Locked together thus the two boats fought a desperate and literally hand-to-hand conflict. The Broke swept the enemy’s decks at point-blank range with every gun from four-inch to pom-pom and maxim. Lumps of coal and bowls of cocoa are mentioned among the miscellany of objects that hurtled through the darkness.
In the meanwhile the remaining two destroyers in the German line poured a devastating fire upon the Broke. The foremost guns’ crews were reduced from eighteen men to six, but Midshipman Donald A. Gyles, R.N.R., in charge of the forecastle, though wounded in the eye, kept all foremost guns in action, himself assisting the depleted crews to load.
While he was thus employed, a number of frenzied Germans swarmed up over the Broke’s forecastle out of the rammed destroyer, and finding themselves amid the blinding flashes of the forecastle guns, swept aft in a shouting mob. The midshipman, amid the dead and wounded of his guns’ crews and half-blinded by blood, met the rush singlehanded with an automatic revolver; he was grappled by a gigantic German who attempted to wrest the weapon from him.
Cutlasses and rifles with fixed bayonets being among the equipment of the foremost guns’ crews in anticipation of just such events as were now taking place, the German was promptly bayoneted by Able Seaman Ingleson. The remainder of the invaders, with the exception of two who lay down and feigned death, were driven over the side. The two exceptions were subsequently made prisoners and taken below.
Of the original five German destroyers, there were now two remaining in the line. Two minutes after ramming, the Broke succeeded in wrenching herself free from her sinking adversary, and turned to ram the last boat in the line. She failed in this achievement, but as she swung round succeeded in hitting this boat’s consort on the stem with a torpedo.
Hotly engaged with these two fleeing destroyers, the Broke then attempted to follow Swift in the direction in which she was last seen; a shell, however, struck Broke in the boiler-room, disabling her main engines. The enemy were then lost to sight in the darkness.
Still carrying considerable way, Broke altered course and headed in the direction of a destroyer heavily on fire, whose crew, on sighting the Broke, sent up loud shouts for mercy. She was burning fiercely, and, regardless of the danger from her magazines exploding, Broke steered towards her, still moving slowly through the water. The shouts and cries of ‘Save! Save!’ were redoubled, when she unexpectedly opened fire.
Broke being then out of control and unable to manœuvre or extricate herself, silenced the treachery with four rounds and then, to ensure her own safety, fired a torpedo and hit her amidships.
In the meanwhile the Swift had continued her pursuit of the leading boat until injuries she had received in the earlier phases of the action, though in themselves slight, prevented her from maintaining full speed. She thereupon abandoned the chase and turned in search of a fresh quarry. The outline of a stationary destroyer was presently sighted in the darkness ahead, and as she drew near a confused noise of voices resolved itself into more distinct and evidently organised sounds, as from a large number of men shouting together in time.
Warily, and somewhat perplexed by the uproar, the Swift approached with her guns trained on the stranger. This presently resolved itself into the sinking German destroyer that had been rammed by Broke, whose crew were bellowing in unison: