Letter 26 From Midshipman Hartley, of H.M. Battle-Cruiser “Lion,” to His Parents at Burton-on-Trent
At last we have had a taste of gunfire, but it was only a taste. We ran into three light German cruisers. Two of them were sunk, and one managed to make off in a sinking condition and badly on fire forward and aft. Of course, their guns had about the same effect on us as a daisy air-rifle. The funny thing, which you should have seen, was all the stokers grubbing about after the action looking for bits of shell.
The Germans fought awfully well and bravely, but the poor beggars hadn’t a dog’s chance of living through it. The Mainz was the name of one of those sunk. Two of their destroyers were also sunk.