THE NAVAL EXPLOJT

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13752, 27 April 1918, Page 5

THE NAVAL EXPLOJT

AUSTRALIANS BRILLIANTLY PARTICIPATE. IN HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received April 27, 12.40 a.m. LONDON, April 26. An officer and 11 men brilliantly represented Australia at Zeebrugge. Six of them participated in the hand-to-hand fighting on the mole. All returned alive. THRILLING EPISODES AND EXPERIENCES. THE VINDICTIVE AND HER ATTENDANCES. RAKEN AND SWEPT BY SHELLS, IRIS' PLUCKY OFFICERS. THE SUBMARINE EXPLOSION. GREATEST EVER SEEN. BRITISH DESTROYER LOST. (Australian and N.Z. and Reuter.) Received April 27, 11.45 a.m. LONDON, April 26. The Admiralty has Issued the following narrative Of the raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend. It is" full of thrilling episodes and experiences Of the individual vessels engaged and the storming party on the mole.

Naturally the most striking of these are the experiences of the Vindictive ■ml lior attendant ferryboats, the Iris and Daffodil. As the Vindictive lay alongside the mole rolling and butting against the foundations, she was swept diagonally by machine-gun fire from both ends of the mole and the heavy batterieß ashore.

The landing parties and marines and bluejackets gathered on the main and lower decks, nut the commanders of both were killed before the word to assault was given. The men were magnificent. They had to rush across swaying splintering gangways, drop over a parapet into the field of fire of German machine-guns, and then a further drop of 16ft on to the mole itself, but nothing stopped their orderly, sweeping landing. Meanwhile the lower deck had become a shambles. The crew of a howitzer mounted forward were all killed. The second crew was likewise destroyed, and a third crew took over the gun.

The Daffodil, which was engaged in pressing the Vindictive against the mole, only lost one killed and eight wounded. Meanwhile the Iris, which was attempting to make fast to the mole ahead of the Vindictive, was in trouble. Her grapnels were not large enough to span the parapet, so two officers climbed ashore and sat astride the parapet trying to- fasten the grapnels, till each were killed. The Iris' commander had both his legs shot off. A single shell, piercing the upper deck, exploded among 56 marines, killing 49 and wounding the other seven. Another exploded in the wardroom, which was used as a hospital, killing four officers and 26 men. Altogether the Iris lost 77 killed and 103 wounded. The storming and demolition parties on the mole met no resistance apart from an intense, unremitting machinegun fire, the Germans having on the approach of the ships retired to the shore end of the mole. The demolition parties carried out their work in perfect order, destroying building after building. Meanwhile the blockships were stealing into the mouth of the 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 off. Unfortunately her propeller fouled a net of the defences and rendered the ship unmanageable. The shore batteries pounded her, and she found herself sinking, still 100 yards from the mouth of the canal. After signalling invaluable information the commander blew up his charges aud sank her. A motor launch rescued the crew of the Thetis, which lost live killed and five wounded.

The Intrepid and Iphignia were more successful. They steered straight into the canal and beached themselves, according to' arrangements, one on the eastern band and the other on the western bank, where they were blown up with their sterns stretching well out across the canal. They are now lying across the canal. It is probable that the work they set out to do was accomplished, and the canal effectively blocked. A motor launch brought away the crews:

Officers describe the explosion of the old submarine as the greatest ever seen. It tore the jetty in half and left a gap of over 100 feet.

The claims that one launch sank a torpedo-boat alongside the jetty are supported by many observers, including officers of the Vindictive, who saw her mast and funnel across the mole and then noticed them disappear. The North Star, one of the three destroyers which guarded 'the Vindictive from the enemy destroyers while alongside the mole, lost her way in the smoke screen, and suddenly emerged into the light of a starshell and was sunk.

The statement ir. the German communique that only a few of the crew could be saved by the Germans is as usual inaccurate, for the Phoebe, another of our destroyers, came up under heavy fire and rescued nearlv all.

Throughout the operation the monitors and the siege guns of Flanders heavily bombarded the enemy's batteries. A change of wind at Ostend served us even worse than at Zeebragge. Motor-boats had already lit the approaches and the ends of the piers with calcium flares and made a smoke cloud, which effectively hid the fact from the enemy. Then the wind changed, revealing everything. The enemy ex.tinguished the flares with gunfire, and this prevented the blockships finding the entrxicc, and as they were soon in a si-iking condition were compelled to sink themselves about four hundred yard* east of the piers, the motor launches removing the crews.

KAISER INSPECTS THE DAMAGE. BRITISH AVIATOR ACTIVE. (Australian, N.Z. and Renter.) Received Auril 27, 12.20 n.m. AMSTERDAM, April 26. The Kaiser visited Zeebrugge and inspected the damage. During his visit ;i British aviator dropped bombs. The German papers admit that the English succedod in nearly blocking the whole passage, but claim that the submarines are still able to leave. According to a. Berlin telegram the Raiser gathered an accounts the fight from a .captured British captain of marines, who said the attack had been prepared and started on four occasions but had to be abandoned owing to the vigilance of the German outpost boats.