Commander Valentine Gibbs had both legs
shot away and died next morning. Lieutenant Spencer, B.N.R., though
wounded, conned the ship and Lieutenant Henderson, R.N., came up from
aft and took command.
[Sidenote: Terrible casualties on the _Iris_.]
_Iris_ was obliged at last to change her position and fall in astern of
_Vindictive_, and suffered very heavily from the fire. A single big
shell plunged through the upper deck and burst below at a point where
fifty-six marines were waiting the order to go to the gang-ways.
Forty-nine were killed and the remaining seven wounded. Another shell in
the ward-room, which was serving as sick bay, killed four officers and
twenty-six men. Her total casualties were eight officers and sixty-nine
men killed and three officers and a hundred and two men wounded.
[Sidenote: The demolition parties on the Mole dynamite buildings.]
The storming and demolition parties upon the Mole met with no resistance
from the Germans, other than the intense and unremitting fire. The
geography of the great Mole, with its railway line and its many
buildings, hangars, and store-sheds, was already well known, and the
demolition parties moved to their appointed work in perfect order. One
after another the building burst into flame or split and crumpled as the
dynamite went off.
[Sidenote: The enemy fights with the machine-guns.]
A bombing party, working up towards the Mole extension in search of the
enemy, destroyed several machine-gun emplacements, but not a single
prisoner rewarded them.
Pages:
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131