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[Page 129]
1916
cruisers, which advanced close inshore. These latter destroyed two German armed trawlers which were encountered. Later our destroyer "Medusa" collided with the patrol leader "Laverock", & was taken in tow by the latter. During the raid we received news that out of the five seaplanes despatched to attack the Zeppelin sheds at Tondern, three were down, one shot down, & two down owing to engine trouble. One of the surviving machines actually got over the sheds, but I heard that his bomb dropping gear was defective; the other lost his way, but dropped some bombs on a granary before returning. This activity on our part led the Germans to send out their destroyers that night to intercept us. They succeeded in coming across our light cruisers. The "Undaunted" rammed one in the dark and sank her. Later "Cleopatra" was in collision with "Undaunted", but both remained afloat. Apparently, the remainder of the German flotilla made off without giving fight. The German High Sea Fleet then came out, probably from information received from their Zeppelins, that we had powerful ships in support of our air attack. We had seen no sign of enemy warships, but probably they had seen us, which was quite possible. Thus, the prospect of an engagement was unusually bright.
March 26.
About noon the following day, it was reported that the German Fleet had returned to its