Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1915-03-18
BRITISH OFFICER
DESCRIBES NORTH
SEA NAVAL fight
Eve Witness Tells of Battle
in Which Bluecher Was
Sunk and Lion Damaged.

come into possession of an interest
ing account of the North Sea battle
in which the Blnecher was sunk
written by a British officer OF the de-
stroyer "Sandfly" He says:
am afraid | can't say that the
sandfly took leading part on Sun
day. You see it was nearly entirely
a big ship action ana the hestroyers
| hardly got chance.
We had beastlv night on Satur-
day: you could not see a thing eX-
cept at intervals and you had to look
got bette; we made Out the enemy
battle cruisers making our way. :
! was wet through, having come up
quickly without an oils.iin, which
went do again even though | am a
bit late on the fOrecastle, also suffer
ing bit from scasickness. | sup
pose at a pinch one can fight We'll
even though it's on an empty stom-
ach and no sleep and wet through.
but am blowed If you can if you
are feeling seasck.
A bit later we made out some heavy
ships on our port side 1--WE were
steaming north.) These might have
been Germans for all we knew IN the
Sandfly. The German ships came on
for bit but as soon as they caught
sight of the Lion and that lot they
altered course 16 points and made Off
towards the Fatherland as quick as
they could. We realized then that We
and something rather out of the COM
,yt Il ,,;, :,
war our latest super rea1noughts
were going TO be pitted against
theirs. and the numbers on either
side were more or less equal.
About 3 a. m. our leading ships
fired ranging shots from the fort ,u,-
rets but le1ev fell short: about $50 1t
seemed that the enemy were within
range. and at 9:Ao the Tiger and
Lion seemed to be firing their whole
bboadsides regularly. and about 10 a.
~ ~ l.ior/ Tiger. New Zeland. and
Princess Royal were all in action. 1t
, was very hard to see much from
where we were as our bridge was
washing down, and one could not
keen binoculars dry. AS far as we
could see our shots were straddling
them all right. and theirs seemed to
be all around our two leading ships.
especially the Tiger. can't say I
was very impressed with the action,
as looked just the same as any
| squadron firing one has ever seen in
| peace time. have no doubt it was
quite exciting enough, though. in the
b. C.'s or to anyone who had not
seen ships engaged before. At II: %!
We sighted Zepp. About the pro-
gress- OF the action and damage each
side was doing we could tell very lit
tie. excent that their shooting seemed
jolly good,
At lilo we came up to the Lion
who had fallen out of the line and
was listening good deal to port
: Otherwise she seemed perfectly all
right. However. she was obviously
out of action and it did not cheer us
| at all as, for all we knew. Our other
three might be getting the worst OF
it, The first flotila boats form~1 4
screen round the Lion and after this
we were out Of the fighting ano.
gether. and much to our annoyanc.
we had to let the whole concern
drift away to the eastward. splitting
' WI lltlllc anu SIuShC az NdNh oNhV
quite in the approved style Oul
main care was now guarding tn
Lion from torpedo attack. and W.
steamed slowly north west. Tn
Admiral shifted his flag to tn
Ackeron. At > p. m. the remainde
of our ships appeared astern of II;
and overloaded us. and the Acherol
as she passed sgnalled that tn
Butcher was sunk. which bucked III
up. Later on the lndomitahle too.
the Lion in tow and all destroyer:
screened her from submarine attack
and we all steamed home slowly
None of our other ships showed tn
least signs of having been engaged.
The destroyers tina. wen; on nat
the most interesting time. as the,
saw the Rlucher sink and picked III
the survivors. Had bombs droppe,
at them while doing ii. They tou
destroyers\ say the Derfflinger an,
Seydlitz were beth badly on fire an,
awfully badly knocked about, AM
they wonder how they managed t
steam away. but they have IS incl
armour. which must have saved then
AS far as results go, we did not d.
very much, CIy bagging one. but W.
had luck in not getting more. Tn
moral effect. should say. would b.
: great. as their force was barely in
ferior to ours, and ought to hav
been able to put up good fight
} they had not run away. Our mos
modern ships were up against theirs
and il is evident that our ships ar,
much superior in gun power an,
shell effect. otherwise you can't OK
plain the small damage they did us
, If what happened on Sunday is an.
criterion Of what will. happen whe1
the main fleets meet, they don't APP
pear to have much of chance, a
, presumably on that occasion W
shall be in infinitely greater numer
cal superiority than we were tn
other day. and this can't be comfort
ing to Won Tirpitz and their Admir-
atty