The Duke sped after, sending shell,
Fired havoc, roaring hell
Raining down upon the fleeing
Battered, bruised and barely seeing
Nazi supership which sped
Ever more and more ahead.
At last the Duke had lost the range.
Her guns were silenced, but a strange
New battle lit the horizon’s edge
And smote the Scharnhorst like a sledge.
She reared and tossed and bellowed toward
Saumarez, Savage, Scorpion, Stord.
She did not flee as fast, for they,
More swiftly speeding on their way,
O’ertook her and on either bow
Engaged the bleeding Scharnhorst now.
Her voice was wild, her aim was bad;
She fought with all the guns she had.
At forty knots the destroyers came.
Ten thousand yards, they took their aim;
Six thousand yards, without a change
Of course or speed they closed the range.
Two thousand yards, they launched their dread
Torpedoes, and away they sped.
The Scharnhorst snorted, scored a hit.
Saumarez felt the blast of it.
But then the launched torpedoes struck,
And Scharnhorst’s inner heart was stuck.
Her guns began a wild, red fire,
She’d lost her speed, could not retire.
By now the Duke of York had closed,
And with another force composed
Of Sheffield, Norfolk, and Belfast,
Jamaica, and come up at last,
Four escorts from the convoy screen,
Began a new approach routine.
The Scharnhorst shuddered, shell on shell
From eight destroyers upon her fell.
From four crack cruisers she sustained
The heavy, horrid fire they trained.
Each salvo from the Duke of York
Left her unsteady as a cork.
Around and round the battle raged,
On every side she was engaged
By greater force and stronger will,
A broken thing of beauty still;
And then the ships received command
To stand well clear on every hand.
The battle paused. The night returned,
And in that dark the Scharnhorst burned.
The swift and final act began.
Jamaica left the cruiser van
And headed toward the trembling pile
Where life and metal burned the while.
A neat destroyer trained her lights
Upon the target and the sights
Aboard Jamaica, set to kill,
Could pledge the beast her final thrill.
Jamaica swung. Torpedoes leapt,
Their course and their appointment kept.