battle-of-the-river-plate-commemorative-booklet

BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE ◊ 19life. The little square window fourinches directly in front of my headwas shattered. My binoculars throughwhich I was looking were wrecked.And the right upper corner of theback of my chair was removed.My damage was so superficial I wasback again controlling the firewithin a minute.It is comforting to realise thereis no suffering whatsoever. Thedead were dead before they knewthat anything had happened. Thesuddenness is merciful, and so isthe shock. My two severely woundedhad very little pain, which was agood thing because the exit wasjammed by splinters and we had tokeep them with us for some timeuntil they could be evacuated.It would have been difficult inthose cramped quarters had theymade a fuss.The others were magnificent. Theytook over the extra jobs and carriedon with the battle. One youngster,just turned eighteen, found thatthe dead and very mutilated body ofhis predecessor was in the way andthere wasn’t room to shift him, so hesat on top of this unpleasantness andoperated his most important instrumentfor the remaining hour of the actionwithout batting an eyelid.Personally I was completelyunaffected by the carnage around me.I admit I have always rather dreadedthe show down: one never knows untilone has experienced it how one willreact, and I’m, though you might notthink it, a rather sympathetic type.Top:ACHILLES followed by AJAXBottom:Upper deck damageTop:ACHILLES’ blistered guns.Right:ACHILLES’ crew during alull in the battle.Bottom: ACHILLES’ sailor kit.When, after an hour and a half’s hot firingwe turned away under smoke to await a morefavourable opportunity to use up the smallremainder of our ammunition I felt a bitdisappointed and baulked of my prey. Itwas nevertheless exactly the right moment.She was utterly defeated, morally, and,probably, materially too. It didn’t look like that at the time and we were fullof conjectures as to why she was bolting from us and what her plan was. It wasincredible she should be running away from two small and rather battered sixinch cruisers. AJAX had only three guns left in action by this time.…We hung about from Wednesday until Sunday, awaiting renewal of the action,not perhaps with relish as Winston might suppose, because the odds were tooobvious to all of us, but certainly with determination. We got our loaded gunson her smoke smudge, clearly visible at 25 miles. It was all very cold bloodedand deliberate, but the spirit of everyone was excellent. We went in to polishher off but were disappointed. She blew herself up. I didn’t see the burstmyself but others on board did. We cleared lower deck and everyone came up andclambered upon every point of vantage to see the last of the old enemy. Therewas then the most amazing spontaneous expression of feeling, and relief, I everhope to hear.”Richard