Zeebrugge 1918 The Great Raid (Britain At War Special).pdf

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1918
The Greatest Raid
Brought to you by
ZEEBRUGGE
£6.99
The U-boat Menace; The Flanders Flotilla; Planning and
Preparation; Passage to Zeebrugge; Storming the Mole;
HMS Vindictive; Royal Navy Submarine Operations;
The Blockships; the RAF at Zeebrugge; Ostend Raids;
Victoria Cross Gallantry; The King’s Visit
The Real Story of
Operation Dynamo
A
SPECIAL
The operation to save the British
Expeditionary Force from destruction,
as Hitler’s panzer divisions raced to
the Channel coast, was on a scale
unprecedented in history of warfare.
The story of the great evacuation is told,
day-by-day, in this 100-page special
publication, in the words of those
soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought
and survived those dramatic nine days
in the summer of 1940.
BLITZKRIEG
The full story of the campaign from the
German invasion of France to the last ship
to leave Dunkirk.
THE LITTLE SHIPS
The accounts of the volunteers who risked
everything to sail their private yachts across
the Channel.
DEATH FROM THE SKIES
Graphic details of the sinking of warships,
ferry boats and pleasure craft by the
Luftwaffe.
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The Victoria Cross action awarded to a
young officer whose company stubbornly
held the Germans at bay.
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Zeebrugge
1918
T
The Greatest Raid
he amphibious assault upon the German-held Belgian port of Zeebrugge by the Royal
Navy on 23 April 1918 was not a resounding success, despite considerable efforts in
its preparation and heavy casualties in its execution. Though the movements of the
German submarines using Zeebrugge as a base for their attacks upon Allied shipping
were temporarily restricted, the raid had a negligible effect on the outcome of the First World
War. But it was a daring and bold strike which raised the flagging, war-weary morale of the British
nation. Coupled with the corresponding attack upon Ostend on 9 May which partially blocked the
harbour entrance, it demonstrated to the enemy that nowhere was safe from the long reach of the
Royal Navy. Britannia still ruled the waves.
The Zeebrugge and Ostend raids resulted in a wide distribution of awards, including eight
Victoria Crosses, twenty-one Distinguished Service Orders, thirty-one Distinguished Service
Crosses, sixteen Conspicuous Gallantry Medals and 149 Distinguished Service Medals. This was
a remarkable haul for the comparatively small number of men directly involved in the fighting in
Zeebrugge, but it signified the intensity of the battle in the close confines of the harbour.
The assault on Zeebrugge exemplified the detailed planning so typical of the Senior Service
and the unflinching courage of its officers and men. It is through the words of those men that
we can relive the horror and the drama of the desperate battle in the dark, as they manoeuvred
their ships into point-blank artillery fire, and stumbled ashore to engage the enemy in a vicious
close-quarter struggle.
There is no doubt, this was the greatest raid.
Editor:
John Grehan
Design:
Dan Jarman
Editorial Consultant:
Paul Kendall (www.paul-kendall.co.uk)
Image Consultant:
Robert Mitchell
Executive Chairman:
Richard Cox
Managing Director/Publisher:
Adrian Cox
Commercial Director:
Ann Saundry
Production Manager:
Janet Watkins
Marketing Manager:
Martin Steele
Contacts
Key Publishing Ltd
PO Box 100, Stamford
Lincolnshire, PE9 1XQ
E-mail: enquiries@keypublishing.com
www.keypublishing.com
WELCOME
Distribution:
Seymour Distribution Ltd.
Telephone: 020 7429400
Printed by
Warners (Midlands) Plc, Bourne, Lincolnshire.
The entire contents of this special edition is copyright ©
2018. No part of it may be reproduced in any form or stored
in any form of retrieval system without the prior permission
of the publisher.
John Grehan
Editor
During an official visit to the former
battlefields of the Western Front, King George
V observes the wrecks of the blockships
Intrepid
and
Iphigenia
at Zeebrugge,
9 December 1918.
(Paul Kendall Collection)
w
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
The editorial team would like to thank
Paul Kendall (www.paul-kendall.co.uk)
for allowing access to his extensive archive
relating to the Zeebrugge and Ostend
raids, both in terms of primary source
material and images; Robert Mitchell
for his unstinting help on the pictures;
Zeebrugge councillor Jean-Marie De
Planke for his informative tour of the
Zeebrugge sites; and Kapitein Joris Praet,
Havenkapitein-Commandant Zeebrugge,
for guiding us around the port and sharing
his knowledge of its involvement in
the St George’s Day raid.
ZEEBRUGGE 1918
3
ZEEBRUGGE 1918
CONTENTS
Contents
20
DEATH OR GLORY BOYS
If the attack upon Zeebrugge stood any
chance of success, every element of
the raid had to be rehearsed time and
time again. It was not just success, but
survival, that depended on how well each
man would perform.
Once the fitting up of ships and training
of crews was completed, they had to
be assembled somewhere where they
could wait until conditions were deemed
most suitable – somewhere hidden from
the world.
6
THE FLANDERS FLOTILLA
Throughout the war, German vessels
had posed a threat to Allied shipping in
home waters. By 1917, if Britain was not
to be starved into surrender, something
had to be done. What was envisaged
was the most daring raid of the First
World War.
It was absolutely vital that the enemy
learnt nothing of the proposed operation
and extraordinary measures were
undertaken to keep all the plans and
preparations secret. Even the men who
would form the crews and landing
parties were told nothing more than
it would be a secret mission with little
chance of survival, yet still officers and
men of the Royal Navy volunteered to
take part in the greatest raid.
36
TWISTING THE
DRAGON’S TAIL
At last the weather was favourable and
the raiding force finally set off across the
North Sea. The date for the attack was
23 April – St George’s Day.
Amid a torrent of shot and shell the
assault ships raced through the smoke
screen to land the storming parties on
the Zeebrugge Mole.
12
A SECRET MISSION
26
THE WAITING GAME
42
DASHING INTO DANGER
48
SHAKING HEAVEN
AND EARTH
32
FAILURE AND FRUSTRATION
Time and time again the operations
against Zeebrugge and Ostend
were cancelled due to adverse
weather conditions.
It was next the turn of the submarines to
rush as fast as possible round the outside
of the Mole and crash into the viaduct.
w
The Mole and harbour at Zeebrugge pictured at the end of the war, after the raid on St George’s Day 1918.
(Historic Military Press)
4
ZEEBRUGGE 1918
CONTENTS
ZEEBRUGGE 1918
54
‘OVER YOU GO, BOYS’
HMS
Vindictive
at Dover showing ‘her battle scars’
after the raid on 23 April 1918.
(Paul Kendall Collection)
w
With HMS
Vindictive
pushed against
the Mole, the landing parties swarmed
ashore – but the old cruiser had been
berthed in the wrong position.
64
BLOCKING THE
BRUGE CANAL
As the battle raged on ship and shore,
Thetis, Intrepid
and
Iphigenia
steamed
directly into Zeebrugge Harbour towards
the entrance of the Bruges Canal to
undertake the most important part of
the operation.
The blockships had been sunk across the
entrance to the Bruges Canal, and much
damage had been done to the port and
its facilities. It was time to withdraw. But
every German soldier and sailor was
at his post and determined not to let a
single one of the raiders escape.
72
OUR TASK DONE
82
DECEPTION AND
DISASTER
One end of the Bruges Canal had been
blocked at Zeebrugge. The next part of
the operation was to cut the Flanders
Flotilla’s access to the sea at Ostend.
The Zeebrugge and Ostend raids on St
George’s Day were celebrated as daring
and bold enterprises, but as far as the
Navy was concerned, the job was far
from done.
During an official trip to the
battlefields of the Western Front after
the Armistice, the King toured the
Zeebrugge battlefield.
92
REMEMBERING THE
SACRIFICE
85
TO TRY AND TRY AGAIN
79
THE RAF AT ZEEBRUGGE
AND OSTEND
Though rarely mentioned, the RAF
made a significant contribution to both
raids, particularly the second attack
upon Ostend.
A total of 176 men lost their lives at
Zeebrugge, with 412 wounded and
forty-nine missing (though numbers
vary slightly between sources), whilst a
further forty-seven casualties occurred
in the first Ostend raid. The desire to
remember their gallantry, and to honour
the survivors, led a number of acts of
remembrance and commemoration.
To what extent the raids upon Zeebrugge
and Ostend succeeded in blocking the
Bruges Canal remains unclear in the face
of conflicting evidence. But there can
be no question that the attacks boosted
flagging British morale.
96
THE FINEST FEAT OF ARMS
88
THE KING’S VISIT
ZEEBRUGGE 1918
5

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