Footnotes

A REMARKABLE RECORD OF THE WAR AT SEA, COVERING THREE GREAT BATTLES. Edward Conyngham Denison (1888-1960) was appointed Lieutenant in 1910, Lieutenant-Commander in 1918, Commander in 1924 and Captain in 1931, retiring in 1941, thereafter serving as Commodore of Ocean Convoys. He served as a gunnery lieutenant on board the Inflexible at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914, at the naval assault that opened the Gallipoli Campaign from 19 February to 19 March (the Inflexible carrying the flag of Admiral Carden) and at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916.

The account of the Battle of the Falkland Islands is especially full: of particular note are some very rough pencil jottings seemingly made actually during the battle: "12.25 Action. to E.S. right ahead. Bright sun. clear atmosphere... 12.55 A Turret opened./ 15725/ 12.57½ 16250/ A Turret again..."); and these have been amplified into an extraordinarily vivid account, of which we quote two extracts: "About 12.30 the Admiral decided not to wait for the others & increased to 22 Knots. After this the account is solely as seen from the periscope of my turret. A. Turret opened fire at 15725 yds at right hand cruiser. It was short. Next time she fired range 16250. still short. check fire. Enemy still slightly on starb. bow. We took station about 2 cables on Invincibles starb. quarter. From 1.15 to 1.30 A turret continued to fire at intervals at range varying between 16000 & 14500. seemed to be going pretty close. def. 10 right. At 1.30 starb. guns fired. All first salvoes apparently over. range about 14000. I trained round to my buffer 63o starb. in the hope of getting a shot. Got off about 8 rounds bearing about 75o. We were firing at Scharnhorst & Invincible at Gneisnau, the light cruisers having apparently made off. About 1.56 the Scharnhorst was noticed to be on fire by mainmast. Very difficult to see anything through my periscope owing to smoke. I could see the flashes of their guns very well. They all went off absolutely together & pitched absolutely together, some quite short & some only just over... We heard afterwards from the 'Gneisnau' survivors that she was a perfect shambles – hardly a man left at the guns. One of their guns was blown clean over the side by one of our shells. Another exploded in the sick-bay, already pretty full, killing every soul. They neither of them struck their colours. However pleased one may be at having wiped out the G.-H & Monmouth, it was a pretty beastly sight seeing the G going down & all those poor devils struggling & shouting in the water...".

The Gallipoli diary is equally full, with Denison witnessing the opening of the campaign on 19 February: "We found we weren't doing any good at 16000 so closed in to about 12000. Very deliberate fire in fact we only fired 47 rounds the whole day. 'Q' turret started. Then 'A'. A spring was put on the cable & then I fired. only 7 rounds. Guns very hard to see, in fact we did practically no damage to them, only knocked away a lot of parapets and earth. At 4p.m. Cornwallis, Vengeance, & Bouvet were sent close in (about 4-5000 yds). Up to this time the Turks hadn't fired a shot, but immediately started replying & the Vengeance was all but hit twice. Agamemnon & Q.E. arrived now & former went close in to assist V & C. We also opened fire with Q Turret. At about 6.15 we knocked off for the day & went on our old Patrol line. Seaplanes reported we had not done much damage". There is also an extended entry covering the raids made on shore by Marine detachments on 4 March; with the Inflexible being damaged by enemy fire and forced out of action on the 18th ("...Most disastrous day all round...").

The Inflexible saw less action at Jutland, although what Denison did witness is described with his customary skill and ability to evoke a sense of immediacy: "About 4 we heard that Beatty was engaging them. Soon we could hear the guns & see the flashes. At 5 to 6 we came into action & after heading the enemy off, joined up with Beatty. At first we were in action the Port side & concentrated on a light cruiser which we sank... Spent the night in Turret. Light about 1.30 a.m. At 4 a.m. we saw a Zep. on starb. quarter. Light cruisers blazed away. Very misty again. D.B. made a signal to say we hoped to cut off & annihilate German High sea fleet, but we never saw anything more of them. In the afternoon we steamed over the place where the Invinc went down & a Destroyer was sent off to sink the bit sticking out of water. Passed a whole lot of oil & wreckage & about 200 dead Germans & also a boat marked V29...".