1941-02-05 — Page 25

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THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 5, 1941.15.

TORPEDO, BOMBS, F OG`AND STORM-

BRITISH GRIT IN A BRITISH SHIP

LORD LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN, COUSIN OF THE KING, REFUSED TO ABANDON AND SINK

GERMANS

DOUBTING RESULTS

HIS SHIP, H.M.S. KELLY, WHEN SHE WAS OF WAR

CRIPPLED BY A GERMAN TORPEDO OFF THE

ENEMY COAST.

Instead, he and his crew, fighting with the faith and fire of Nelson, used the destroyer as a floating fence to sink a hunted Nazi torpedo-boat then defied enemy bombing attacks for three days and made port safely.

Kelly was down by the bows, listing heavily to starboard. One of her boilers was shattered. Some of her men were dead and dying. And the Germans boasted that she was sunk.

But to-day Kelly her wounds i healed, after seven months in hos- ! pital, is in active service again waiting for the Germans to come out and light.

The epic story that will live for ever British naval history has been revealed in Londen

Words Of Comfort

The story

of a captain who found time in the thick of battle te leave his bridge to murmur. words of comfort to a dying sea- man,

Of a cook who left his stew pots to man the guns again.! enemy warplanes,

An Evans was there, too Engineer Commander Evans, bro- ther of Evans of the Broke

Kelly was leading destroyne folilla

in a hunt for German minelayers when out of darknew and North Sea

torpedo fog a struck her.

Flame from the explosion flash- ed above the level of the bridge.

Its force lifted the warship bodily out of the water and blow the foremost boiler room open to the sea kilting every

man In it.

Amid steam black smoke and explosum fumes HMS. Bulldog found Kelly lying ke a log in the water ond took her in tow as the fog thickened,

Kelly's sick bay was wrecked.

In the darkness, working with a few hand torches, the surgeon 3rd attendants worked as, in day: past, they toiled in the cockpit of Neisen's Victory..

The latest issue of the Schwarze Korps, the or- gan of the Nazi S.S. men, complains that many peo- ple in Germany have the audacity to question the results of the war so far achieved.

It is often said about the result of the war in France, remarks the paper impatiently, that precious fine was wasted in marching Lyons and Southern France while After holding the man to ease

there was no attempt to cross the German his pain, Lord Louis said: "Channel, and it warns proud to have served with

perple to refrain from making such "ridiculous remarks." man like you."

a

Then he returned to the bridge the Naison touch. Do held the man us he died, telling him that his sacrifice bad i saved other men's lives.

German bombers appeared next morning as the Kelly's wounded were being transferred to H.M.S. Kardahar.

An air escort beat them off. Re- prated bombing attacks also fail- ed.

The

Dead were buried at sea. wind and sea rose steadily as the Saturday wore on. The Kelly Was yawing almost unmanage- ably.

On the captain's order every man except those needed for the guns was ordered to leave, Eighteen officers and

mon selected from

a whole ship's company that volunteered to remain on board, were left in Kelly with Lord Louis Mount- batter, who is forty and fought in the last war.

Aircraft reported two eneriy submarines in her direct path, and her captain, realising she Was merely a sitting target for their torpedoes, decided to transter his volunteer party temporarily to Bulldog.

All through the hours of dark- ness the Keily lay abandoned with the seas churning through her boiler roomas

And all through the night the escorting destroyers steamed in an endless chain round their stricken leader.

In the dawn two tugs arrived and the volunteer party returned

Enemy "Over The Top" to Kelly and gut her in tow. The

The men's her dam was in the highest naval tradition.

For hours a stoker, terribly wounded, lay without groaning or complaining.

A telegraphist, aged rightcon wriggled into the wreckage on the the main wireless office.

Knowing that is the chip sank he could not escane he gave Injections of morphia to five wounded men who were trap- ped.

Shorth after midnight a Ger- man motor-torpedo-bout, pursued by Bish warships, cune streak- ing out of the fog at 40 knots,

wind and sea rose again. Waves swept her from end to end. Again the bombers attarked and fail- ed.

Steel Helmet

A Major Martin, writing in the German Army publication "Die Wehrmacht,” also hits out at grumblers: "Women at home," he seys, "show a lack of understand- ing by saying that our army does nothing, and by asking why men who are sorely needed at home cannot be allowed to return.

"The same asked by soldiers, who seem to question is often

think that war can be carried on by the navy and the air force.”

Major "Yes, we won the war in Poland, Martin's comment is: Norway Holland and France, but it is not sufficient to have reached this aim, as England is not willing to recognise our victories.

"The conquered territories need ruling by vast contingents of Ger- man troops, so that the war can be carried on by the navy and the air force."

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The guns were worked by hand, the crews scrambling over wreckage from one gun to other as each came to hear on the attacking aircraft.

The able scaman who had volunteered to act as cook kept rushing from his stew pots to his gun and back again in the lulls of his cooking.

He persisted in wearing a large Desperately trying to escape, | white apron and steel helmet the German captain attempted to | throughout.

use Kelly as a shield. but instead. On the Monday afternoon, hàv-' of a clear run around, the Kelly's ing been ninety-one hours in tow bows, the enemy, found himself or hove to, Kelly arrived in port. faced by a slope of steel.

She had beaten the most deter- Striking Bulldog on the quar-mised "Nazi onslaughts from the ter in a final bid to escape, the air, dodged submarines and evaded. torpedo-boat, bounced off on to surface craft. Kelly's bows and shot down the etarboard side, tearing away her whaler motor boat davits and guard"ralis;

Her crew were shouting Uko mantars as she cannoned off into the fog and sudden silence, e

Judging by the amount of in- teresting wreckage, she had left behind and the silence.h had foundered.

„A” naval, rating, First-Class Stelter Cave was severely in jured.

Me hen I Die

“Never mifnd me, "Dec tald's sick berth attendan done,for... Holà, the other

BIT HER NOSE

AT

AT

GLAMORGAN ASSIZES

A MAN WAS STATED. SWANSEA TO HAVE BITTEN OFF PART OF HIS WIFE'S NOSE AND THEN TO HAVE PAID A SUBSTANTIAL SUM }FOR ⠀ PLASTIC TREATMENT. WHICH REMOVED THE DIS- |FIGUREMENTE

he Anthony Mixud, thirty, a Mal- tese fireman, was bound over for three years on a charge of unlaw- ----but hold --me-who dio, tit fully wounding his wife with in- tell-you when

tent to disfigure her

It was stated that he and his

Lord Louis Mountbatten, bold of, the man's courage, want down to wife had a dispute as to the svo him.

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