NOTES ON THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17788, 13 May 1918, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR.

After the failure of the first attempt to block the entrance to Ostend harbour most readers supposed that a considerable interval would have to elapse before the business could again be taken in band. But it took little more than a fortnight to complete all (the arrangements for a second attack, and on Thursday night the old Vindictive, which had figured so gloriously in tho attack on Zeobrugge on April 23, was driven in between the piers and sunk. The affair was as capably conceived and as ablv carried out as the earlier attack on Zeebruggo bad been, but of course it was a much simpler operation . and it involved no shore fighting. In the first attack the intention had been to drivo the two old cruisers, Brilliant and Sirius, into the entrance and there sink them. A change of wind at the important moment deprived the ships of the artificial fog protection, and they had to bo run ashore a mile or so up tho coast. On Thursday night a genuine sea fog, which came up unexpectedly, concealed the entrance, and the Vindictive had to cruise off the harbour until she could locate the entrance. Then she could not be swung right across between the piers, so that tho channel is not yet completely blocked,. but it is believed that the harbour will be unusable for .some time to come.

The ships used to block the entrances were six old light cruisers, of which threo were still in commission as cruis-

era when the war came and three had 1 been converted into mine-layers. The Brilliant and Sirius, which wero the block-ships for the initial raid on Ostend, used to bo graded as second-class cruisers. The Sirius was launched in 1890 and the Brilliant in 1891, tho former at Elswick and tho latter at Sheerness. They were of 3600 tons displacement and steamed nearly twenty knots on their trials. They used to mount a couple of Gin guns and six of the once familiar 4.7 in. Tho Iphegenia and Intrepid were virtually sister ships to these, and the Thetis belonged to tho same class except that she lacked the protective sheath. In 1903 they appeared in tho annuals as third-class cruisers, and latterly those remaining in commission wore simply classed as light cruisers. Tile Vindictive, which had the greater honour at Zeebrugge, belonged to a later date and she was a larger ship. She was launched in 189 G. She belonged to the old Arrogant class, a group of four ships of 5800 tons, built with specially strong bows for ramming. They were not fast, reaching nineteen knots only, and they were criticised when they were first commissioned because of the relative weakness of their armament. Two of them, tho Furious and Gladiator, seem to have bcon sold to tho wreckers, the Arrogant was converted into a depot ship and the Vindictive remained in commission.

All these ships, of course, were long ago out of date, and 1 yet it is noteworthy that some of them were rendering excellent servieo in 1914, while other light cruisers, older than the Vindictive, were proving their valuo on 'patrol duty. They had been surpassed in speed and their old guns wero outranged by those of the fast modern cruisers, but there was still work for them to do. Not many of them will finish their careers as gloriously as did the Vindictive, which will be remembered not as an old hulk filled with cement and sunk across the entrance to Ostend, but as the brave old battler that ran alongside the mole at Zeebrugge, under a terrific storm of shell, put a landing party ashore, while tho Daffodil tried to steady her and while the old Iris nosed, ahead of her. She came away with her hull full of holes ahd her bridge shot away, but sho had done her work, even to taking off tho survivors of tho landing party, and battered as she was she made her home port. .

Ostend and Zeebrugge have been extremely useful bases for enemy submarines and destroyers, because they are in proximity to the English coast and to the Channel. They are well protected, of course, by batteries of guns on shore and they have an additional protection in that the approach to tho coast is passible only to vessels of light draught. There is a channel of 30ft or more threo miles off Ostend, but outside that again is a mud bank and the shoals extend for nearly ten miles off shore. Light craft, however, r"! make the two harbours without difficulty. Both harbours need dredging, but Zeebniggo is worse in this respect than Ostend, because it is only by incessant dredging that a fairway can ho maintained. At both ports tho sinking of blockships will have serious consequences, quite apart from tho immediate obstruction, because tho dredging will ho stopped and silting will proceed rapidly. It took tho Gormans many months to clear Zcehruggo, although tlinro no special obstruction existed, and the shoaling was due solely to the fact that dredging had been stopped.

Ostend lias been used mainly by enemy destroyers. Tho submarines seem to have used Zeebrugge as their base. Zeebnigge offered the special advantage of allowing tho submarines to enter tlio canal, or at least the inner basin, and to shelter there, for the outer harbour was liable to bo shelled from the sea by tho British monitors. Small submarines early in the war wero sent by rail from Germany, tlio parts being assembled at Bruges docks, and it is stated that even large .submarines have made a practice of going up to Bruges by the canal. Of course tho canal locks and tho Bruges sheds have been repeatedly attacked from the air. One great raid did immense damage, both at Zeobrugge and at Ostend, and last year an air raid put Ostend harbour virtually out of use for a time. After ono attack on Ostend tho Germans denied that any damage had been dono to tho harbour works, but asserted that the houses of civilians had been wantonly destroyed. The British reply was to send airmen over with cameras, and photographs then taken were subsequently published. They showed that the darnago was confined to tlio harbour works and military buildings, and that an extensivo area of buildings used solely for military and naval purposes had been demolished.