The boat had picked up several of the men, when a German light cruiser opened fire both upon our destroyers and upon the boat. The order came to the _Defender_ and the other destroyers to retire at once, and this they had to do, leaving the boat behind. To the men in the boat the outlook was not a cheerful one. Imprisonment in Germany for the duration of the war seemed their probable fate. But the retirement of the enemy had by this time commenced, and the German light cruiser which had been sh.e.l.ling them now steamed away without stopping to pick them up.
At this juncture, while the enemy light cruiser was still in sight, there popped up close to the boat the periscope of a submarine. The submarine rose to the surface, and to the delight of our men proved to be British--the E4, under the command of Captain E.W. Leir. She took off the British sailors and a few sample Huns, and, not having accommodation for more, left the other Germans in the boat, having first provided them with biscuit, water, and a compa.s.s.
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