Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1915 — WARSHIPS IN DUEL [ARTICLE]

WARSHIPS IN DUEL

British Dreadnaught Drives Turkish Cruiser From Strait. •Salvos of Monster Shells Sweep High Over Ridges of Gallipoli at Dardanelles—Aviator Directs the Fire. By LOUIS EDGAR BROWNE, (Correspondent of the Chicago News.) Mudros, Allies’ Near Eastern Base. — The Queen Elizabeth and the Goeben have been engaged in battle with each other. The great British dreadnaught, the most powerful battleship afloat, attacked the Goeben under most extraordinary conditions. Although the Queen Elizabeth fired salvos of gigantic highly explosive projectiles, the Goeben escaped unhit. Since the allies’ forces landed at the Dardanelles late in April the GermanTurkish battle cruiser has seriously hampered the advance toward their goal—Constantinople. It has supposedly a base at Chardak, an auxiliary naval port, on Gallipoli strait, 25 miles above the narrows. Nearly every day the Goeben has taken a position between Maitos and Cape Nagara, just above-the Narrows, and has supported with killing fire the Turkish troops facing the Australian-New Zealand line. Turkish engineers have established a line of communication between posts of observation and signal stations somewhere east of Maitos. Because of these the fire" control was made so effective that, although the Goeben was firing over a ridge of mountains, its officers were quickly informed just where each shell hit and what damage it did to the enemy. So constant became the fire of the German battle cruiser and so seriously did It hinder the movements of the allies that it was decided to attempt to destroy it even at considerable cost. The Queen Elizabeth was selected for the first chance. A ridge of fairly high mountains runs down the Gallipoli peninsula end a battleship firing across it from the Gulf of Saros to a point above the Narrows would be unable to see its target. The Queen Elizabeth could not see the Goeben. An aeroplane was needed to observe the fall of projectiles and to direct the fire. It was somewhat after noon when a big naval aeroplane mounted and circled over the mountains. A naval observer ocupied a seat beside the pilot. The observer easily found the Goeben. The aeroplane sailed back to the Australian lines and commuxjcated the Goeben’s position to the Queen Elizabeth.

Suddenly one of the 15-inch guns of the Queen Elizabeth belched forth a great sheet of flame, followed by a roar that could be heard at Mudros, 60 miles away. .The spotting officer, leaning far over the combing of rhe fire control top, picked up the projectile with his glasses and kept it in view untilit disappeared below the ridge of hills. Like a flash his glance turned to the aeroplane soaring high above the mountains. Some distance below the aeroplane there popped into being three black dots. An instant later three more black dots appeared. These were small smoke bombs dropped by the observer to signal where the shell had struck relatively to the target. “Up 300 —left three!” shouted the officer to a sailor standing at his elbow. The first shot had fallen 300 yards short and 300 yards to the right of the Goeben. , An instant later a salvo from the Queen Elizabeth’s entire broadside of eight 15-inch guns crashed out. Eight monster shells, each weighing 2,000 pounds, went careening through space at a speed of 2,500 feet a second. The Goeben took alarm after two or three salvos and fled at top speed northeast to the base at Chardak.