South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-01-22
.GUNNERS JOKED
is SHELLS FLEW
THICK OVER SEA
Thrilling Story of Battle in
Which English Ships Went
Down Fitting Told in Let
ter OF Sailor.

LONDON. Jan. 22-Letters from
one Of the crew of the British warship
Glasgow. made public here today con-
tain the following drst-hand account
of the desperate action off CoroneL
Chilli, Nov / last. when the British
ships Good Hope and Monmouth were
lost.
IL ". s. Glasgow, at Sea,
Nov .. 1914 GO a. m.J
IT has come at last. and with ven
Eeancc. Yesterday Sunday morning
we came out OF Coronel. and afte~ an
hour or so steamine picked up his
maiestys ships the Good Hope the
Monmouth and the auxiliary cruiser
OtrantO. At about Alb we sighted
two large German cruisers-the
sScharnhorst and the Gneisenau. j be
lieve they call them-and one small
cruiser, named the LEIPZIG. However.
about ; o'clock p. ma, led by the vlco
admiral in the Good Hope. then the
Monmouth, we went into action.
one of the large German cruisers
fred a salvO at the Good Hope. which
must have damaged the latter "a good
deal because she did not do much
firing afterWard. Before ] go any
further / might say that upon getting
within gun range we discovered that
there were three small cruisers as we'll
as the two large ones. so the vice adj
miral sent the OtrantO away ImmCdt-
ately on the opening round being
fired. For an hour and half shots
we're going at a very rapid rate until
suddenly burst OF cheering took
place ON the upper deck. and we heard
that the German flagship had been
sunk. whilst another was on ure. Ia
the meantime We were engaged with
two German ships.
Good Hope Blown Up.
shortly after the cheering the truth
came out. and what truth 1T was. III
was the Good Hope that had been
blown sky high An explosion took
place amidships, and our chaps say
they could see men blown high into
the air. Then the Monmouth ut was
that was set OF fire twice and also
she was making water rather badly,
50. seeing the odds were five TO TWO,
and one of those i'm a practically help
less condition. we began TO run. and
now we are being chased by the whole
of their squadron.
We got "a shell through the captains
cabin. and il made "a decent pot
mess in there. / can assure you. Also
got "A hole through one of the tunnels.
which doesn't count; but we got one
in the lower bunker, which is allowing
water TO get i'm at rate necessitaung
humping We have another cash i'm
the after part and that is all-and il
cgcid be worse No one was killed
aboard here but we had about 10 who
were injured. for the main part rather
trivial Five 10 three, and neither OF
our two large ones were as big as
either of the two Germans.
Got Fire OF Five.
IL is a jolly marvel that we got out
of the action at all. Toward the end
we had the whole five of them firing
at us. hut the old old saying, He
that fights and runs away. lives TO
fight another day came IN so we
nipped. Whether we get clear away
or not it is hard TO say. We are IN
a very peculiar condition. IL IS
rough moonlight night, SO the Gle
ments are unkind 10 us. ] don't
know whether these German ships viii
follow us ali the way. but If not L
shouldn't be surprised To see US go to
the Falklands.
Still. Wen wait and see. That s
what we're doing waiting for the
morning to see # they have given up
the chase. The good little Glasgow
is doing her - or more knots, but she
really is getting battered about to-
night I sincerely hope YOU didn'
think il Cowardly OF us TO run away
As a matter of fact, the skipper wish
TO stay. I think; but he saw the abso-
lutte futiHty of doing SO. IL would
have been certain suicide. Fancy, al 3