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HMS Mary Rose, Lt. Cdr. C. L. Fox
commanding, left Lerwick on 15/10/1917 in company with her sister
destroyer, HMS Strongbow, Lt. Cdr. Edward Brooke commanding, and
two armed trawlers, the Elise and the P. Fannon, escorting an
eastbound convoy. Next day, just before noon, the destroyers separated,
the Mary Rose going ahead to meet the approaching westbound convoy
near Marsten, Norway. The Strongbow was ordered to continue with
the eastbound convoy and superintend its dispersal and rejoin
the Mary Rose at sea. On the afternoon of the 16/10/1917, the
Mary Rose left Marsten with twelve merchantmen, 2 British, 1 Belgian,
1 Danish, 5 Norwegian and 3 Swedish, and 2 armed trawlers in convoy
bound for Shetland, and that evening was joined by the Strongbow.
The Strongbow joined after dark and neither commanding officer
could get into touch with the other. Lieutenant-Commander Edward
Brooke of the Strongbow called up his colleague several times
during the night but got no answer; he therefore took station
somewhere on the port quarter of the convoy, which was spread
to the north and north-west of him.
The
following morning, at six o’ clock the convoy was intercepted
by two German minelaying cruisers about 65 miles east of Lerwick.
HMS Strongbow was just astern of the convoy and HMS Mary Rose
was 6 - 8 miles ahead of it. At 0600 hours the following morning
at 60 deg 6 min N, 1 deg 6 min E, HMS Strongbow sighted two German
cruisers, the Bremse and the Brummer, (4,000 tons, 34 knots and
armed with 4 x 6 inch and 2 x 3.4” guns apiece together
with anti aircraft guns) in poor visibility at no more than 4000
yards and mistook them for British cruisers as they had evidently
been rigged to give this impression. She challenged them several
times, without getting a satisfactory answer. The officer of the
watch, Lt James, at once realised that he was in the presence
of an enemy force, and sent below to call the captain, Lieutenant-Commander
Brooke. By this time the Brummer had closed to within 3000 yards
and opened up with devastating fire, knocking out Strongbow’s
main steampipe and wireless. Many of the hands below were scalded
to death, those on deck were struck down by well directed fire.
Just before this the Strongbow had been attempting to transmit
a warning but the German cruisers jammed the signal as they did
all similar efforts by the allied ships. Lt James, who had been
sent by the Captain to the wireless office, found it wrecked by
a shell and the operator killed and on his return to the bridge
the officer of the watch found the bridge wrecked, the Captain
badly wounded and the Quartermaster killed. Lieutenant-Commander
Brooke was hit in the leg by a shell splinter, but continued in
command, not allowing anybody to attempt to leave the ship until
he was absolutely certain that every confidential book and paper
had been destroyed, and that the enemy would get possession of
nothing useful from the vessel. When satisfied that his orders
had been carried out in every particular he commanded that the
ship should be sunk and those who were still alive should save
themselves. The Strongbow was abandoned and sank at about 0930
hours with the loss of 47 Officers and men, after the German ships
had made three separate attacks against her. The crew who were
still living were determined to save their captain, or at least
to take him away so that if he died he might die amongst them.
They carried him from the bridge to a Caley raft, and placed him
on it, where he lay for a long time in great pain from his wounds,
surrounded by the icy water. The German ships then turned their
attention to the merchantmen and quickly sank 4 of them. The Mary
Rose had heard the firing astern of her and closed in to fight
the Germans. He had time to put his men to action stations; but
his destroyer was in no state to begin a fight against desperate
odds. Under the existing organisation it was almost impossible
to fight the guns and torpedo tubes simultaneously; and in addition,
the gunners of the Mary Rose were about to engage under a hopeless
handicap, as the range and deflection transmitters were not working.
When he turned back, Lieutenant-Commander Fox had no idea that
the convoy was being attacked by anything other than a submarine.
A few moments later he sighed the German cruisers and grasped
the real position. Without a moments hesitation he approached
the enemy at high speed, and at about twenty minutes past six
the gunners opened fire at a distance which was estimated at between
6000 and 7000 yards. When at a distance of about 2000 yards from
the enemy Lieutenant-Commander Fox put the helm hard over, and
the German gunners got the range as the Mary Rose was on the turn.
After that the end came quickly. She sank in a very short time
taking with her most of her compliment of 88 Officers and ratings,
including Lt. Cdr. Fox, who was last seen swimming in the water
just before the Mary Rose went down. A few survivors with one
Officer, Sub Lt. Freeman managed to escape on a raft. The Germans
subjected all the boats and rafts to an indiscriminate shelling
whereby many persons lost their lives, although this was disputed
in later reports. The captain of the armed trawler Elise contrived
to keep his ship out of the fire of the German cruisers, and returned
to the scene of the disaster as soon as he could, where he picked
up a number of survivors, amongst them Lieutenant-Commander Brooke
and the party from the Strongbow. Sub-Lieutenant Freeman and the
men from the Mary Rose reached the Norwegian coast near Bergen,
where the lighthouse keepers took them in and fed them and attended
to their injuries.
Altogether about 250 lives were lost in this attack including
that of Chief Stoker John William Lewis. Only ten men from the
Mary Rose and forty five from the Strongbow survived including
her Commanding Officer, Lt Cdr Brooke who died of pneumonia some
twelve months later. In addition to the Elise, the trawler P.
Fannon and three other steamships managed to escape. Nine of the
convoy ships perished. There were strong British forces at sea
in the area but as no word of the action was received until 1550
hours on the 17th, they were not in a position to intercept the
Bremse and the Brummer and they returned to their home port in
safety.
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