OFFICIAL NARRATIVE OF RAID.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14590, 27 April 1918, Page 3

OFFICIAL NARRATIVE OF RAID.

"THE MEN WERE MAGNIFICENT.

STOPvMING THFi MOLE

SINKING THEI BLOCK SHIPS

{Australian and N.Z. Cable Assor.iatlonl

„ (Received April 27, 11.45 .a.m.) ■LONDON, April 26. Tho Admkaltj;.has issued a full narrative of the raid, on Zeebrugge «nd Ost«nd. It vis fall of thrilling episodes and experiences, of the individual vessels engaged and the Storming party on the mole.. ''"' ■ .■•■.■. . -j;-,-. \. „ . '.. ',■ ■ .■• . Naturally the most striking, of these .ire the experiences, of. the Vihdi'Stiyo and h«r attendant ferrv-bbats, the Iris adid Daffodil. '•■•■■•■•,■ ■■•■••■;,■

As ' the Vindictive l&y alongside^ the mole, x rolling and .bumping against th-e f puhd'ations, she ivas swept diagonally by machme-gun fire from botfh ends of the mole and the heavy batteries ashore. The landing parties of marinas and. bluejackets gathered on. the main and lower -declcst' .The oooninandei-s wei\p both killed before the word to assault was given. The mei> were magnificent. liiey had \t<> rush across the awaying, vsplintering gapgwa-ys and drop over the parapet into the field of fire of the German machine Suns;. then, further, drop s : xt«sn feet on" to the mole itself, . but nothing stopped their orderly sweeping landing. • Mean-while the Ipwev deck ha<l becoTjlP ai- abambles. : The crew of the howitzer mounted for.vvard were all killed, the second crew likewise destroyed, and: a third crew took over the gun. The Daffodil, •\rhich av&s winged ,m pressing the Vindictive against the mole, only lost one. killed and eight wounded ; Meanwhile, the Iris, vrliich ,was -ntteip.rit. hxg to make fast to the mole, ahead of the; Vindictive, was m trouble. The arcipnells were not large enough to span the .parapet, so t^yo officers dlimbed ?.shore fliiid sat. astride thp parapet, i-ry-irifr to fasten the grapnels till g^ch wa.<? k'V.cd. '■'■■

The Iris's commander had both legs shot off.. A single shell piercing the upper dteck exploded «mong ■ fifty-six marines, killing forty-nine and wounding •seven. Another exploded m the wardroom used as a hospital, killing four officers and 26 men. Altogether the Iris lost 77 killed and 103 wounded.

The storming and demolitipn, parties on the mole met no, r^sistanoe apart from the intense. ..unremitting firo, thf Germans having on the approach of the ships retired to the shore end of the mole.

The demolition parties carried out their work jn perfect order, destroying building after building. Meanwhjle the blpckships we^% stealing into the mouth of th.% canal. .The Thetis was the first of these to come into the tornado of shells from, the shore batteries. The bulk of the crew had already been taken oft*. Unfortunately the propeller fouled a net of the defences, which l'andered the ship unmanagaWe. The shore batteries pounded her, and she fqynd herself sinking still hundreds of yards from the mouth of the canal. After signalling invaluable information the commander blew up the charges and sank her. A motor launch rescued the crew of the Thetis, which lost five killfid and five wounded.

The Intrepid and Iphigenia , 'were more successfnl. They steered straight into the canal and beached themselves, according to arrangement, one on the easturn bank and the other on the. western bank, where they were bjawn up with their sterns stretch,!^ ■well out across the canal. They are now lying across the canal. It improbable the work they were set out to do was accomplished and that the canal is ■effectively blocked. A motor launch brought away the crews. The officers describe the explosion of the old submarine jib the greatest ever seen. . It tore, the jetty^ m half and left a pap of over om©' hundred;

The claims that one launch «ank a torpedo boat alongside the jetty are supported by many observers, including the officers of the Vindictive, who saw her mast and funnel fall across the mole and then noticed them disappear. The North Star, one of three destroyers which guarded the Vindictive from enemy destroyers while alongside the mole, lost her way m the smoke screen and suddenly emerged into the light of a starsholl and was sunk. The statement m .the German communique that only a few aould be saved by the Germans is, as usual, inaccurate, for the Phoebe, another of 1 these destroyers, came up under heavy fire and rescued nearly all. ' Throtighout our gunboats and the siege guns of Flanders heavily bombarded the enemy's batteries. A change of wind ;at Ostend served ! ns even worse than at . Zeebrugge. ' Motor boats had- already lit the ap-! proaches .of the ends of the piers* with calcium flares, and made a smoke cloud, which effectively hid the fact from the- enemy, when the wind changed, revealing everything. The enemy extinguished the flares with gunfire, and this prevented the blpckships finding the entranae, and as they were goon m a. . sinking condition they were compelled to sink themselves a 'bout four ■■ hundred feet east of the pierß, our motor launches removing the, crews.