ST. GEORGE’S DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3763, 27 April 1926, Page 23

ST. GEORGE’S DAY.

RAID ON ZEEBRUGGE RECALLED. England's great day will ever be romem* bered for the magnificent work of the navy, in blocking the canal at Zeebrugge and so lifting the submarine blockage that threa* toned tli# pritish Isles with famine.

“The British Navy on that night carried ?**» tLe most notable feat of arms that has <*»'*», in the history of any country, been accomplished by its Navy,” said a famous Trench Admiral after the raid; and all the world agreed. In the Admiralty theatre of the British Government pavilion at Wembley a working model setting cf the raid showed thoupnds how it was accomplished, and during the course or the miniature but realistic battle, a navy man lectured to the audience.

“It is the hour of sunset on a peaceful evening—the eve of St. George’s Day, 1918,” he would say. “Whilst the sun is setting, let me tell you of Zcebrugge. “During the Great War the Germans used Bruges as a dockyard and repair base for their submarines, and it will be remembered that towards the ond of 1917 the conditions created by the submarine campaign against the British Merchant Marine wore very serious—in fact, the country was faced with famine; and had r.ot something been done to bring that campaign to nu end the threat of famine would have become a very real one indeed.

t “Tho raid on Zcebrugge which was carried out on the evo of St. George’s Day, 1918, was one of the many things done by the nary in order to bring about the final defeat of the Gprrnnn submarines and so raiso the scige of the country—for that is whet it amounted to. The object of the raid was to bfc>ek up the entrance to the enrin! at Zoobruggo—to block it by sinking ships in it. If that could be done then those German submarines which wore up tho canal at Bruges would be unablo to get out. and those German submarines on the high seas would have to remain on the high seas until they were swept up by British ships. *‘That is what actually occurred. As • direct result of the raid, some 18 Gorman destroyers and 20 submarines were locked

up in the Bruges canal, never to come into action again, and during the few months of war that followed the raid some 40 German destroyers were met on the high seas by British ships. Those submarines ceased to trouble anyone.

* “First of all there was a bombardment carried out by British monitors from a position many miles out to sea, with 12in guns. While that was in progress a smoke screen was laid in the offing of the Zeebrugge mole by a flotilla of motor boats and launches. The object of the screen was to cover the approach of the ships that carried the raiding force. Those were divided into two main groups—the ships to attack the great mole and the ships to attempt to sink themselves in the canal and so block it up. Those detailed to attack the mole carried storming parties selected from volunteers from the Grand Fleet. There were three ships that carried storming parties that night—three ships who made names for themselves that will live for ever—Vindictive, Daffodil, and Iris. The Vindictive was an old threefunnelled cruiser. That night she carried the main storming parties, and shortly afterwards she was used to block up the other German submarine rat-run —the Ship Canal at Ostend. The other ships were Mersey ferry steamers, and to-day they are carrying passengers on the Mersey, but they are doing so under different names, for as a reward for the work they did that night at Zeebrugge they are now known as the Royal Daffodil and the Royal Iris, and are jolly proud of it. When the Vindictive went alongside the mole the parape* was very nearly as high as the ship’s funnels, and the British storming party could not simply walk ashore—they had to go up storming ladders like the lighting men of old, but instead of these ladders being

placed on firm ground, they were on the moving decks of a lively ship, and that night the Vindictive was very lively. There was a nasty sea running outside the mole, and the Vindictive had some difficulty in keeping up to it. The Daffodil saw the trouble, and steamed bows on to the battleship, and there she remained, steaming into the Vindictive during the whole 70 minutes the ships were alongside. “The job of the Iris, assisted by two motor boats, was to bomb some seaplane sheds about halfway along the mole. They got within 25 yards, bombed the sheds well and hard, and practically wiped them out. Then three destroyers took a hand in the battle —Warwick, North Star, and Phcebe. The Warwick flew the flag of Vice-admiral Sir Rodger Keyes, commanding the whole operation, who brought the destroyers racing out of the smoke screen, close tip to the mole, to see that his plans were being carried out. When he saw that the ships were alongside and that the men were ashore, he turned away seawards, and joined the main forces on the other side of the screen; but he lost one of his ships. The North Star sank shortly after entering the screen owing to the terrific damage she received passing the mole. With her went two-thirds of the ship’s company.

“Then came a submarine—a small British submarine, creeping along the surface towards the viaduct at the shore end of the mole. This was the C 3, and on board was a small band of heroes going to what promised to be an almost certain death, ahd an enormous quantity of explosives. Her commander thrust her up amongst the piles supporting the viaduct. The crew abandoned her in a dinghy after lighting a fuse, and two minutes later she blew up, blowing an enormous hole

in the viaduct and converting the Mole into an island. “The feat thus prevented any more Germans reinforcing the "arrison of the Mole, where there were quite enough Germans as it was. Now, the crew of that submarine escaped, but it was no happv pastime to be outside the Mole in the open sea on a night like that. But there was waiting for them, close to the Mole, a small picket boat, present owing to the voluntary effort on the part of an elder brother of the captain of the submarine. The captain was a young lieutenant, and the elder brother was a commander, who, when he heard that his brother was leading a forlorn hope, went to the admiral and begged to command the picket boat in order to try and pull his young brother out of it. He managed to pick up the dinghy with the crew of the submarine safe and sound, and then he navigated his small vessel across the Channel to Dover, where the Victoria Cross awaited the young captain of the su 1 urine. “All this time there had been in progress on the Mole an epic hand-to-hand light between the storming party and the garrison of the Mole. It was a very noisy business—all that noise and commotion was not made just for the sake of having a fight on the Mole. Far from it. It was a grim ruse—done in order to take the attention of the Germans away from the entrance of the canal from the ships that were to attempt to sink themselves in it. They were the block ships, three old cruisers—Thetis, Iphigenia, and Intrepid. “These ships made their way under tremendous gun-fire towards the canal. The Thetis lea the way, and was heavily hit. With her engine room damaged, her steer ing gear smashed, and half her crew killed, she caught fire and drifted, a helpless, blazing wreck, on to a sand bank just outside the canal. y ..

“So we failed, but the survivors were able to complete their job by signalling to their two sister ships coming up astern —signalled with red and green lights, meaning port and starboard—which wav they should put their helms, in order that they might make good the entrance to the canal. These two ships went in under a hell of fire. They were thrust right up between the entrance walls of the canal, up into the shallow waters close to the lock gates. There the bottoms were blown out and they sank, blocking the canal. Now it was part of the programme that those brave fellows who took the blockships in were, if humanly _ possible, to be saved from falling into the hands of the Germans. The duty of saving those n. n was left in the hands of the youngest branch of the navy—the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve—and a very, very gallant job they made of it.

“These R.N.V.R. fellows took their littH motor boats in alongside those three wrecks—not once, but time and again—until they brought out every whole man, every wounded man, and—aye—some of the dead. “The story of our little motor boat is typical of them all —all that came back, for some were sunk.

“This one was fitted with special gear, and was not expected to carry more than about 30 men. It was picked up by the flagship Warwick in the early hours of the morning, not far from the Mole. When the Warwick came alongside she was practically sinking, and she had on board her, and hanging on to her, 101 souls. Now, how that boat got out no man really knows. Tl-. man who Irouglit her out — an R.N.V.R. officer —said that he had no steering gear, for the wheel was jammed by the dead body of his coxswain. He had only his engines; and, sometimes going ahead, sometimes astern, he worked that boat outout from the entrance to the canal to the lighthouse two miles away—under a tremendous fire. He got to the open sea, where he was picked up, and he with his 101 men was saved Thus he won his Victoria Cross.

“Now, when the old Vindictive saw that the blockships had sunk in the canal, she knew that her job was done. The storming parties were recalled from the Mole, and came tumbling back on board, bringing their wounded with them. The little Daffodil came astern, released the Vindictive, and the old ship put to sea burning and battered, but her bows pointing towards Dover.”