The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-01-05
PROVES Allies
CONTROL OF SEA
Cattegat Battle Shows Germans
Fear to Take Chance.
STAND IDLE AS II ARE sunk

Own Ships-British Fight Openly in
Daytime and Rescue Drowning Men
From the Water-Reputation of
German Navy Suffers.
The recent naval action in the Cat
tegat, where the British sank a Ger
man cruiser and ten armed patrol
ships, is an example of the careful
planning which lies behind every move
On the naval chart. A comparatively
insignificant force of British destroy
ers and light cruisers were the actual
stage performers in the little Skag-
gerak drama.
The actual fight in the Cattegat be-
gan about seven o'clock In the NORM
ing and was over three hours later.
The German fleet behind its fortifca-
tons received calls for help, but dared
not take a chance-probably well
knowing that any attempt to send out
help would be confronted with enemies
rising out of the sea on all sides.
The Cattegat is a deep bay lying be-
tween Denmark and Sweden and lead
ing out through the Skaggerak into
the North sea, near the scene of the
famous Jutland battle. A fog lay
over the entire Cattegat throughout
the action, and the British destroyers
picked off their victims, one by one,
and sank them.
Discredit German Captains Story.
The German auxiliary cruiser Marie,
which was leading the fleet of patrol
boats, was a ship of 5000 tons. Its
captain, Herr L~auterbach, was wound
ed, but reached the Danish shore safe
ly. His ship, which had four guns and a
crew Of co. was suddenly attacked"
he said, in an interview with a Danish
newspaper man afterward, a"by a
fleet of British destroyers and the
shells fired by them descended with
such rapidity that the men on the
Marie were almost unable to use the
guns. Only a few shots were fired be-
fore the ship was a mass of f1ames."
British and American naval men
who have been on the China station
in years past will remember Captain
Lauterbach. He was known from
Shanghai to V~ladivostok as "Baron
M~unchasen" and is said to have been
the most unpopular German naval of
ficer in the far East.
Lauterbach's naval reputation will
probably suffer somewhat from the
Cattegat battle. His report that he
fired his guns as long as possible is
denied by his own men, who declared
that Lauterbach was seized with
funk" as soon as the enemy appeared
and that not a single shot was fired
from the Marie's guns.
Presumably the Marie was making
it's way toward the trade route be-
tween Norway and Scotland, in hopes
of repeating the successful German at
tack on the British convoy on October
II. The British commander concen-
trated his fire first of all on the Marie
and then detached his fastest vessels
ta round up the escorting patrol yes
sells. This was thoroughly done after
a hunt lasting nearly three hours. This
action, it should be remembered, oc-
Cured in waters which the Germans
regarded as practically one of their
finland seas"
The Cattegat is the gateway to the
Baltic. The scene of the fight is 800
miles from the nearest British coast,
but less than 200 miles from Kiel. The
Germans held their favorite interior
lines" While the British forces had to
cross the North sea go up through the
~Skaggerak, and then around Skaw.
Enemy Afraid to Attempt Coup.
The Germans had every chance to
execute a coup, cutting off the retreat
of the British forces by bringing SUI
perior units up the coast to the en-
trance of the Skaggerak. That they
did not dare to attempt this is evil
dence of their appreciation of the in
itiative and resource of the British
navy.
An interesting comparison might be
made between this clean victory by the
British d%estroyers and the tip-and-run
raid by the German light cruisers. on a
British convoy on October IL.
The Germans sent out two of their
fastest cruisers in the darkness, struck
their blows in nervous haste in the
early morning hours, not pausing to
rescue a single life of hundreds of
combatants and noncombatants, then
ran away northWard to pass the re-
naming hours of daylight in hiding,
and when night fell dashed down the
Norwegian coast, and thus returned
home without being intercepted.
On the occasion of the British vic
tory the fight occurred not in the
North sea, but IN Germany's door
step; not at night, but in daylight
not hurriedly or %nervously, for "a
prisoners were taken, drowning men
rescued from the water, thus providing
another vivid contrast between Ger
man and British methods of warfare.
The return of the British squadron
to it's base was quiet and unostenta-
49, r. -s-I4p.II Ill.,, -y,,o - e Nn,os1