TNA ADM 199 790

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 248.

22
SECRET9
Page 2.
was lowered
and two officers and a signalman were sent in to endeavour
to take charge on the beach. It was reported to me after-
wards that this was next to impossible. The nen rushed the bee
boats and capsized them in shallow water, and then left the
boat without making any attempt to right it and use it again.
had one engine out of action; the other was blown up
There were only two motor landing craft in the vicinity; one
subsequently when lying alongside the ship.
9. At about 1915 a dive bombing attack was made on the
ship. The nearest of the pattern of four bombs fell about
eighty yards on the port quarter, and the ship recieved no
damage from this attack.
10. At about 2000 the ship was machine gunned again
by alow flying aircraft. This attack caused several casualties
both at No.2 Gun and on the signal bridge.
11. At 2007 (clock stopped!) the third bombing attack
arrived. This was also a dive bombing a tack, and the pattern
of four bombs landed on a line at an angle of about twenty
degrees to the keel. The first bomb was observed by an
officerto land about thirty yards from the ship. The fourth
bomb hit the quarterdeck the starboard side forward, From
this it is calculated that the third bombstruck either right
on the stern, or was avery close miss. It is considered that
one of the fifty depth charges was detonated; a portion of the
internal wall (where primer is inserted) found afterwards
supports this theory. (All primers and pistols had been
removed previously).
12. The damage caused was very severe. About forty feet
of the stern was blown away completely. A further forty feet
was reduced to a tangled mass of metal; No.2 Gun was put out
of action; the main mast fell in three pieces on the search-
light and 0.5" machine gun platforms, wrecking both; upper
deck fittings on the boat deck were bent and battered by
slinters; the bridge superstructure was severely shaken, a
bulkhead dished and several frames cracked; the compass
platform was loosened from the bridge screens; all woodwork
such as doors and furniture throughout the ship was
shattered, (including the sick bay door on the fore messdeck).
13. Thie attack was followed about ten minutes Jater
by athird machine gun attack from an aeroplane with an half
inch machine gun. (One bullet has been recovered from a hazel
rod fender, and part of another is embeddedin a davit). There
were no casualties from this attack.
14. At about 2020 it was reported that fire had broken
out in the cabin flat. Orders were given toflood the after
magazine and burn the signal books. Both orders were carried
out, but the fire was quickly under control and the magazine
was then pumped out. The ammunition was transferred to the
forward magazine.
15. At about 2030 the fourth and final bombing attack
was carried out. This was another dive bombing attack, but the
bombs fell wide on the starboard quarter.
16. H.M.S. Bideford anchored and H.M.S. Kellett came
alongside and took off about three hundred soldiers who had
embarked.