Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/59/1 - September 1916 - Part 8

10    77
They would report: - “Number
four has fired another salvo"
- & presently the things would
arrive. They sent fountains
of foam as high as / masthead.
But we had extraordinary
luck. Only They straddled
us constantly, but only one
shell hit us on this ship.
It caught the base of the
after turret & punched a
large fragment of armour out
of it. This fell into the
turret workings & blocked the
turret for 20 minutes. But
afterwards we managed
to clear it in 20 minutes
& it fell onto the floor of the
working chamber, & was
carried round w / turret,
as it revolved, during / rest
o / action. But no one ws
hurt & it did no harm whatever.
We were lucky in tt way. We

78
Diagram - see original document. 
10     79
had all our guns firing
practically all through - &
we fired 100 rounds more
than any other ship - we
fired away nearly half our
ammn. Capt Halsey, now
captain on the staff of the C.in.C.
but then ^formerly the first commander of
this ship told us tt he noticed,
when the Grand Fleet came up,
tt we were firing away all our
guns - & he said that it looked
rather fine."
I saw tt bit of steel
punched from the New Zealands
Turret. It ws lying on the
deck, aft. The shell had struck
& exploded; it had not pierced
/ armour but had punched
this big fragment out. The
edges were clear cut as if sawn;
the spin on the shell had wrenched
the metal around the centre in a
circular direction, leaving strongly

10     80
marked wrinkles on it like
those of a Catherine Wheel
The shell had bitten about 3
inches deep & the armour wd
be 8", I suppose, in thickness.
In one ship - I forget which -
a shell Tiger I think, or perhaps
Warspite, a shell exploded in
one of the four turrets & killed all
the crew exc. the Major of
Marines in charge o / gun.
There were xx some cordite charges
there wh started burning. The
Major had his leg blown off.
But he managed to warn
the crew men in the ammunition
room below to shut off
their chamber - & so prevented
an explosion like tt wh
blew up / other ships. [I
believe he died - & ws given
the V.C. - but I may be
mixing up two incidents.]
By then
But this has nothing to do
with the New Zealand. The

10    81
German cruisers steamed along
parallel to ours, & a little
ahead of them, I fancy, until
there appeared on / horizon
a new formation of ships
coming up fast from the South.
It was the main German
High Seas Fleet.
Our men say that - Germans
or no Germans, the High Seas
Fleet as it came up made a
splendid spectacle. "You know -
it ws / first time we had really ever had / chance
never of seeing any other fleet
except our own," North told
me. The High Seas Fleet came
up in perfect order, every
ship exactly in place, smoking
heavily & moving fast - they
was really looked magnificent.
"We had done the first
part of our job - so we turned
16 points & made Northwards
again. The German cruisers
turned too, at the & their positn

82

Diagram – see original document
10    83
was now at the head of their
battle line. They meant, no
doubt, to lead us into their
battle fleet & crush us; & it
was our turn now to lead them
up to our battle grand fleet & let it
crus bring on a fleet action.
So we kept on ^parallel & just sufficiently
ahead of them to lead them somewhat.
"As we were turning we
came under the fire of the
leading ships o / High Seas Fleet.
That point ^in / fight is what they call
Windy Corner. It was hot but
they did us no great damage
[I think he sd tt this
however was when / ships of /
First Cruiser Squadron were
sunk - the Shannon Defence
& Black Prince (were they not?) &
the Warrior disabled. They
saw it all from the New Zealand..]
After "The squ two lines had
been steaming North for a good while.

84
The three leading ships in the
enemys line were all burning
& knocked about, when two
we saw - the Germans couldn't -
on the horizon the first ships
of the Grand Fleet. We quickened(?)
quickened & turned to starboard
8 points so as to head round the leading ships
of the High Seas Fleet - crossed their
T so to speak. Then we
turned 8 points again & came
down on a southerly course on
the far side of them - the inland
side.
"As our tail cleared they
must have found across
their bows in the long line of
ships of the Grand Sea fleet
I think that is the first they
would see of them. They
turned at once 16 points &
made for the South. The
Grand Fleet turned after them,
following us - & coming on the
inshore side of them.
"We had done what we

10     85
wished to do. We had led the
German Fleet up to the Grand Fleet,
& brought on a battle; the Grand
Fleet was inshore of them, so tt
the Germans wd have to fight.
Our job ws ended - we were
not meant to fight battleships.
So we forged ahead - & for
us to fight really ended. We
thought we were in for some
nice "cushy" soft job firing
at light cruisers -
"I am sure I saw one German
cruiser turn out of their line
with a heavy list & I think
it must have bn the Lutzow.
Any Their three leading ships
were burning merrily & we
were quite satisfied w / result.
The admiral had always reckoned
on it costing him some of his
ships to bring on a fleet action
and his intentn always ws to
bring it on at all costs. Now
had bn now done as well as anyone

10      86
cd wish it to be done. We
thought - 'in the morning the
Grand Fleet will finish
them.
"We could not really
tell where we were during /
night in relation to them -
& it was an anxious moment
when morning broke - for we
did not quite know when we
shd not find ourselves in /
middle of their battle fleet.
However they were not to be
seen.
"What had happened I
believe ws this. Admiral Jellicoe
had ordered his destroyers in
after dark to attack their
battleships. Our destroyers
went in extraordinarily
bravely & the formation o /
German fleet ws broken up
in repelling these attacks. You
know how it is at night -
if you lose your next ahead

10   87
in / dark you have Buckley's
chance of finding her. Their
fleet ws broken up into twos
& threes & had nothing to do
but to find its way back
to singly or in small groups
to its home ports. They slipped
behind us under in this
way in / dark & disappeared.
"Two cruisers of theirs
I believe were left out on
/ water & took four days
in getting back. Unfortunately
we missed them. I believe
the Seydlitz sank as she
ws going into harbour but
it is very hard to say if she
ws sunk or only badly damaged.
I dont know if / Germans have
published their full losses yet,
or not. Certainly many of
their ships were badly damaged. As

10    88
for their destroyers, they You
wd fire at them as they came
at you & not see them
again - & it ws hard to
say if they were hit sunk or no.
"We sailed about for a
time till it ws clear tt /
Germans had got away,
& then we came back to
port to fill up & repair.
The damage ws extraordinarily
small. There ws hardly a
ship tt cd not have gone
out straight away & fought
again at once. They most
of them had things tt needed
doing - control positns to
be repaired & so on - but
they cd all have bn fought.
The battleships ^of / Grand Fleet had no
serious damage at all.
The Colossus, in / dock there,
ws hit by one shot which
you can see splashed over