THE SEALING OF ZEEBRUGGE AND OSTEND
Manifold as were the duties, and various as was the composition of the
Dover Patrol, it was in the sealing of Zeebrugge and Ostend--among the
last naval operations of the war--that its qualities of enterprise,
courage, and ingenuity found their most notable expression. How the
possession of these places advantaged the enemy has already been
indicated in the last chapter; and their continual threat to our
communications was a sufficient justification of the proposed attempt.
But it was not the only one, as a brief consideration of the general
position will show. Robbed of these two ports, or with their
usefulness so impaired as to render them abortive, the enemy would be
thrown back, from the offensive standpoint, upon his Frisian estuaries,
some three hundred miles distant; while the duties of the Patrol would
be so sensibly lightened as to release an appreciable number of
mosquito-craft. There would in fact be fewer exits to watch; these
would be more distant by many hours' steaming; and there would at once
be placed at our disposal more forces with which to watch them.
On the other hand, it was an enterprise as liable to complete disaster
as any that could easily have been {223} imagined; and but little
instruction and no great encouragement could be drawn from similar
adventures in the past. Though scarcely comparable, perhaps, Nelson's
expedition against Boulogne, while commanding in the Straits, had
lamentably failed, resulting in the death of his close friend and
valued subordinate, Captain Parker; while the sinking of block-ships
both by Lieutenant Hobson at Santiago in the Spanish-American War, and
by the Japanese at Port Arthur in their campaign against Russia, had
shown how innumerable were the possible mischances that could rob such
efforts of success.
Nor had our own experiences, during the war, against
land-fortifications, been very satisfactory; and both Zeebrugge and
Ostend, and particularly the former, were, as was well known, armed to
the teeth. On the other hand, neither was a natural harbour. Each had
been carved, as it were, out of the sand; and, given but a chance,
nature was always ready to obliterate the channels upon which they
depended. Let us consider for a moment the problem that they presented
to an Admiralty desirous of sealing them.
Situated on the Belgian coast, some twelve miles apart and facing a
little to the west of north, each was in reality but a sea-gate of the
inland port of Bruges--the latter being the station to which the enemy
destroyers and submarines were sent in parts from the German workshops;
where they were assembled; and whence, by canal, they proceeded to sea
by way of Zeebrugge and Ostend. Of these two exits, Zeebrugge, the
northernmost, was considerably the nearer to Bruges and the more
important--Zeebrugge {224} being eight, while Ostend was eleven miles
distant from their common base--and to receive an adequate impression
of what was subsequently achieved there it is necessary to bear in mind
its salient features.
Unlike Ostend, apart from its harbour, it possessed no civic
importance, merely consisting of a few streets of houses clustering
about its railway-station, locks, wharves, and store-houses, its sandy
roadstead being guarded from the sea by an immensely powerful
crescentic Mole. It was into this roadstead that the Bruges canal
opened between heavy timbered breakwaters, having first passed through
a sea-lock, some half a mile higher up. Between the two light-houses,
each about twenty feet above high-water level, that stood upon the ends
of these breakwaters, the canal was 200 yards wide, narrowing to a
width, in the lock itself, of less than seventy feet.
Leading from the canal entrance to the tip of the Mole, on which stood
a third light-house, and so out to sea, was a curved channel, about
three-quarters of a mile long, kept clear by continual dredging; and
this was protected both by a string of armed barges and by a system of
nets on its shoreward side. It was in its great sea-wall, however,
some eighty yards broad and more than a mile long, that Zeebrugge's
chief strength resided; and this had been utilized, since the German
occupation, to the utmost extent. Upon the seaward end of it, near the
light-house, a battery of 6-inch guns had been mounted, other batteries
and machine-guns being stationed at various points throughout its
length. With a parapet along its outer side, some sixteen feet higher
than the level {225} of the rest of the Mole, it not only carried a
railway-line but contained a seaplane shed, and shelters for stores and
_personnel_. It was connected with the shore by a light wood and steel
viaduct--a pile-work structure, allowing for the passage of the
through-current necessary to prevent silting.
Emplaced upon the shore, on either side of this, were further batteries
of heavy guns; while, to the north of the canal entrance, and at a
point almost opposite to the tip of the Mole, was the Goeben Fort
containing yet other guns covering both the Mole and the harbour.
Under the lee of the parapet were dug-outs for the defenders, while,
under of the lee of the Mole itself was a similar shelter for the
enemy's submarines and destroyers. Nor did this exhaust the harbour's
defences, since it was further protected not only by minefields but by
natural shoals, always difficult to navigate, and infinitely more so in
the absence of beacons.
Even to a greater extent was this last feature true of Ostend, though
here the whole problem was somewhat simpler, there being no Mole, and
therefore no necessity--though equally no opportunity--for a subsidiary
attack. Covered, of course, from the shore by guns of all
calibres--and here it should be remembered that there were 225 of these
between Nieuport and the Dutch frontier--the single object in this case
was to gain the entrance, before the block-ships should be discovered
by the enemy, and sunk by his gunners where their presence would no do
harm. Since for complete success, however, it was necessary to seal
both places, and, if possible, to do so simultaneously, {226} it will
readily be seen that, in the words of Sir Eric Geddes--the successor,
as First Lord of the Admiralty, to Mr. Balfour and Sir Edward
Carson--it was "a particularly intricate operation which had to be
worked strictly to time-table." It was also one that, for several
months before, required the most arduous and secret toil.
Begun in 1917 while Sir John Jellicoe was still First Sea Lord, the
plan ultimately adopted--there had been several previous ones, dropped
for military reasons--was devised by Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes, then
head of the Plans Division at the Admiralty. From the first it was
realized of course, by all concerned that the element of surprise would
be the determining factor; and it was therefore decided that the
attempt to block the harbours should take place at night. It was also
clear that, under modern conditions of star-shells and searchlights, an
extensive use would have to be made of the recent art of throwing out
smoke-screens; and fortunately, in Commander Brock, Admiral Keyes had
at his disposal just the man to supply this need. A Wing-Commander in
the Royal Naval Air Service, in private life Commander Brock was a
partner in a well-known firm of fire-work makers; and his inventive
ability had already been fruitful in more than one direction. A
first-rate pilot and excellent shot, Commander Brock was a typical
English sportsman; and his subsequent death during the operations, for
whose success he had been so largely responsible, was a loss of the
gravest description both to the navy and the empire.
{227}
The next consideration was the choosing of the block-ships, and for
these the following vessels were at last selected--the _Sirius_ and
_Brilliant_ to be sunk at Ostend, and the _Thetis_, _Iphigenia_, and
_Intrepid_ to seal the canal entrance at Zeebrugge. These were all old
cruisers, and they were to be filled with cement, which when submerged
would turn into concrete, fuses being so placed that they could be sunk
by explosion as soon as they had reached the desired position; and it
was arranged that motor-launches should accompany them in order to
rescue their crews. Unfortunately Lieutenant Ivan B. Franks, who was
responsible for the block-ships, was laid aside, the day before the
event, by an attack of appendicitis, and, at his urgent request, his
duties were undertaken by his friend, Lieutenant Billyard-Leake--a very
able young officer, then barely twenty-two years of age.
So far these general arrangements were applicable to both places; but,
as regarded Zeebrugge, it was decided to make a diversion in the shape
of a subsidiary attack on the Mole, in which men were to be landed and
to do as much damage as possible. Such an attack, it was thought,
would help to draw the enemy's attention from the main effort, which
was to be the sinking of the block-ships, and, apart from this, would
have valuable results both material and moral. For this secondary
operation, three other vessels were especially selected and fitted
out--two Liverpool ferry-boats, the _Iris_ and _Daffodil_, obtained by
Captain Grant, not without some difficulty, owing to the natural
reluctance of the Liverpool authorities {228} and the impossibility of
divulging the object for which they were wanted--and the old cruiser
_Vindictive_. This latter vessel had been designed as a "ram" ship
more than twenty years before, displacing about 5,000 tons and capable
of a speed of some twenty knots. She had no armour-belt, but her bow
was covered with plates two inches thick and extending fourteen feet
aft, while her deck was also protected by hardened plates, covered with
nickel steel, from a half to two inches thick. Originally undergunned,
she had subsequently been provided with ten 6-inch guns and eight
12-pounders.
This was the vessel chosen to convey the bulk of the landing-party,
and, for many weeks, under the supervision of Commander E. O. B. S.
Osborne, the carpenters and engineers were hard at work upon her. An
additional high deck, carrying thirteen brows or gangways, was fitted
upon her port side; pom-poms and machine-guns were placed in her
fighting-top; and she was provided with three howitzers and some Stokes
mortars. A special flame-throwing cabin, fitted with speaking tubes,
was built beside the bridge, and another on the port quarter.
It was thus to be the task of the _Vindictive_ and her consorts to lay
themselves alongside the Mole, land storming and demolition-parties,
and protect these by a barrage as they advanced down the Mole; and, in
order to make this attack more effective, yet a third operation was
designed. This was to cut off the Mole from the mainland, thus
isolating its defenders and preventing the arrival of reinforcements;
and, in order to do so, it was decided to blow up the viaduct {229} by
means of an old submarine charged with high explosives. Meanwhile, the
whole attempt was to be supported from out at sea by a continuous
bombardment from a squadron of monitors; seaplanes and aeroplanes,
weather permitting, were to render further assistance; and flotillas of
destroyers were to shepherd the whole force and to hold the flanks
against possible attack.
This then was the plan of campaign, one of the most daring ever
conceived, and all the more so in face of the difficulty of keeping it
concealed from the enemy during the long period of preparation--a
difficulty enhanced in that it was not only necessary to inform each
man of his particular role, but of the particular objectives of each
attack and the general outline of the whole scheme. That was
unavoidable since it was more than likely that, during any one of the
component actions, every officer might be killed or wounded and the men
themselves become responsible. Nor was it possible, even
approximately, to fix a date for the enterprise, since this could only
be carried out under particular conditions of wind and weather. Thus
the night must be dark and the sea calm; the arrival on the other side
must be at high water; and there must above all things be a following
wind, since, without this, the smoke-screens would be useless. Twice,
when all was ready, these conditions seemed to have come, and twice,
after a start had been made, the expedition had to return; and it was
not until April 22, 1918, that the final embarkation took place.
By this time Vice-Admiral Keyes had succeeded {230} Vice-Admiral Bacon
in command of the Dover Patrol; and he was therefore in personal charge
of the great adventure that he had initiated and planned with such
care. Every man under him was not only a volunteer fully aware of what
he was about to face, but a picked man, selected and judged by as high
a standard, perhaps, as the world could have provided. Flying his own
flag on the destroyer _Warwick_, Admiral Keyes had entrusted the
_Vindictive_ to Acting Captain A. F. B. Carpenter, the _Iris_ and the
_Daffodil_ being in the hands respectively of Commander Valentine Gibbs
and Lieutenant Harold Campbell. The Marines, consisting of three
companies of the Royal Marine Light Infantry and a hundred men of the
Royal Marine Artillery, had been drawn from the Grand Fleet, the
Chatham, Portsmouth, and Devonport Depots, and were commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel Bertram Elliot. The three block-ships that were to
be sunk at Zeebrugge, the _Thetis_, _Intrepid_, and _Iphigenia_, were
in charge of Commander Ralph S. Sneyd, Lieutenant Stuart Bonham-Carter,
and Lieutenant E. W. Billyard-Leake; while the old submarine _C3_ that
was to blow up the viaduct was commanded by Lieutenant R. D. Sandford.
In control of the motor-launches allotted to the attack on Zeebrugge,
was Admiral Keyes' flag-captain, Captain R. Collins, those at Ostend
being directed by Commander Hamilton Benn, M.P.--the operations at the
latter place being in charge of Commodore Hubert Lynes. Also acting in
support was a large body of coastal motor-boats under Lieutenant A. E.
P. Wellman, and a flotilla of destroyers under Captain {231} Wilfred
Tomkinson, the general surveying of the whole field of
attack--including the fixing of targets and firing-points--being in the
skilful hands of Commander H. P. Douglas and Lieutenant-Commander F. E.
B. Haselfoot.
Included among the monitors were the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, each
mounting 15-inch guns, to operate at Zeebrugge; and the _Prince
Eugene_, _General Crauford_, and _Lord Clive_, carrying 12-inch guns,
and the _Marshal Soult_, carrying 15-inch guns, to assist at Ostend.
To the old _Vindictive_ Admiral Keyes had presented a horse-shoe that
had been nailed for luck to her centre funnel; and, to the whole fleet,
on its way across, he signalled the message, "St. George for England."
Few who received that message expected to return unscathed, and in the
block-ships none; but it is safe to say that, in the words of Nelson,
they would not have been elsewhere that night for thousands.
Such then were the forces that, on this still dark night, safely
arrived at their first rendezvous and then parted on their perilous
ways, some to Zeebrugge and some to Ostend. It was at a point about
fifteen miles from the Belgian coast that the two parties separated;
and, since it is impossible to follow them both at once, let us confine
ourselves at first to the former. Theirs was the more complicated,
though, as it afterward proved, the more swiftly achieved task, the
first to arrive on the scene of action, almost at the stroke of
midnight, being the old cruiser _Vindictive_ with her two stout little
attendants. These, she had been towing as far as the rendezvous; but,
at this point, she had cast them off, and they were now {232} following
her, under their own steam, to assist in berthing her and to land their
own parties. Ahead of them the small craft had been laying their
smoke-screens, the northeast wind rolling these shoreward, while
already the monitors could be heard at work bombarding the coast
defences with their big guns. Accustomed as he was to such
visitations, this had not aroused in the enemy any particular alarm;
and it was not until the _Vindictive_ and the two ferry-boats were
within 400 yards of the Mole that the off-shore wind caused the
smoke-screen to lift somewhat and left them exposed to the enemy. By
this time the Marines and bluejackets, ready to spring ashore, were
mustered on the lower and main decks; while Colonel Elliot, Major
Cordner, and Captain Chater, who were to lead the Marines, and Captain
Halahan, who was in charge of the bluejackets, were waiting on the high
false deck.
It was a crucial moment, for there could be no mistaking now what was
the _Vindictive's_ intention. The enemy's star-shells, soaring into
the sky, broke into a baleful and crimson light; while his
searchlights, that had been wavering through the darkness, instantly
sprang together and fastened upon the three vessels. This, as Captain
Carpenter afterward confessed, induced "an extraordinarily naked
feeling," and then, from every gun that could be brought to bear, both
from the Mole and the coast, there burst upon her such a fire as, given
another few minutes, must inevitably have sunk her. Beneath it Colonel
Elliot, Major Cordner, and Captain Halahan, all fell slain; while
Captain Carpenter himself had the narrowest escape from destruction.
His cap--he had {233} left his best one at home--was two or three times
over pierced by bullets, as was the case of his binoculars, slung by
straps over his back; while, during the further course of the action,
both his searchlight and smoke-goggles were smashed.
The surprise had so far succeeded, however, that, within less than five
minutes, the _Vindictive's_ bow was against the side of the Mole, and
all but her upper works consequently protected from the severest of the
enemy's fire. Safe--or comparatively so--as regarded her water-line,
she was nevertheless still a point-blank target; her funnels were
riddled over and over again, the one carrying the horse-shoe suffering
least; the signal-room was smashed and the bridge blown to pieces, just
as Commander Carpenter entered the flame-throwing cabin; and this in
its turn, drawing the enemy's fire, was soon twisted and splintered in
all directions. It was now raining; explosion followed explosion till
the whole air quaked as if in torment; and meanwhile a new and
unforeseen danger had just made itself apparent. Till the harbour was
approached, the sea had been calm, but now a ground-swell was causing a
"scend" against the Mole, adding tenfold not only to the difficulties
of landing, but of maintaining the _Vindictive_ at her berth. In this
emergency, it was the little _Daffodil_ that rose to and saved the
situation. Her primary duty, although she carried a landing-party, had
been to push the _Vindictive_ in until the latter had been secured;
but, as matters were, she had to hold her against the Mole throughout
the whole hour and a quarter of her stay there. Even so, the
improvised {234} gangways that had been thrust out from the false deck
were now some four feet up in the air and now crashing down from the
top of the parapet; and it was across these brows, splintering under
their feet, and in face of a fire that baffled description, that the
Marines and bluejackets had to scramble ashore with their Lewis guns,
hand-grenades, and bayonets.
Under such conditions, once a man fell, there was but little hope of
his regaining his feet; and it was only a lucky chance that saved one
of the officers from being thus trodden to death. This was Lieutenant
H. T. C. Walker, who, with an arm blown away, had stumbled and fallen
on the upper deck, the eager storming parties sweeping over him until
he was happily discovered and dragged free. Let it be said at once
that Lieutenant Walker bore no malice, and waved them good luck with
his remaining arm. The command of the Marines had now devolved upon
Major Weller; and, of the 300 or so who followed him ashore, more than
half were soon to be casualties. But the landing was made good; the
awkward drop from the parapet was successfully negotiated thanks to the
special scaling-ladders; the barrage was put down; and they were soon
at hand-to-hand grips with such of the German defenders as stayed to
face them. Many of these were in the dug-outs under the parapets, but,
seeing that to remain there was only to be bayoneted, they made a rush
for some of their own destroyers that were hugging the lee of the Mole.
But few reached these, however, thanks to the vigour of the Marines,
and the fire of the machine-guns from the _Vindictive's_ top, while one
of the destroyers was {235} damaged by hand-grenades and by shells
lobbed over the Mole from the _Vindictive's_ mortars.
Meanwhile the _Vindictive_ was still the object of a fire that was
rapidly dismantling all of her that was visible. A shell in her
fighting-top killed every man at the guns there except Sergeant Finch
of the Royal Marine Artillery, who was badly wounded, but who
extricated himself from a pile of corpses, and worked his gun for a
while single-handed. Another shell, bursting forward, put the whole of
a howitzer crew out of action, and yet a third, finding the same place,
destroyed the crew that followed.
Fierce as was the ordeal through which the _Vindictive_ was passing,
however, that of the _Iris_ was even more so. Unprotected, as was her
fellow the _Daffodil_, boring against the side of the larger
_Vindictive_, the _Iris_, with her landing-party, was trying to make
good her berth lower down the Mole, ahead of Captain Carpenter.
Unfortunately the grapnels with which she had been provided proved to
be ineffective owing to the "scend"; and, with the little boat tossing
up and down, and under the fiercest fire, two of the officers,
Lieutenant-Commander Bradford and Lieutenant Hawkins, climbed ashore to
try and make them fast. Both were killed before they succeeded,
toppling into the water between the Mole and the ship, while, a little
later, a couple of shells burst aboard with disastrous results. One of
these, piercing the deck, exploded among a party of Marines, waiting
for the gangways to be thrust out, killing forty-nine and wounding
seven; while another, wrecking the wardroom, killed four officers and
twenty-six men. Her {236} captain, Commander Gibbs, had both his legs
blown away, and died in a few hours, the _Iris_ having been forced
meanwhile to change her position, and take up another astern of the
_Vindictive_.
Before this happened, however, every man aboard her, as aboard the
_Vindictive_, _Daffodil_, and upon the Mole, had been thrilled to the
bone by the gigantic explosion that had blown up the viaduct lower
down. With a deafening roar and a gush of flame leaping up hundreds of
yards into the night, Lieutenant Sandford had told them the good
tidings of his success with the old submarine. Creeping toward the
viaduct, with his little crew on deck, he had made straight for an
aperture between the steel-covered piles, and to the blank amazement
and apparent paralysis of the Germans crowded upon the viaduct, had
rammed in the submarine up to her conning-tower before lighting the
fuse that was to start the explosion.
Before himself doing this, he had put off a boat, his men needing no
orders to tumble into her, followed by their commander, as soon as the
fuse was fired, with the one idea of getting away as far as possible.
As luck would have it, the boat's propeller fouled, and they had to
rely for safety upon two oars only, pulling, as Lieutenant Sandford
afterward described it, as hard as men ever pulled before. Raked by
machine-gun fire and with shells plunging all round them, most of them,
including Lieutenant Sandford, were wounded; but they were finally
borne to safety by an attendant picket-boat under his brother
Lieutenant-Commander F. Sandford.
That had taken place about fifteen minutes after {237} the _Vindictive_
and her consorts had reached their berths, and a few minutes before the
block-ships, with _Thetis_ leading, had rounded the light-house at the
tip of the Mole. In order to assist these to find their bearings, an
employee of Commander Brock, who had never before been to sea, had for
some time been firing rockets from the after cabin of the _Vindictive_;
and presently they came in sight, exposed, as the _Vindictive_ had
been, by the partial blowing-back of their smoke-screen. Steaming
straight ahead for their objectives, they were therefore opposed by the
intensest fire; and the spirit in which they proceeded is well
illustrated by what had just taken place on board the _Intrepid_. It
had been previously arranged that, for the final stage of their
journey, the crews of the block-ships should be reduced to a minimum;
but, when the moment came to disembark the extra men, those on the
_Intrepid_, so anxious were they to remain, actually hid themselves
away. Many of them did in fact succeed in remaining, and sailed with
their comrades into the canal.
The first to draw the enemy's fire, the _Thetis_, had the misfortune,
having cleared the armed barges, to foul the nests--bursting through
the gate and carrying this with her, but with her propellers gathering
in the meshes and rendering her helpless. Heavily shelled, she was
soon in a sinking condition, and Commander Sneyd was obliged to blow
her charges, but not before he had given the line, with the most
deliberate coolness, to the two following block-ships--Lieutenant
Littleton, in a motor-launch, then rescuing the crew.
{238}
Following the _Thetis_ came the _Intrepid_, with all her guns in full
action, and Lieutenant Bonham-Carter pushed her right into the canal up
to a point actually behind some of the German batteries. Here he ran
her nose into the western bank, ordered his crew away, and blew her up,
the engineer remaining down below in order to be able to report
results. These being satisfactory, and everyone having left,
Lieutenant Bonham-Carter committed himself to a Carley float--a kind of
lifebuoy that, on contact with the water, automatically ignited a
calcium flare. Illumined by this, the _Intrepid's_ commander found
himself the target of a machine-gun on the bank, and, but for the smoke
still pouring from the _Intrepid_, he would probably have been killed
before the launch could rescue him.
Meanwhile, the _Iphigenia_, close behind, had been equally successful
under more difficult conditions. With the _Intrepid's_ smoke blowing
back upon her, she had found it exceedingly hard to keep her course,
and had rammed a dredger with a barge moored to it, pushing the latter
before her when she broke free. Lieutenant Billyard-Leake, however,
was able to reach his objective--the eastern bank of the canal
entrance--and here he sank her in good position, with her engines still
working to keep her in place. Both vessels were thus left lying well
across the canal, as aeroplane photographs afterward confirmed; and
thanks to the persistent courage of Lieutenant Percy Dean, the crews of
both block-ships were safely removed.
With the accompanying motor-launch unhappily {239} sunk as she was
going in, Lieutenant Dean, under fire from all sides, often at a range
of but a few feet, embarked in _Motor-Launch 282_ no less than 101
officers and men. He then started for home, but, learning that there
was an officer still in the water, at once returned and rescued him,
three men being shot at his side as he handled his little vessel.
Making a second start, just as he cleared the canal entrance, his
steering-gear broke down; and he had to manoeuvre by means of his
engines, hugging the side of the Mole to keep out of range of the guns.
Reaching the harbour mouth he then, by a stroke of luck, found himself
alongside the destroyer _Warwick_, who was thus able to take on board
and complete the rescue of the block-ships' crews.
It was now nearly one o'clock on the morning of the 23d; the main
objects of the attack had been secured; and Captain Carpenter, watching
the course of events, decided that it was time to recall his
landing-parties. It had been arranged to do so with the _Vindictive's_
syren, but this, like so much of her gear, was no longer serviceable;
and it was necessary to have recourse to the _Daffodil's_ little
hooter, so feebly opposed to the roar of the guns. Throughout the
whole operation, humble as her part had been, the _Daffodil_ had been
performing yeoman's service, and, but for the fine seamanship of
Lieutenant Harold Campbell, and the efforts of her engine-room staff,
it would have been quite impossible to re-embark the Marines and
bluejackets from the Mole. In the normal way her boilers developed
some 80-lbs. steam-pressure per inch; but, for the work of holding the
{240} _Vindictive_ against the side of the Mole, it was necessary
throughout to maintain double this pressure. All picked men, under
Artificer-Engineer Sutton, the stokers held to their task in the ablest
fashion; and, in ignorance of what was happening all about them, and to
the muffled accompaniment of bursting shells, they worked themselves
out, stripped to their vests and trousers, to the last point of
exhaustion.
Nor did their colleagues on board the _Vindictive_ fall in any degree
short of the same high standard, as becomes clear from the account
afterward given by one of her stokers, Alfred Dingle: "My pigeon," he
said, "was in the boiler-room of the _Vindictive_, which left with the
other craft at two o'clock on Tuesday afternoon. We were in charge of
Chief Artificer-Engineer Campbell, who was formerly a merchant-service
engineer and must have been specially selected for the job. He is a
splendid fellow. At the start he told us what we were in for, and that
before we had finished we should have to feed the fires like mad.
'This ship was built at Chatham twenty years ago,' he said, 'and her
speed is 19 knots, but if you don't get 21 knots out of her when it is
wanted, well--it's up to you to do it anyway.' We cheered, and he told
us, when we got the order, to get at it for all we were worth and take
no notice of anybody. We were all strong fellows, the whole thirteen
of us.... The _Vindictive_ was got to Zeebrugge; it was just before
midnight when we got alongside the Mole. We had gas-masks on then, and
were stoking furiously all the time, with the artificer-engineer
backing us up, and joking and keeping us in the best of spirits. {241}
Nobody could have been down-hearted while he was there. There is no
need to say it was awful; you know something from the accounts in the
papers, although no written accounts could make you understand what it
was really like.... Well, there we were, bump, bump, bump against the
Mole for I don't know how long, and all the time shells shrieking and
crashing, rockets going up, and a din that was too awful for words,
added to which were the cries and shrieks of wounded officers and
men.... Several times Captain Carpenter came below and told us how
things were going on. That was splendid of him, I think. He was full
of enthusiasm, and cheered us up wonderfully. He was the same with the
seamen and men on deck.... I can't help admiring the Marines. They
were a splendid lot of chaps, most of them seasoned men, whilst the
bluejackets (who were just as good) were generally quite young men.
The Marines were bursting to get at the fight and were chafing under
the delay all the time.... While we were alongside I was stoking and
took off my gas-mask, as it was so much in the way. It was a silly
thing to do, but I couldn't get on with the work with it on. Suddenly
I smelt gas. I don't know whether it came from an ordinary shell, but
I knew it was not from the smoke-screen, and you ought to have seen me
nip round for the helmet. I forgot where I put it for the moment, and
there was I running round with my hand clapped on my mouth till I found
it. In the boiler-room our exciting time was after the worst was over
on shore. All of a sudden the telegraph rang down, 'Full speed {242}
ahead,' and then there was a commotion. The artificer-engineer
shouted, 'Now for it; don't forget what you have to do--21 knots, if
she never does it again.' In a minute or two the engines were going
full pelt. Somebody came down and said we were still hitched on to the
Mole, but Campbell said he didn't care if we towed the Mole back with
us; nothing was going to stop him. As a matter of fact, we pulled away
great chunks of the masonry with the grappling irons, and brought some
of it back with us. Eventually we got clear of the Mole, and there was
terrific firing up above. Mr. Campbell was urging us on all the time,
and we were shoving in the coal like madmen. We were all singing. One
of the chaps started with, 'I want to go home,' and this eventually
developed into a verse, and I don't think we stopped singing it for
three and a half hours--pretty nearly all the time we were coming back.
In the other parts of the ship there wasn't much singing, for all the
killed and wounded men we could get hold of had been brought on board,
and were being attended to by the doctors and sick bay men. I don't
know if we did the 21 knots, but we got jolly near it, and everybody
worked like a Trojan, and was quite exhausted when it was all over.
When we were off Dover the Engineer-Commander came down into the
boiler-room and asked Artificer-Engineer Campbell, 'What have you got
to say about your men?' He replied, 'I'm not going to say anything for
them or anything against them, but if I was going to hell to-morrow
night I would have the same men with me.'"
Not until the Mole had been cleared of every man {243} that could
possibly be removed did the _Vindictive_ break away, turning in a
half-circle and belching flames from every pore of her broken funnels.
That was perhaps her worst moment, for now she was exposed to every
angry and awakened battery; her lower decks were already a shambles;
and many of her navigating staff were killed or helpless. But her luck
held; the enemy's shells fell short; and soon she was comparatively
safe in the undispersed smoke-trails, with the glorious consciousness
that she had indeed earned the admiral's "Well done, _Vindictive_."
Six Victoria Crosses were allotted to those participating, of whom
there was scarcely one that had not doubly earned the honour; and four
of these were handed over to be assigned as the officers and men
themselves decided. Acting Captain (soon to be confirmed as Captain)
A. F. B. Carpenter, Sergeant Finch of the _Vindictive's_ fighting-top,
Captain Barnford of the Royal Marines, and Able Seaman Albert E.
McKenzie were thus chosen; while Lieutenants Percy Dean and R. D.
Sandford were also awarded the same honour, Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes
being made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.
Meanwhile at Ostend an equal gallantry had unluckily failed to succeed,
two main factors, at the last moment, contributing to baffle the
block-ships. The chief of these was the shifting by the enemy, three
days before the attack, of the Stroom Bank Buoy--this bank being one of
a series that had to be negotiated before entering the harbour; and the
other being a change of wind to the south-southwest, blowing back the
smoke-screens and exposing the {244} attack. Here, owing to the
confusion caused by the displaced buoy, this change of wind had far
more serious results, the calcium flares that had been lit by the
coastal motor-boats, behind the smoke-screens, being extinguished by
the enemy's gunfire; while the _Sirius_, repeatedly hit, was soon in a
sinking condition. Having taken a line by the Stroom Bank Buoy--now
more than 2,000 yards east of its former position--both the _Sirius_
and _Brilliant_ went ashore, where there was no alternative but to sink
them, their crews being rescued in motor-launches by Lieutenants Hoare
and Bourke.
With the attack on Zeebrugge so triumphant a success, however, it was
the unanimous opinion of all concerned that the failure at Ostend could
not be allowed to stand; and, almost before she had been berthed beside
Dover Pier, a new task was found for the _Vindictive_. She had done
well. She had done very well. But the Dover Patrol had an exigent
standard. To the thoughtful eye, what more convenient vessel for a
second operation at Ostend? Nor were there any lack of volunteers, all
the officers of the _Sirius_ and _Brilliant_ again coming forward;
while Engineer Lieutenant-Commander Bury of the _Vindictive_, with four
of the engine-room artificers, H. Cavanagh, N. Carroll, A. Thomas, and
H. Harris, all pressed their claims upon Admiral Keyes, in view of
their special knowledge, to remain with the vessel.
Finally it was decided that Commander Godsal, who had been in charge of
the _Brilliant_, should, for the further attempt, command the
_Vindictive_, a second block-ship, the _Sappho_, being placed in charge
{245} of Lieutenant-Commander Hardy, who had previously commanded the
_Sirius_. As before also, Commander Hamilton Benn was given the charge
of the motor-launches, Lieutenant E. C. Harrison being entrusted with
the coastal motor-boats; while the whole operation, though Sir Roger
Keyes was again to be present in the destroyer _Warwick_, was once more
placed in the able hands of Commodore Hubert Lynes.
That the Germans would on this occasion be amply prepared was, of
course, humanly certain; and aerial observation soon revealed that they
had already taken fresh precautions. The Stroom Bank Buoy had been
removed altogether, leaving no guiding marks of any sort, while the
piers had been cut in various places to limit the activities of
possible landing-parties. It was quite clear, therefore, that to
attempt a second surprise a change of plan would be necessary; and it
was decided to attack on the first suitable night without the previous
lengthy bombardment. Not until the _Vindictive_ was close to her
objective were the monitors at sea to open fire, the ends of the two
piers having first been torpedoed by coastal motor-boats under cover of
a smoke-screen. That having been accomplished, the airmen overhead
were to drop star-shells and begin releasing their bombs, while the
heavy guns of the Flanders shore batteries were to open simultaneously
from the land. Every possible misadventure was foreseen and provided
for as well as all conceivable changes of wind; and each stage of the
operation was timed with the exactitude of an express train's journey
on a main line. It was well that it was so; for, as before, just {246}
at the critical moment, the conditions changed, and, for twenty minutes
or more, in spite of everything, the adventure trembled on the brink of
failure.
Timed to reach Ostend in the early hours, it was on the night of May
9th that the two block-ships set out, the weather then promising, as it
had promised on April 22d, all that was required in the way of support.
It was a moonless night with a still sea and a faint wind blowing from
the right quarter, all of them conspiring to help the little craft that
were already racing ahead upon their various tasks. That some enemy
destroyers were out was believed to be probable; but, in the event,
only one was encountered, this being driven off by Lieutenant Wellman
in a little coastal motor-boat armed with a Lewis machine-gun.
Unhappily, the _Sappho_, owing to boiler trouble, was unable to
maintain her speed; and, to the bitter disappointment of all on board,
was forced to come to anchor twelve miles from Ostend. For the rest,
however, all went well; there were as yet no signs of enemy suspicion;
and, behind their advanced columns of lazily rolling smoke, the
destroyers and motor-boats were soon at work. One lay a light-buoy to
guide the _Vindictive_; another hung a flare in the rigging of the
wrecked _Sirius_; while a third lit a calcium flare in the rightful
position of the Stroom Bank Buoy. Four minutes before the
_Vindictive_, having picked up the life-buoy, reached this last,
another couple of motor-boats--one commanded by Lieutenant Darrel Reid
and the other by Lieutenant A. L. Poland--made a dash for the two
pier-heads and successfully torpedoed them.
{247}
Up to this moment the enemy had been silent; but now, as from sea and
land the heavy guns opened upon him, his batteries suddenly awoke and
filled the air with the screaming and explosions of his shells. To
these were added the peculiar dull intonations of the bombs dropped on
him from above; while his searchlights hurriedly sprang to attention,
and star-shell after star-shell broke into light. From the attackers'
point of view nothing could have happened more fortunately; but now, by
one of those sea-whims that nothing could have foretold, a sudden fog
descended upon the scene and threatened to baulk the whole plan. As
though they had been blinded by some perverse agent, the destroyers and
motor-boats found themselves in darkness, hidden from each other, as
they were hidden from the _Vindictive_, and with their flares and
searchlights unavailing.
Striving to keep in touch by means of their syrens, they did their best
to maintain their stations, but meanwhile the _Vindictive_, left
without guides, could only grope about in search of the entrance. The
feelings of Commander Godsal, with the failure of the _Sirius_ and
_Brilliant_ still fresh in his mind, can well be imagined; and, as the
minutes passed by, each with its quota of unredeemable opportunity, it
may well have seemed to him that the fates had made up their minds that
he was not to be the man to block Ostend.
So twenty minutes passed, and then, with a gesture as apparently
whimsical as the first, the fog abruptly lifted and revealed the
entrance between the two piers just in front of him. At the same
moment Acting Lieutenant G. L. Cockburn, with his attendant {248}
motor-boats, darted ahead, and marked it with a flare; and the
_Vindictive_, steaming across this, found herself safe in the desired
channel. That is scarcely the right word, perhaps, for now, within
less than three weeks, she had again become the target of scores of the
enemy's guns. Hit every few seconds, a shell destroyed her
after-control, killing Sub-Lieutenant MacLachlan and all its occupants;
while every exposed position on the deck was swept, as from a hose,
with machine-gun bullets.
Commander Godsal, therefore, ordered his officers into the
conning-tower, leaving it himself, however, when 200 yards up the
channel, to be killed by a shell just as the _Vindictive_ was beginning
to swing herself into position. It was this same shell that struck the
conning-tower, stunning Lieutenant Sir John Alleyne, who was inside,
Lieutenant V. A. C. Crutchley taking command of the vessel on getting
no reply from his commander. Having swung her round to an angle of
between thirty and forty degrees, however, it became impossible to move
her further, and Lieutenant Crutchley ordered the ship to be abandoned,
he himself and Lieutenant-Commander Bury then blowing the charges that
were to sink her.
Meanwhile the crew, many of whom were wounded, were being disembarked
into a motor-launch, most gallantly laid alongside by Lieutenant G. H.
Drummond. This officer, who remained on the bridge till the last man
had been taken off, had already been wounded in three places, and had
lost an officer and a man of his crew. The last to leave the
_Vindictive_ was Lieutenant Crutchley after searching in every {249}
quarter with an electric torch; and, when Lieutenant Drummond, having
backed his launch away, collapsed and fainted from his wounds, he took
charge of the little vessel which was already seriously damaged.
Crowded with wounded, and with her fore part flooded, it was only by
continual baling with buckets, and by shifting as many men aft as
possible, that he was able to keep her afloat, finally bringing her
alongside the destroyer _Warwick_ in a sinking condition.
An even narrower escape was that of Lieutenant Alleyne, whom we have
last seen lying unconscious in the conning-tower, but who was presently
found there by Petty-Officer Reed, who carried him aft under the
heaviest fire. Before he could be got overboard, Lieutenant Alleyne
was badly hit, and fell into the water, presumably lost. Following
Lieutenant Drummond, however, Lieutenant Bourke had come into the
harbour with a second motor-launch; and, when Lieutenant Drummond
backed away, Lieutenant Bourke had come alongside. Finding the
_Vindictive_ empty, he too was about to back out when he heard cries
from the water, and found Lieutenant Alleyne, with two other men, all
of them badly wounded, clinging to an upturned skiff. Under the
bitterest fire--his little motor-launch was hit in fifty-five places,
and once by a 4-inch shell--Lieutenant Bourke succeeded in rescuing
them and bringing his launch out into the open again, where he
presently sighted one of the bombarding monitors, by whom he was at
last taken in tow. For the parts which they played on this occasion,
Lieutenants Crutchley, Drummond, and Bourke each received the Victoria
Cross.
{250}
Such was the conclusion, just as day was breaking, of three unique
operations, in that almost every branch of modern science had been laid
under contribution for their carrying out. The chemist, the engineer,
the pyrotechnician--each had been indispensable to the final success,
and yet in no undertakings of the naval campaign had the human factor
more palpably triumphed.
Drawn from the Grand Fleet, with Admiral Beatty's warm support, from
the forces at Harwick and the Dover Patrol, from the three Home Depots,
the Royal Marine Light Infantry, and the Royal Marine Artillery, the
volunteers had also included representatives of the Australian and
French navies; while the Admiralty experimental stations at Stratford
and Dover had contributed eager participants. As to the material
results, in the case of Zeebrugge's these alone had been well worth
attaining. More than a score of torpedo-craft and a dozen submarines
were at once, and for many days afterward, immobilized; while the
enemy's naval activities, dependent on this port, remained seriously
hampered till the end of the war. As regarded Ostend, while the
material results were not very great, this was also the less important
harbour, and the moral effect of the two attacks was both immediate and
profound. Up to the very eve, indeed, of the great retirement, so
nervous of future operations did the enemy remain, that two of his
divisions were pinned to the coast in view of possible developments,
while money and material were poured like water into the further
strengthening of its defences.
{251}