The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1915-11-15
DEADLY TORPEDO
DEALS FINAL BLOW
Sailing Without Lights Patrol Ves-
sells Sight Enemy and Shells Be-
gin to Scream; Shore Batter
les Join in Fray
By WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS.
q. p. staff correspondent.


PARIS, Oct. 2s.--(By mail IA mid.
night battle by moonlight with the
guns of two French destroyers roaring
broadsides in reply to the German
salyos, preceded the recent sinking of
a large German destroyer off Ostend.
A torpedo sent the German to the
bottom as she was running for cover
of the shore batteries. she sank with
all on board. The French destroyers
sped away, comparatively unharmed
by terrific bombardment from the
shore
The complete story Of the thrilling
fight reached Paris today. 1t came in
the form of a letter from blue jacket
aboard the leading French destroyer,
which the writer called "O'' and lent
new color to the flat statement in a
recent official comminique.
Last night two of our destroyers
encountered and sank German de.
stroyer off Osiend. AS our vessels
We're bombarded by the shore batter
les, we were unable to rescue any of
the enemy.
1T was shortly after IL o'clock at
night" wrote the blue jacket aboard
destroyer "O," "and we were patrol
ling before Ostend with all lights out.
The b. another destroyer, was fol-
lowing, also with lights out. short
distance astern. The night was clear;
there was moon and the sea was
smooth as oil. All of sudden we
sighted a ship ahead. Its silhouette
stood out boldly in the night. 1t was
assuredly a German destroyer. bigger
that we, and better armed. Up to
now she had not sighted us. Slowly
she glided through the water, all tram
guilty ITSELF
Swiftly evryone was at his post
without sound. Gunners sleeping in
their hammocks in an instant were
behind their guns. the next waiting for
the command.
Our commander signaled discreetly
to the 3D., astern. The B as silently
as we, stood ready for action. The
docks were clear and our engineers
were prepared for maximum speed.
There was lingering doubt, however,
that the destroyer might turn out to
be friend, but just as our commander
signaled in order to make sure, shell
screamed past us. The German de-
stroyer had begun the party. He was
much closer than he at first seemed.
"'Open fret our commander or.
dered.
"All our guns can fire broadsides
and we turned loose. The b did like
wise. Our searchlights fall on the
enemy ship and brought her out as
plain as day. What she was getting
from us was a plenty.
1--WE were now about a mile off.
Our fire seemed perfectly timed. The
enemy fired, too, but he didn't touch
us. The enemy's machine guns came
into action and the pat-pat-pat OF
these and the zip of the bullets added
to the music of the night. 1t was
now 1880 o'clock.
'The German vessel now seemed to
be getting more than she wanted.
She appeared to be trying to make off.
With all steam, we went after her, in
the direction of Ostend. 1t was plain
now that she wanted TO make port
"At the same instant the shore bat
teries opened up on her They fired
shells. making fairy pic
ture of the fight.
'We gained on the boche,' and soon
had him within a thousand yards OF
us. He was still firing, but badly. and
we often had laugh at his expense.
"Then, from our forward tube tor
pedo was fired. followed its course.
plainly visible in the moonlight and
saw it go straight toward the target.
II struck. There was an explosion