On May 23 we left the Dardanelles to have our guns refitted. May 27
we were fifteen miles off the Belgian coast and there we heard heavy
bombardment. The following day H.M.S. _Drake_ asked for a loan of fifty
men from our ship. I was one of the fifty.
The _Drake_ was trying to locate a heavy German battery, and a lucky
shot killed the gun crew but did not damage the guns. We fifty from
the _Queen Elizabeth_ were sent ashore to destroy the guns by blowing
them up. We reached them under the heavy fire of the enemy, took off
the breeches and destroyed the mechanism. As we were setting the
dynamite to blow up these guns, a party of about three hundred Germans
surrounded us. Our rifles were stacked up about thirty feet away and in
running to reach them several of us were wounded. I received slight
flesh wounds in the arm and leg. After being searched and relieved of
all weapons, we were marched to a barbed wire stockade, about a mile
and a half inland, and were told that we were to be sent to Germany the
next day. There was another stockade with British, French and Belgian
prisoners near by, and over the barbed wire they threw us a football to
amuse ourselves. We played football until dusk.
A German soldier was sent with a spade to dig a hole for another post
in support of the barbed wire gate. We played football all around the
field and managed to get the German soldier in our midst. We bound and
gagged him, seized his weapons and took his spade. It was getting dark
and no one suspected but that we were still playing football.
We took turns in digging under the barbed wire fence a tunnel for
escape. While we were at work we had a genuine surprise. A German
sentry on his rounds, trod on a weak spot over our tunnel and fell in,
face downward. He could make no outcry as his mouth was filled with
grass and dirt. We immediately bound and gagged him, took his weapons
and left him there.
We all escaped through this tunnel and beat it for the coast as fast
as our legs could carry us. The searchlights of our ship were in
action and were playing all over the coast looking for us. One of our
number was a signal man. He ripped off his jumper and, tearing it in
two pieces, waved them over his head. The signal was seen--we knew it
because the guns of the ship were brought to bear over us, to protect
us from an attack in the rear, and recapture. We received a flash light
signal to lie down, and soon we heard the sound of two engines. It was
the ship's picket boats, mounted with machine guns on stern and bow. We
were conveyed in short order to the _Drake_.
All ships have a master of arms and a ship's corporal; they are the
ship's police, and they are always looking for trouble. As soon as
we were on the deck we were placed under arrest and taken before the
captain. The charges against us were: over-staying shore leave fourteen
hours, disobeying orders and general untidiness. We did, in fact, look
like a bunch of Hooligans. Several of us had no caps and the faces of
all of us were covered with blood and muck. Our new uniforms were so
torn that a rag man would not have given us two cents for the lot.
The following are some of the captain's questions, and our answers:
"Where were you men?"
"Ashore, sir."
"Why were you not back in time?"
"The Germans would not let us come back, sir."
"Where are your rifles? And did you destroy the enemy's guns? What
happened to your uniforms?"
"We destroyed the guns, sir, but were captured. We tried to escape, but
were caught between liquid fire and poisonous gas. We lost part of our
uniforms trying to climb over the barbed wire fence, sir."
"You pack of fools!"
"Yes, sir."
Then the captain, smiling, congratulated us and ordered the steward to
supply us with new uniforms and send us back to our ship as soon as
possible. We went back next day, June 2.