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

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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
it. This fell into the
turret workings & blocked the
turret for 20 minutes. But
afterwards we managed
clear it in 20 minutes
& it fell onto the floor of the
working chamber, & was
carried round w / turret
as it revolved, during / rest
of action. But no one we
hurt & it did no harm whatever.
We were lucky in tt way. We
 

78
Hand drawn sketch- see original document. 
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had all our guns firing
practically all through - &
we fired 100 rounds more
than any other ship - we
fin away nearly half our
ammn. Capt Halsey; now
captain on the staff of the C-in-C.
but xxx ^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 Zealand’s
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
 

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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 -
xxxx Tiger I think, or perhaps
Warspite, a shell exploded in
one of the xxx turrets & killed all
the crew exc. the Major of
Marines in charge of / gun.
There were xxx some cordite charges
there wh started burning. The
Major had his leg blown off.
But he managed to warn
the xxx 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
 

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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 xxx 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, xxxx, & their positn
 

Hand drawn diagram – see original

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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 & xxth
bring on a fleet action.
So we kept ^parallel & just sufficiently
ahead of them to lead them somewhat.
"As we were turning we
came under the fire of the xx
leading ships of High Seas Fleet.
That point ^in the 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 xxx two lines had
been steaming North for a good while
 

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The three leading ships in the
enemys line were all burning
& knocked about, when xxx
we saw - the Germans couldn't -
on the horizon the fxx ships
of the Grand Fleet we quicklxxxx
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 S 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 xx the long line of
ships of the grand xxxx 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
 

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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 xxxxxxx 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
xxxx 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 xxx done as well as anyone
 

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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
 

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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
xx singly or in small groups
to its home ports. They slipped
behind us xxx 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 don't know if / Germans have
published their full losses yet,
or not. Certainly many of
their ships were badly damaged. As
 

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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