The Battle of the Falkland Islands 13

The Battle of the Falkland Islands 13

afterwards received a silver salver from the Admiralty in recognition

of her prompt action, and her maid a silver teapot, whilst the

signalman at Sapper Hill, Port Stanley, received £5 from Admiral

Sturdee--a fact we had cause to remember later on, when frequent

reports of "hearing distant firing," "sighting smoke," resulted in

one or two wild-goose chases!

 

"Enemy in sight." What a thrilling message for us all! We could

scarcely believe our ears. "What a stroke of luck!" was the general

comment. But this was no time for ruminating; deeds, not words, were

required. At last "the Day" for which we had prepared had dawned.

In very truth the hunt was up. The magic news travelled round the

ship's company like lightning, and they fell in in record time--in

spite of having to forgo some of their breakfast. The _Invincible_,

_Inflexible_, and _Carnarvon_ were in the middle of coaling.

Colliers were cast off, and all ships prepared for action in case the

enemy appeared off the entrance to Port William.

 

As several of our ships had one engine down at six hours' notice, the

bustle and activity in the engine rooms may well be imagined. We on

deck naturally enough were soon ready, and chafed at the delay.

 

The _Kent_ went out of harbour to reconnoitre, to report on the

movements of the enemy, and to relieve the _Macedonia_. The enemy's

two leading ships--the _Gneisenau_ and _Nürnberg_--were in sight

and were approaching the wireless station, intending to wreck it.

When near the Wolf Rocks they stopped engines and turned to the

north-eastward. The bearing and elevation of the enemy ships having

been telephoned from the observation station, the _Canopus_, finding

that they could get no closer, opened fire over the low neck of land

at 9.20 A.M. with her 12-inch guns, firing five rounds at a range

of 12,000 yards (_see_ page 83). It was the first time that most of

us had heard a shot fired in a naval action, and it brought home

very forcibly the fact that we should soon be tackling the job to

which we had looked forward for so long. Hoisting their colours,

the enemy turned away S.E. to join the main squadron, which headed

out to the eastward. It afterwards transpired that the Germans had

seen the tripod masts of our battle-cruisers over the land, which

probably decided von Spee in turning away from his objective. In one

moment all his hopes of destroying our Fleet--supposed to consist of

_Carnarvon_, _Cornwall_ and _Bristol_, and possibly the _Canopus_

and _Glasgow_--the wireless station, and then capturing the colony,

were dashed to the ground. From survivors it appears that one of the

_Canopus's_ shells had ricocheted, striking the _Gneisenau_ at the

base of her after funnel; it was also claimed that a piece of another

hit the _Nürnberg_--good shooting by indirect fire at such a range,

with guns of an old type and improvised fire-control arrangements.

 

Officers of the _Canopus_, who were in the observation station

ashore, saw through the telescope of their theodolite the men on

board the _Gneisenau_ fallen in on deck; they could be distinguished,

quite plainly, dressed ready for landing, in order to capture the

wireless station under cover of their ship's guns. But when the

_Canopus_ opened fire with her first two projectiles they lost no

time in scuttling away to their action stations.

 

An amusing incident occurred on board the _Canopus_ when the enemy

first hove in sight. The stokers off watch climbed up inside the

foremost funnel to see what was going on and sat round the edge,

feeling quite secure as they knew the ship was ashore--hard and fast.

They very soon came down, however, when they were informed that the

boilers of that funnel were being lit up and the ship going to sea.

 

At 9.40 A.M. the _Glasgow_ went out to join the _Kent_ in observing

the enemy's movements. Five minutes later the squadron weighed, with

the exception of the _Bristol_, who had all her fires out to clean

boilers. She was ready three-quarters of an hour later, however,

which must have constituted a record for ships of her class. The

_Carnarvon_, _Inflexible_, _Invincible_, and _Cornwall_ proceeded

out in the order named, the _Inflexible_ ramming a sailing pinnace

belonging to the _Cornwall_, half full of stores, on her way through

the line of mines; fortunately a barrel of beer belonging to the

wardroom officers had previously been rescued! The _Macedonia_ was

ordered to remain behind in Port William. It was very clear with

a slight north-westerly breeze--ideal conditions for a long-range

action.

 

The last of our line cleared the harbour about 10.30 A.M., when the

five enemy ships could be seen hull down on the horizon to the S.E.,

12 to 13 miles off, steaming off in the hopeless attempt to escape.

The signal "General chase" was flying from the _Invincible_, and the

magnificent spectacle of our ships, each with four or five white

ensigns fluttering in the breeze, all working up to full speed, will

always live in the memory of those who witnessed it on that eventful

day.

 

The surprise and horror of the Germans at seeing our two

battle-cruisers for the first time was testified by the survivors,

who said, "They tried not to believe it." It must have been an awful

moment finding themselves suddenly face to face with almost certain

destruction. First of our ships came the little _Glasgow_, dashing

along like an express train, then the two huge battle-cruisers going

about 25 knots, belching forth volumes of dense black smoke as they

made use of their oil fuel to quicken their fires, followed by the

_Kent_, _Carnarvon_, and _Cornwall_ doing about 22 knots.

 

The Admiral reduced speed for an hour to 20 knots at 11.15 A.M., to

allow the "County" cruisers to catch up, for it was evident that we

were rapidly gaining on the enemy, as we sped along on an easterly

course. The _Glasgow_ was ordered to keep three miles ahead of the

_Invincible_. There was now an opportunity to get out of coaling kit

and have a hasty wash. The ship's companies were consequently sent to

dinner early, acting on the good old maxim that a man always fights

better on a full stomach; but the excitement was too intense for

most men to have more than a bite, and they were mostly to be seen

crowding about the ship's decks munching a hastily made sandwich.

 

At 11.27 A.M. the _Bristol_ reported that the smoke of three

steamers, enemy transports, had been sighted from the signal station

at Point Pleasant to the southward of the Island, whereupon the

Commander-in-Chief ordered the _Bristol_ and _Macedonia_ to destroy

them. They arrived to find only two, both big colliers, the _Baden_

and _Santa Isabel_; the _Bristol_ took off the crews and then sank

the vessels. Half an hour later the _Bristol_ learnt the news of

the result of the action, and that the sacrifice of their valuable

cargoes had been unnecessary. The _Macedonia_, who was first upon the

scene, sighted smoke on the horizon, but could see no ship. Rumour

had it that this third ship was the _Seydlitz_, and that she had a

landing party of armed men and field guns on board, but this has

never been substantiated in any way.

 

The _Glasgow_ was ordered back, and at 12.20 P.M. the

Commander-in-Chief decided to attack the enemy with the

battle-cruisers, whose speed was increased to 25 knots. The enemy

were steaming in two divisions in quarter-line, first the _Gneisenau_

and _Nürnberg_ on the left of the line, then the _Scharnhorst_

(flag), _Dresden_, and _Leipzig_; the latter being astern of the

remainder of their ships, who were on the starboard bow of our

squadron, became the first target. "Action" was sounded, and at once

not a soul was to be seen about the decks, each man being busy at

his appointed station. The Admiral hoisted the signal "Open fire"

at 12.47, and eight minutes later the _Inflexible_ fired at the

_Leipzig_ the first round of the action; the _Invincible_ followed

almost immediately afterwards. Both ships were now going their full

speed, nearly 27 knots, and firing slowly and deliberately at the

great range of 16,000 yards (over nine land miles). The huge columns

of water, over 150 feet high, thrown up by our 12-inch projectiles,

which weigh 840 lb., sometimes completely blotted out the enemy

target at this distance. Owing to the German ships being end-on, it

was difficult to get the direction, but our shots were falling very

close to them at times, and soon produced a drastic change in their

movements.

 

Admiral von Spee is said to have now made this signal to his ships:

"The armoured cruisers will engage the enemy _as long as possible_,

the light cruisers are to use every endeavour to escape." Acting

on this, at 1.20 P.M. the _Dresden_, the _Nürnberg_--which one of

our battle-cruisers claimed to have hit--and the _Leipzig_ turned

away to the southward, the positions of the ships being roughly as

shown in the plan (p. 94). The _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_ will be

seen turning to port to engage the battle-cruisers, which altered

simultaneously on to a parallel course, whilst the remainder of

our squadron, except the _Carnarvon_, which presumably had orders

to proceed with the Commander-in-Chief, turned and gave chase to

the _Dresden_, _Leipzig_, and _Nürnberg_. The _Carnarvon_ was, of

course, unable to keep up with the big ships, and did not get into

action until later; she was now 10 miles astern, and altered course

to port to cut a corner and join the Flag.

 

[Illustration: ROUGH DIAGRAM OF ACTION OFF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS

 

8^{TH} DECEMBER, 1914.

]

 

All this while the "County" cruisers were coming along with

all possible speed. The _Glasgow_ was stationed clear of the

battle-cruisers, which were followed by the _Kent_, _Cornwall_, and

_Carnarvon_. When the action commenced the crews of these ships had

the most perfect view of a modern naval engagement fought at long

range. As an officer in the _Kent_ described it: "We were spectators

in the front row of the stalls, as it were, so close that we could

almost touch the actors on the stage, yet so far that no stray

missile disturbed the comfort of our view. The best seats in the

house at a performance of one of the few remaining spectacles which

cannot be bought for money."

 

Imagine a calm, smooth sea, the sun shining and not a cloud in the

sky, the ship steaming at something over 23 knots, and the men

crowded on the turrets and in every available corner, tier upon

tier, for all the world as if looking on at a cup tie at the Crystal

Palace.... It was a wonderful sight. The big ships buried their

sterns in the sea, throwing up the seething water in their wakes

as they dashed onwards. The bright flashes of their guns showed up

strikingly, followed successively by the dark brown puffs of cordite

smoke; the seconds were counted until the reports were heard and huge

columns of water thrown up by the splashes were seen. Many of the

men had had friends in the _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_ whose fate was