When next they came into view, they had changed course to north and were already bearing almost dead ahead. The battle cruisers swung on to a parallel course and opened a heavy fire on them, but the rapidly changing range made the targets difficult to hit; so, dodging salvos, the Allied scout cruisers sped northward disappearing again into smoke and haze.
Hitherto the scout cruisers of the Mediterranean fleet had remained only a short distance ahead of their supporting battle cruisers and hence too far out of effective range of the Allied scouts to make it worth while to open fire with their six-inch guns. But now a signal was made from the flagship telling the scouts to pursue and engage those of the Allies.
Putting on all speed and changing course to port, the Mediterranean scouts succeeded in closing the range with their adversaries till it was possible to engage them with their six-inch guns. And now for the first time in the war ships of the same type, evenly matched, engaged in battle. In numbers, speed, and gun-power there was little to choose between the opposing scout cruiser divisions; but in morale the difference was one that told in the tense five minutes after the cruisers opened fire on each other. Those of the Allies replied to the first salvo, which fell short, not only with a salvo from their own six-inch guns, but also by deploying sharply toward their adversaries, thus passing well under the second enemy salvo which screeched overhead, and rapidly closing the range. Hits were scored on both sides. On the Allied ships one gun was put out of action, while several shells burst in pantries, hammock lashings, and other places which caused more annoyance than vital damage. But so heavy and determined was their fire upon the Mediterranean scouts that, with flames bursting forth and magazines endangered, a conning tower smashed,—skipper and all, and two or three guns crippled, confusion and panic began to spread. With the Allied fire growing heavier and their own growing wild, the Turks soon veered sharply away and retreated under cover of the big guns of the battle cruisers.
What with distance, haze, and the smoke screen of the destroyers, only the flashes of the guns on the Allied scouts were visible to the pursuing battle cruisers; and when their firing ceased as the Mediterranean scouts withdrew, they disappeared from view altogether. But it was not for long; soon they were seen again through a rift in the smoke screen, once more dead ahead, and now heading no longer north, but northeast.
What could this mean? Could it be that these scouts were leading the battle cruisers into some sort of trap? Could there be reinforcements lying in wait to the northeast? This seemed hardly possible. No vessels had been heard sending radio signals in that vicinity, although the net of sensitive receivers, capable of detecting even the feeblest signals, had been constantly spread—an army of vigilant operators listening every instant for the faintest sound. Nothing had been heard save the steady stream of tactical signals between the Allied scout cruisers as they sped away. If the four old battleships and the armored cruisers, reported to have been with the scouts, had gone in that direction, it would be the worse for them, since the heavy guns of the approaching battle cruisers, soon to be reinforced by those of the main battle fleet, coming up rapidly from the east, would make short work of them. No; it was unlikely that the Allied scouts would attempt to lead them toward the detached division of slower ships. The main battle fleet of the Allies must still be far away—in the vicinity of the Azores; the dispatches intercepted the day before seemed to make a certainty of that. This move on the part of the Allied scouts was quite unintelligible. At all events, it was leading them toward the main battle fleet of the Mediterranean Powers. At this rate a junction would soon be effected, and the Turks couldn’t wish anything better than that.
The chase continued on a northeasterly course till the forenoon was well advanced, the fugitive scouts and destroyers of the Allies appearing like shadows in a dream, with bewildering elusiveness; and all this time the main battle fleet from the east, apprised of the course of events by radio from the battle cruisers, was approaching rapidly on a northwesterly course. Most of the time the Allied scouts were out of sight, and fire was withheld, but now and then a fleeting glimpse of them would cause the battle cruisers to “loose off” a salvo or two.
The lookouts on the pursuing ships did not see two American destroyers approach the Allied scouts from the north at thirty-five knots and fall into line on their port beam. But they did see the scouts reappear through the haze and smoke once again at closer range than before, having shifted course to the east. This was better still;—the battle cruisers would the sooner effect a junction with the main fleet.
By noon the men in the fighting tops of the Mediterranean battle cruisers saw the welcome sight of smoke in the southeast denoting the approach of their main battle fleet. A few minutes later the smoke was also seen by the lookouts on the Allied scouts. The Mediterranean fleet was now united in one colossal force, the scout and battle cruiser squadrons taking station ahead of the battleships. Upon this the Allied scout cruisers and destroyers veered to the north. Zigzagging, disappearing behind smoke screens and fitfully reappearing, these scouts presented a maddeningly difficult target for the battle cruisers. With the speed presumably at their disposal they might have drawn away and escaped, but instead they zigzagged and kept reappearing so near that the battle cruisers would open fire on them, only to lose sight of them again in the smoke and haze before the range-finders, spotters, and trainers could get in the necessary work for hitting the elusive targets. Then, as the order to cease firing was given, the commanders would realize, to the tune of many an oath, that they had only been wasting ammunition.
Thus the running fight went on, the entire fleet of the Mediterranean Powers pursuing a squadron of scout cruisers and a score or so of destroyers on a northerly course, but only the battle cruisers in the van could get within range of the fugitives. For half an hour they held this course; then the zigzagging of the Allied scouts took them farther to the west, till by one o’clock the pursuit had shifted to a northwesterly course. Then for a moment the scout cruisers appeared still well in the lead, but more clearly visible than usual and offering an irresistible target for the big guns of the battle cruisers. But it was only for a brief minute or two, and as the salvos began to splash closer to their mark, six destroyers were seen to dash between the scouts and their pursuers, sending out a dense smoke screen behind which all else was lost to view. The smoke screen continued to lie like a great pall far on the port bow of the pursuing fleet, but the light southwest wind swept it toward their path, and soon the destroyers, dodging behind their own screen, had also vanished from sight. They must, however, still be holding the same general course, for the smoke continued to pour forth, making a wide blanket to the west and northwest; and behind that blanket the scouts were doubtless increasing speed to make good their escape. So said the Turkish Admiral in command of the battle cruiser squadron, but he could not see the Allied scout cruisers behind their screen executing the same maneuver which the German High Seas Fleet executed at Jutland, although the British believed it impracticable in action—a “simultaneous swing-around” whereby, each ship doubling on her tracks, and all at the same moment, both the direction and the order of the ships were rapidly reversed. Steaming back at high speed, together with the majority of the destroyers—all but the six that made the screen—it was only a few minutes before the Allied scouts were abreast of the main body of the enemy’s battle fleet, some miles astern of the battle cruisers. Again the simultaneous swing-around was effected and the scouts closed in on the enemy.
With blank amazement the Turkish Commander-in-Chief on the bridge of his flagship saw the long, slender scout cruisers, nine in number, preceded by some eighteen destroyers, emerge from the thinning smoke and haze barely five miles away on his port beam and come tearing at top speed toward his formidable fleet of giant dreadnaughts. The audacity of it fairly staggered him; here they came into the very jaws of death. The smoke screen, dissipated and blowing across his line, left the visibility good toward the southwest; against the bright horizon sky under the sun the approaching ships stood out clearly, making excellent targets but for their speed, which taxed the range-finders’ powers to the limit. Clearly it was an attack with intent to torpedo.