'THE GREAT WAR', 'THE WAR TO END WAR', 'WORLD WAR 1'
'What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
- Only the monstrous anger of the guns.'
from 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'
by Wilfred Owen
31st MAY - 1st JUNE 1916
THE NAVAL SEA BATTLE
OF JUTLAND
Transcript from: 'More Sea Fights of the Great War'
by W.L. Wyllie, C. Owen & W.D. Kirkpatrick
pub. 1919
CHAPTER VII We left Rear-Admiral Hood dodging the torpedoes of the German light cruisers. Shortly afterwards he sighted Lion and the First Battle-Cruiser Squadron. He turned to take his station ahead of Sir David. A very sharp action was at once begun with the German battle-cruisers at a range of only 8,000 yards. In the middle of the battle Admiral Hood, who was on the bridge with his Flag Captain, hailed his gunnery officer, Dannreuther, in the fire control, saying: "Your firing is very good. Keep at it as quickly as you can; every shot is telling. "Only four minutes afterwards a German salvo struck Invincible on Q turret. The enemy must have been using delay-action fuses, for the shells burst inside. Commander Dannreuther saw the roof of the turret blown right off. The burning cordite reached the magazine, and a tremendous explosion rent the unfortunate ship in half. Officers who were present say that in the great brown-grey cloud of smoke they saw a picket-boat flung hundreds of feet into the air with quantities of other wreckage. The whole of the midship portion of Invincible was blown away, but for a long time afterwards her two ends stuck out of the sea like half-tide rocks, grim and awful in their separation. Many who saw them did not understand at first what they were; an oflicer in Benbow, who passed the wreck at 6.56, said he thought it might be a Zeppelin. Later he saw the red paint and black topping, with a yardarm group over the stern, then, terrible to relate, the name Invincible. A destroyer was standing by picking up men still Rear-Admiral the Hon. Horace Hood ranked as one of the most promising of the younger flag oflicers. He had greatly distinguished himself on the Belgian coast in the early part of the war, and his death was a great loss to the Royal Navy. His memory remains honoured and untarnished. Inflexible now led the line, and as soon as the wreck had been passed she altered course two points towards the enemy, again lost in the mist. Later on there was a still further turn, but at 6.50 Sir David signalled to the two battle-cruisers to take station astern of New Zealand. |
At five o'clock Admiral Jellicoe's advanced cruiser line, which was commanded by Rear-Admiral Heath, was about sixteen miles ahead of the main Battle Fleet, and, owing to the haze, the cruisers on the western flank had closed in. Admiral Hood's battle-cruisers should have been at this time about sixteen miles east of the advanced cruiser line, but the course of the "Invincibles" was more to the southward, and they were running quite five knots faster. The result was that, when the sound of firing reached Admiral Heath's ships, he saw three battle-cruisers steaming to the westward. Just as he was about to open tire on the British ships Invincible providentially returned his challenge. The battle-cruisers had rushed in between the advanced line and the enemy. Let us now turn to Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot, commanding four armoured cruisers. His flagship, Defence, to the eastward, was followed by Warrior. Duke of Edinburgh and Black Prince formed another line to starboard; both columns steered to the south-east. At 3.47 Sir Robert sighted on his starboard bow three or four German light cruisers. Turning three points to port, he brought them abeam. Both the British cruisers fired three salvos at the nearest enemy, a three-funnelled cruiser, but all the shots fell short. Then Sir Robert altered course to port, bringing the foe ahead. The German vessel was soon much nearer, and the cruisers, half hidden in mist, turned and opened fire, the shots falling all about the British ships. Lion and the First Battle-Cruiser Squadron appeared to starboard, still engaged with the enemy they had been fighting all the afternoon, steaming at high speed and showing clearly by their battered condition what an ordeal they had gone through. Lion's middle turret had the roof off; fires were burning forward in the port battery and the funnels were badly riddled, but Sir David had kept to his bridge all through the action. On board Princess Royal a heavy shell had struck the after barbette, causing the guns to drop their muzzles forlornly on the deck. Great columns of tawny smoke continued to belch from the long |
muzzles of the other guns with the brilliant, ruddy cordite flames at each salvo. Sir Robert took his two cruisers right across the bows of Lion, so close, indeed, that Captain Chatfield starboarded his helm to clear Warrior.
The positions of the ships are illustrated on p. 141 as they appeared a few moments afterwards. Defence and Warrior were now under fire from the German battle-cruisers beyond the mist. Both Sir Robert's ships were punishing the tiny Wiesbaden - now in great distress, listing over and badly down by the head, but gallantly firing a solitary gun. Shortly after six the enemy obtained a clear view of the British ships, sharply defined against the evening light. Defence was hit by two salvos fired in quick succession. The effect was instantaneous. Her magazine exploded with tremendous violence. There were no survivors. Fire seemed to run along from the explosion in each end of the ship and to meet in the middle. In a moment she simply disappeared. Warrior, in following, had received the concentrated fire of the enemy; great 12-inch shells rained upon her without cessation. Her Engineer-Commander afterwards gave a graphic description of the scene below. All through her commission he had been gradually working the engines up to do better and better. On the moming of the battle he succeeded in making them run more smoothly than they had ever done before. Never had the old ship been driven so fast. Then came the German shells, smashing and rending everything. The Engineer-Commander's feelings were of rage and fury. His splendid charges, on which he had lavished so much loving care, lay fractured and mutilated by flying fragments of steel. It was unthinkable. At this moment a heavy shell came hurtling through the port engine-room grating. It passed through the fore and aft bulkhead into the starboard engine-room, and then, without bursting, through the ship's side out into the sea. |
The catastrophe was overwhelming. In a moment the starboard engine-room was full of cold, green water which spouted through the shell hole in the fore and aft bulkhead, rapidly filling up the port engine-room. "Shall I stop the engines, sir?" cried a leading stoker. "No, no! Leave them running!" came the answer. The Engineer-Commander was grasped by the collar, and a burly stoker helped him on to the cylinder cover, where, with the water up to his neck, he could hold on to the engine-room grating. On the deck above a savage fire raged among offices and cabins. Bright flames were licking the paintwork ; smoke hung everywhere. The stokers helped each other along to the shell-hole in the grating, through which they painfully climbed, choked and half blinded by the fumes. Water washed about the deck; the dead lay huddled in the corners. It is better to draw a veil over what happened to the unfortunate men in the starboard engine-room, caged between fire and water. War is a ghastly tragedy, though it calls forth the heroism of men.
Warrior, crippled and confused, turned away westward; though a perfect wreck, her engines were still running. She soon found herself close to Sir Evan Thomas's four battleships, which had just been ordered to take station astern of Agincourt. The ships of the Fifth Battle Squadron put their helms a-starboard to carry out the order, but they were still under a heavy fire, and for some reason or other the steering gear of Warspite, the last but one in the line, jammed, and she continued under starboard helm, turning circles in the middle of the battle. The Germans sent many salvos at her, and fires were started and great damage done, water pouring into her after compartments. The picture opposite shows the position of the two ships, Warrior crawling out of action and Warspite perforce still waltzing in the midst of the shell splashes. Warrior was no doubt lucky in meeting Warspite, for the great battleship attracted to herself the attention of the German gunners. There is, of course, no truth in the stories which appeared in the newspapers at the time claiming that Warspite went out of her way to protect the wounded Warrior. |
Continuing to creep towards the west, the battered armoured cruiser was sighted by the seaplane carrier Engadine. The latter was soon alongside getting wire hawsers ready for towing. All through the night the gallant little excursion boat continued to tow Warrior towards a British port. On the moming of June 1 the pair had reached Lat. 57.18 North, Long. 3.54 E., but now bad weather began. Warrior put her quarter into the waves with every roll and wallowed in a way which suggested that she might turn on her side at any moment. There is a very marked peculiarity in the lurch of a waterlogged ship which is disconcerting. A council was held, and it was decided to abandon the ship. Luckily, Engadine was fitted with very strong rubbing strakes - a relic of the days when she carried trippers. In spite of the rising swell, she was skilfully brought alongside by Lieut.-Commander C. J. Robinson, and the large number of wounded men were gradually transferred. Unfortunately one of the cases - a seaman who had both legs amputated - was dropped into the sea between the two ships. Without waiting a moment, one of Engadine's pilots - Rutland - jumped in at tremendous risk and rescued the poor soul. There can be no doubt·that the abandoned Warrior must have sunk during the night. Many ships were sent to search for her but found no trace. An ofiicer of the First Battle-Cruiser Squadron has stated that Engadine, in spite of her unsightly hangar aft, was most efficient and always at hand when wanted. When orders came for Beatty's vessels to leave Rosyth before the battle the ship was lying with her two cables twisted in a hopeless muddle, for mooring swivels are not supplied to seaplane carriers. One officer at least looked at the tangle of chains as he passed, thinking to himself : "Well, we won't see Engadine for some time anyhow' But when the squadron was outside Blackrock Gate there was the ex-tripper in her appointed place ready for anything. It has been recorded how smartly her seaplane got away before the battle and how quickly the report came in. |
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