Publication:The Trade December 2003/Book Review - The Zeebrugge and Ostend Raids 1918
By - Vic Jeffery, Defence Public Affairs (WA)
by Deborah Lake
Published by Pen & Sword Ltd, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England.
Distributed in Australia by Peribo, 58 Beaumont Road, Mount Kuring Gai, NSW 2080. Hard cover, 208 pages, 30 photographs, RRP $80.00.
In April 1918 the war against Germany was looking gloomy. With Allied resources dwindling, the German Spring Offensive causing a great deal of alarm and the U-boat campaign threatening Britain's very survival, the British Admiralty claimed with justified concern, that the war was in danger of being lost unless U-boat attacks were curtailed.
The German Imperial Navy submarine bases of Zeebrugge, Ostend and Bruges as its apex formed a triangle and were attractive targets. The submarine pens at Bruges, protected by massive concrete bomb shelters, were connected to Zeebrugge by a13 kilometre canal. The base of the triangle was 19 kilometres of heavily fortified coastline between Zeebrugge and Ostend.
British monitors had previously bombarded these two ports, but it was indirect long-range gunfire due to the menacing four 12-inch guns of the Kaiser Wilhelm II battery.
Zeebrugge was also the site of an important and very active German naval air station while the Bruges-based German destroyers of the Flanders Flotilla were also an unmitigated menace to the Royal Navy and further reason to render the harbours inoperable.
British Admiral Roger Keyes drew up a plan to block the ports in daring raids with, in the case of Zeebrugge, a diversionary landing by Royal Marines to maximise the element of surprise.
Selected to be sunk as blockships in the Zeebrugge-Bruges Canal and the entrance to Ostend were the obsolete old Royal Navy light cruisers Iphigenia, Intrepid and Thetis for Zeebrugge and the Sirius and Brilliant for Ostend.
The actual raid involved a total of 165 vessels of all types with 82 officers and 1698 sailors and Royal Marines allocated to the operation during which Admiral Keyes flew his pennant in the destroyer HMS Warwick.
Approximately 700 Royal Marines and 200 seamen carried in the specially modified old cruiser HMS Vindictive would attack the Zeebrugge Mole from seaward and the Mersey ferries Daffodil and Iris II. Vindictive was fitted with one 11-inch and two 7.5-inch howitzers for engaging the shore batteries and had specially hinged brows that would be lowered on to the mole for landing troops.
The two ferries would be towed to the approaches to Zeebrugge and would carry 22 scaling ladders because even at high tide their decks would be well below the mole.
The tidal conditions were right for the operation to take place on the night of 22-23 April, although it would be a full moon. Rather than wait another month, Keyes made the decision to attack with 23 April being St. George's Day - the patron saint of England.
Without giving too much of the engrossing story away, naturally there would have been no show without submarines involved. HM Submarines C 1 and C 3 were given the hazardous and unusual role of ramming the viaduct.
C 1 lost her tow enroute, but the C 3 was successful, hitting between two rows of piers at 9.5 knots with her crew of six quickly scrambling to leave before onboard explosives were set off by fuses. When 200 metres away the explosives detonated showering the areas with concrete and knocking out power and telephone cables. Four of the submariners were wounded and it was claimed that some German soldiers on bicycles rode into the newly blown gap in the darkness and drowned.
It was a particularly bloody operation and despite a prodigious feat of valour, little was achieved. HM Ships Vindictive, Daffodil and Iris landing in the wrong locations immediately threw the operation into chaos from the start. The Germans were in fortified positions, well armed and ready for any attack whenever it invariably comes.
Author Deborah Lake, who spent 17 years in the RAF before retiring to write, has extensively researched, not only the background and planning of these two daring raids but, their execution. To arrive at a full picture she draws on hitherto unpublished material from both Allied and German sources.
This is a fine tribute to the 600 British casualties (killed, wounded and missing) among the attacking force. The awarding of 11 Victoria Crosses, eight at Zeebrugge and three at Ostend, is silent testimony to the countless acts of gallantry, sacrifice and the fierceness of the fighting.
Despite the gallantry with which the attack was carried out, it proved a failure because the blockships, which were sunk in the canal entrance of Zeebrugge, were not correctly positioned and the port was soon back in service.
An incredible story of what basically was a desperate and dangerous attempt to stifle the success of World War One German U-boat operations. A highly recommended read.
