HOW THE GERMAN RAIDER WAS DESTROYED

Report of Captain John C. T. Glossop, of the "Sydney".

I HAVE the honor to report that while on escort duty with the convoy under the charge of CaptainSilver, H. M. A. S. "Melbourne," at 6:30 a.m., on Monday, November 9, a wireless message from Cocos was heard reporting that a foreign warship was off the entrance. I was ordered to raise steam for full speed at 7 a.m., and proceeded thither. I worked up to 20 knots, and at 9.15 a.m., sighted land ahead and almost immediately the smoke of a ship which proved to be H. I. G. M. S. "Emden," coming out toward me at a great speed. At 9.40 a.m. fire was opened, she firing the first shot. I kept my distance as much as possible to obtain the advantage of my guns. Her fire was very accurate and rapid to begin with, but seemed to slacken very quickly, all casualties occurring in this ship almost immediately. First the foremost funnel of her went, secondly the foremast and she was badly on fire aft; then the second funnel went and lastly the third funnel, and I saw she was making for the beach on North Keeling Island, where she grounded at 11.20 a.m. I gave her two more broadsides and left her to pursue a merchant ship which had come up during the action.

Returning to the "Emden," she still had her colors up at mainmast head. I inquired by signal, international code, "Will you surrender?" and received a reply in Morse "What signal?" "No signal books." I then made in Morse, "Do you surrender?" and subsequently, "Have you received my signal?" to neither of which did I get an answer. The German officers on board gave me to understand that the captain would never surrender, and therefore, though very reluctantly, I again fired at her at 4.30 p.m., ceasing at 4.35 p.m., as she showed white flags and hauled down her ensign by sending a man aloft.

I lay on and off all night and communicated with Direction Island at 8 a.m., November 10, to find that the "Emden's" party, which had landed on Keeling Island, consisting of 3 officers and, 40 men, 1 launch and 2 cutters, had seized and provisioned a 70-ton schooner, the "Ayesha," having 4 Maxims with 2 belts to each. They left the previous night at six o'clock. The wireless station was entirely destroyed, 1 cable cut, 1 damaged, and 1 intact. I borrowed a doctor and two assistants and proceeded as fast as possible to the "Emden's" assistance.

I sent an officer on board to see the captain, and in view of the large number of prisoners and wounded and lack of accommodation, etc., in his ship, and the absolute impossibility of leaving them where they were, he agreed that if I would receive his officers and men and all wounded, then as for such time as they remained in the "Sydney" they would cause no interference with ship or fittings, and would be amenable to the ship's discipline. 1, therefore, set to work at once to tranship them a most difficult operation, the ship being on the weather side of the island and the sand alongside very heavy. The conditions in the "Emden" was indescribable. I received the last word from her at 5 p.m., then had to go round to the lee side to pick up 30 more men who had managed to get ashore from the ship.

THE FALL OF LIEGE

By General Leman.

THIS account of the heroic Belgian defense of Liege, before which the German army appeared on August 4, 1914, and whose last fort (Loncin) fell eleven days later, is taken from the diary of the Belgian General Leman, written while a prisoner of war at Magdeburg.

The military value of this check to the first great German onrush toward France is disputed, but of its high moral effect there is no question. Even the Germans were moved to admiration at the bravery of the garrisons. Of the 500 defenders of Fort Loncin, here mentioned in particular, 350 were killed and more than 100 severely wounded. Such heroism thrilled the world. Independence was shown to be treasured still, and honor more than an empty word. The first shining event of the war was that the little Belgian army at Liege resisted "to the uttermost." The French conferred the Legion of Honor upon Liege.

ON the 11th the Germans started bombarding us with 7- and 10-centimeter cannon. On the 12th and 13th they brought their 21-centimeter guns into action. But it was not until the 14th that they opened their heaviest fire and began their destruction of the outer works. On that day, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a German officer approached to within 200 yards of the fort with a signaling flag in his hand; and shortly afterwards, the siege gunners, having adjusted their range, began a fearful firing, that lasted a couple of hours. The battery on the left slope was destroyed, the enemy keeping on pounding away exclusively with their 21-centimeter cannons.

The third phase of the bombardment began at 5 o'clock in the morning of the 15th, firing being kept up without a break until two in the afternoon. A grenade wrecked the arcade under which the general staff were sheltering. All light was extinguished by the force of the explosion, and the officers ran the risk of asphyxiation by the horrible gases emitted from the shell. When firing ceased, I ventured out on a tour of inspection on the external slopes, which I found had been reduced to a rubble heap. A few minutes later, the bombardment was resumed. It seemed as though all the German batteries were together firing salvoes. Nobody will ever be able to form any adequate idea of what the reality was like. I have only learned since that when the big siege mortars entered into action they hurled against us shells weighing 1,000 kilos (nearly a ton), the explosive force of which surpasses anything known hitherto. Their approach was to be heard in an acute buzzing; and they burst with a thunderous roar, raising clouds of missiles, stones and dust.

After some time passed amid these horrors, I wished to return to my observation tower ; but I had hardly advanced a few feet into the gallery when a great blast passed by, and I was thrown violently to the ground. I managed to rise, and continued on my way, only to be stopped by a choking cloud of poisonous gas. It was a mixture of the gas from an explosion and the smoke of a fire in the troop quarters. We were driven back, half-suffocated. Looking out of a peep-hole, I saw to my horror that the fort had fallen, slopes and counter-slopes being a chaos of rubbish, while huge tongues of flame were shooting forth from the throat of the fortress. My first and last thought was to try and save the remnant of the garrison. I rushed out to give orders, and saw some soldiers, whom I mistook for Belgian gendarmes. I called them, then fell again. Poisonous gases seemed to grip my throat as in a vise.

On recovering consciousness, I found my aide-de-camp, Captain Colland, standing over me, also a German officer, who offered me a glass of water. They told me I had swooned, and that the soldiery I had taken for Belgian gendarmes were, in fact, the first band of German troops who had set foot inside the forts. In recognition of our courage, the Germans allowed me to retain my sword.

GENERAL LEMAN'S LETTER TO ALBERT, KING OF THE BELGIANS

Sir: After honorable engagements on August 4th, 5th and 6th, I considered that the forts of Liege could only play the "role" of "forts d'arret." I nevertheless maintained military government in order to coordinate the defense as much as possible, and to exercise moral influence upon the garrison.

Your Majesty is not ignorant that I was at Fort Loncin on August 6th at noon. You will learn with grief that the fort was blown up yesterday at 5.20 p.m., the greater part of the garrison being buried under the ruins. That I did not lose my life in that catastrophe is due to the fact that my escort, Commandant Collard, a sub-officer of infantry who unfortunately perished, the gendarme, Thevenim, and my two orderlies, Vanden Bossche and Jos Lecocq, drew me from a position of danger, where I was being asphyxiated by gas from the exploded powder. I was carried into a trench, where a German captain named Guson gave me a drink, after which I was made prisoner and taken to Liege in an ambulance. I am convinced that the honor of our arms has been sustained. I have not surrendered either the fortress or the forts. Deign, Sire, to pardon my defects in this letter. I am physically shattered by the explosion of Loncin. In Germany, whither I am proceeding, my thoughts will be, as they have ever been, of Belgium and the King. I would willingly have given my life the better to serve them, but death was denied me.