Evening star., 1915-06-13

couraged I was. but. thank goodness.
satisfied here with the Turks.
II sleep and eat together with the
Turkish officers, for there are no nom
commissioned officers in the Turkish
boatswain and machinist are here all
officers and engineers They have
strict instructions to follow our orders
and they do it willingly. for they see
only too well how ignorant they are
You should see our efforts at converse
ton: Sign language, English. French
and little bit of everything. ! sit
some evenings until 1 and 2 O'Clock
teaching German and we now UNDER
stand each other very well. On some
of the Turkish warships there are Ger
man non commissioned officers and In
structors. also German officers.
Our admiral has become Turkish ad-
miral, and so everything here is in
German hands. Hence the present tre-
mendous successes in the Black sea.
In Turkey one hears only the one
word: Germany For Germany passes
here as the liberator of all Moham-
medans. All of the Turkish officers
and engineers want to go to Germany
after the war. But enough OF this until
We meet again. and. as you say, over
cup of coffee on a Sunday afternoon.
Surprised by the Russians.
"All went well until the 2Sth of oc-
tober. We were with a part Of the
Turkish fleet in the Black sea maneuv-
ering. when we were surprised by the
Russians. You probably read about 1t
ever, by this sudden attack two ships
and we none. They came off badly. They
had not dreamed that they would be
the loser. l almost Jared badly. not
hairs breadth and I was wounded
Then we steamed with two torpedo
boats they are German boats built by
Schichau) to. Odessa. stole. at o'clock
am, into the harbor and remained there
one hour and twenty-five minutes.
shall not forget it so long as / live. The
night was pitch dark, every light covered
the engine room doors closed that no light
could betray us, when we sneaked into
the harbor. At the entrance we passed
three outgoing steamers. The last one
noticed us. but it was too late; we were
already within the harbor.
I'm front of us lay a large gunboat
The sentry had seen US, and sounded an
alarm Clear at torpedo, and the fate
OF the gunboat was sealed. A terrible
detonation and it sank with all hands
This was the alarm signal for whole
Odessa. Now began hellish noise. The
steamers in the harbor blew their sirens,
the bells of the city were ringing storm
and alarm, the drowning and wounded
men from the Russian ships which we
bombarded cried aloud for help, while our
two guns T.5) thundered and flashed
The water was covered with struggling
men, searchlights played; in short, it
was as if hell had been let loose. I shall
never forget this night 1 thought also
noses and ears were cut off. I think in
this way the Inhabitants of Odessa have
never been awakened.
THE shore batteries could not fire at
shelled their own ships. But when
we left the harbor we were showered
with shells. But in vain. however, for
we escaped in the darkness. Our sue
cesses in Odessa were: One gunboat
and one auxiliary cruiser. both of
were badly damaged (among them one
French boat, one coastwise steamer
was sunk. three oil tanks burned. the
electric power house destroyed (Odes-
weeks) and the quay was destroyed.
All this was accomplished with our
two small torpedo boats.
Turks Pray to Allah.
Our Turks on board were speech
less and prayed to Allah. Such reck-
less courage they had never witnessed.
Our Turkish commander had at first
refused to steam to Odessa. but the
energetic presentations of the German
commander induced him to undertake
1t.
Then we took part in the bonn bard
ment of Sebastopol, of course, with the
help Of our cruiser 'Goeben.' We sunk
the Russian mine-layer 'Pirut' and put
two hostile cruisers out of action.
Day before yesterday, the 18th of
November. we put five battleships and
two cruisers to flight. What damage
we have done is not yet known And
now we are lying peacefully in Con-
stantinople. At present it is 2 o'clock
am. At 4 am. we go. out again on the
Black sea for a new wild war dance
We call it dancing the 'Krupp Waltz
but you shall have the promised letter.
IF God wills ! shall see you all
again in good health and spirits, for
God has already performed many
miracles. Once my fez was torn off my
head. But you know what Bismarck
said: We Germans fear God, but moth
ing else in the world"