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Officers and Men Killed in
Action or Died of Wounds,
H.M.S. Castor, Battle of
Jutland 31st May -1st June 1916. |
Extract from the
Official History; " Naval Operations" by Sir Julian S. Corbett. 1923
( Jutland—The Fourth Phase -The Night )
.........and as the courses of the two fleets were now fast
converging his advanced guard cruisers came into action almost
immediately. What they struck was the destroyer rear guard where the
Castor with the 11th Flotilla had taken station on the wing
nearest the enemy, with Commodore Hawksley at the head of two
divisions and Commander H. E. Sulivan in the Kempenfelt
leading the remainder. About half an hour after Admiral Scheer's
change of course, the Commodore, peering through the darkness, could
make out ships on his starboard bow. What they were it was
impossible to tell, and he was making towards them when they showed
challenging lights. To add to the doubt as to their identity the
first two signals they made were correct for the British challenge
of the day, but the other two were wrong. For Commodore Hawksley,
however, the uncertainty was soon set at rest. Suddenly the two
leading strangers switched on searchlights and at 2,000 yards opened
fire. Hitting began at once on both sides. Four times shells got
home on the Castor, causing heavy casualties. One set her
motor barge on fire, and so fiercely did it blaze that the whole
ship became a brilliantly lighted target, and she turned away, but
not before she had fired a torpedo. The enemy seemed also to turn
away to avoid it, and they now disappeared. Each of the leading
destroyers of the Castor's half-flotilla Marne and
Magic, had also fired one torpedo, but they were so blinded by
the rapid flashes of the Castor's guns that neither could see
to fire more, while as for the rest of the destroyers, they were so
certain that a mistake was being made, and that the strangers were
some of our own ships, that they refrained from firing at all. So in
the first hour of darkness the incalculable hazards of a night
action were exemplified...........
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Baker, William, Boy 1. |
Bartram, Leslie, A.B. |
Broomhead, Alfred, Sto. |
Candy,William Arthur Victor, Ord. Sig. |
Child, Frederick Thorpe, Sto. P.O. |
Evans, Alfred Owen ,Ord. Sig |
Flory, Albert Edward, Bugler, R.M.L.I. |
Fox, John Edward Sto. 1. |
Gasson, Harry, A.B. |
Hallam Fred, Boy 1. |
Kilhams, Alfred John, Tel. |
MacGregor, Donald Neil,
Chief Yeoman of Signals. |
end |
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