Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-10-15

anu pattleSh1pS, and armOred cruisers,
all being overhauled.
we received and placed guns of
newer design, filed the magazines with
the highest explosives known to naval
USE and generally made ready for
nara Job. Our magazines were filed
with shells for our big II and 14-inch
guns. A 14-inch shell can tear q hole
through the heaviest armor plate at
lZ'OOO yards, and will do more damage
than you would think.
When we had cOaled and had got
our stores aboard, we dressed for ac-
tlon-or rather, undressed. The decks
were clear; hatch covers holted and
davits folded down; furniture, chests,
tables, chairs were sent ashore. and in
iiammable gear, like our rope ham,
mocks, went overheard. You could
not find single wooden chair or table
in the ward room.
When the ship is cleared for action
shell bursting inside cannot find
much to set afire, and if one bursts on
deck, there is nothing to burn but the
wooden deck, and that is covered with
steel plate.
Finally, we had roll caIl-all men
present. Then we set sail for the
DardanelleS as escort to the Duplex,
which had on board territorial and
provincial French troops-Gascons,
Parisians, Normans, Indo-Chinese,
Spahis, Turcos-all kinds. When we
messed, we had to squat down on the
steel mess deck and eat from metal
plates.
There had been a notice posted be-
fore we left that the Zeppelins had be-
gun sea raids, and we kept a live eye
out for them. The news proved to be
! fake, though, and we did not see a
I'single cigar while we were out.
We made the trip to the Dardanelles
/ without sighting an enemy craft, keep
ing in close touch with the Duplex,
and busy every minute preparing for
action.
was made gun captain and given
charge of the starboard bow turret,
mounting two 14-inch guns. l had my
men at gun practice daily, and by the
| time we neared the DardaneIles, after
five days, they were in pretty fair
shape.
1t was about a. IN. when we drew
near Cape Helles and took stations
for action. The Duplex was in front
! of u.s. The batteries on the cape
opened up on US, and in few min
uteS later those at Kun Kaleh Joined
! in.
AS the Duplex made for "V'' beach
! and prepared to land her troops, we
/ swung broadside on, raling their bat
| teres as we did so, and received a
| shell, which entered through a gun
! port in the after turret and exploded.
| Some bags of powder stored there
! (where they should never have been)
were fired and the roof of the turret
/ was Just lifted off. 1t landed on deck,
! tilted I'D against the side of the tur-
! ret.
| On deck the rain of fire was simply
! terrific. Steel flew in all directions.
1t was smash, crash, slam-bang all
the time, and l do not mind saying l
never thought we would come out
of 1t.
Some of the heavy armor plate up
! forward was shot away and after that
the old Cassard looked more like a
monitor than anything else to me. AS
we drew nearer the shore they began
using shrapnel on us and in no time
at all our tunnels were shot full of
holes and a sieve was watertight COM
| pared to them.
Naturally we were not just taking
| all this punishment without any come
back. Our guns were at it fast and
| from the way the fire Slackened in
| certain places we knew we were max
ing it effective My guns did for two
enemy pieces that know of, and per-
/ hapS several others.
! The French garbies were a good
| deal more excited in action than !
! thought they would be. They were
! lodging around below decks. trying
| to miss the shrapnel that came
aboard, shouting swearing, singing
| but fighting hard, at that. They stood
| the GAIT just as well as any other
garbies would, only in their own
sweet way-which is noisy enough,
believe me.
One of our seamen was hit 40
times by fragments Of shrapnel, so
you can see what they were up
against in the lodging line. A gun
turret in action is not exactly the
best place on earth for a nervous
man nor one who likes his comfort.
There is an awful lot of heat and
noise and smell and work, all the
! time in a fighting gun turret. But
during an engagement l would rather
be in gun turret every time than
between decks. At that, if anything
does happen in turret-it is good
night sure for all, and no rain checks
needed.
One of our junior lieutenants was
struck by a fragment of shell rs he
was at his station behind the wheel
house and n piece of his skull was
driven into his brain. He was car
| ried into my gun turet, but he
would not let them take him TO sick
bay TO have his wound dressed There
he sat, asking every now and then
how the fight was going and then sort
of doing OF for a while.
After half an hour of action we put
about and started away, still firing.
As parting slap on the back the
Turks tore off one of our big-gun tur-
rets, and then away we went, back TO
Brest with casualty list of only 10.
We did not have much trouble guess
ing that it was dry dock for US again.
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