Norwich bulletin., 1918-11-30

block ships asthey came ln. When the Mole was still 300 yards away, the enemy sighted us and opened fire
 Immediately at point blank range
 Most of his guns were four inch. I | think. We passed the lass gun fifty
 yards off, and the shooting was pretty hot just then.
 The ViRdietfve was hit 1,Geo times
 ln the first four minutes, out of which
 few were heavy shells which ex- | ploded inside. and the remainder i mostly shrapneI and small shells As i soon as we got close alongside, the wall sheltered the ship and the Ger
 man gunners could only hit the upper
 works of the Vindictive, and did no l serious harm to her
 Fin the meantime the Marines were firing from the top at the Huns on i the Mole and using their Lewis guns l with deadly effect. The landing on the Mole was made from the Vindic- ! tive by means of bridges called i 'brows' let down by pulleys, which 1 was a bit difficult on account of the ] strong current.
 %The Thetis then came right into the harbor and sunk herself in the en- trance to the BFuges Canal, effective ivy bottling up the submarines. She was followed by the the Intrepid and the tphigenia which were sunk in the
 canal itself and blocked it absolutely ! The small craft then came up and took the crews off the three snnker vessels under a heavy fire. Practically none of them was left behind
 By this time the wind had shifted
 and blown the smoke away so that
 the Huns could see us clearly anC
 ', could muster afoat and ashore.
 Just then there was 8 terrific eX
 plesion nearby and the shore nd O . the Mole wGsblown clean away Witl
 q number of Huns, who were comins to reinforce their mates fighting ou men at the further end.
 "We knew at once that the ol,
 British submarine filled with higl | explosives under command of Lieut. enant Sandford, had succeeded in get ting under the yiaduet and bloRini herself up. Her crew escaped in :. small dingy.
 Tn the meantime the two old Liv ,. eFpool ferFyboats, Iris and Daffeai , had come in and joined in the attack , The Iris had made fact to the Mol t and the Daffodil had to push tn
 Findietive to keep her in to the va, oo LAS&@ lliS OAAS CI4dHC6 AQF ueF HRnI ing men to get into it was over ou | decks, which they did.
 s 'The Iris was badly hit and ha t q number of casualties and the Yin e tdietive had seventy officers and me : killed and 200 more wounded. Ou e ship was not seriously hit after nearl s an hours fighting. although 2,aoo shot j. had struck her sides and riddled thel k like a sieve.
 e "The hut in which I stood fol e ward of the bridge had 200 holes j
 1t. l was struck in the left shculdt t by piece of shrapneI, but 1t was nt d serious. Our men were all youn e ayerag gipg 23 years, but they behave : splendidly. [ shall never foFg' e them.
 1t 'HThe crew of the submarine ha a some excitement before they touche e her off. as the Huns opened fire Il close range and might have turned Il k trickop our chaps, if they had n :. been too excited to aim properly. TT IF decks of the Iris, Vindictive, and oth,
 vessels were covered with u l. wounded and dead and the majoril d of the marines in the fighting toi g were shot down by the guns of u le er1pan destroyers, who lost heayi