Norwich bulletin., 1918-11-30
STORIES OF THE WAR
The Zeehrugas AffalF.


 Captain Alfred F. B. Carpenter of the British Navy, who was the com- mander of the expedition led by the warship Vindictive to Zeebrugge has arrived here from England to tell the American public some things about the fighting on the sea during the great war. He has fifty colored slides to illustrate his story of bottling up the U-boats which in the Admiralty records will go down to history as '[Fhe Zeebrugge Affair
 Captain Carpenter is only 37 years old. which is at least four years under the average for officers of his rank. height, clean shaVen with fair hair 1 Of slight build, just above average and clear, dark blue eyes, the Captain resembles an Episcopal minister rather than a dashing sailor. and is modesty personifed when asked to speak about himself It was through ] the efforts of Commander Arthur T ] Blaekwoed, the British assistant Naval Attaehe, that Captain Carpenter gave some details of what the men tn the 1 expedition had gone through during the sixty eight minutes they were in Zeebrugge harbor-
 ] "The first thing I wish to say" thf Captain remarked Ifs that this was not what you call a stunt, done on the spur of the moment to draw 2 l little free advertising for the British
 Navy. On the contrary, it was the result of a carefully laid plan te block the canal at 2eebrugge and stoI the German submarines coming doWI to the sea from Bruges.
 Five months were spent in work ing out the details, fitting out the Va rious ships that were to take part iT the attack and intensive training o the men who volunteered from th' Grand Fleet chiefly. They were al picked men, and well aware that tn chances of returning alive from Zee brugge were slim indeed.
 When everything was ready ant
 the plan worked out to the minutes
 to put back fifteen miles out bscaus
 detail the expedition started, and hal
 the wind had changed and it was i'm possiblee to use the smoke boats
 Then we tried a second time, and tn
 wind blew so hard that it kicked u
 a rough sea, which was a bit too mucl
 for the small craft. and so we pu
 back a second time.
 At last a chance offered on the aft 1 ernoon of April 22 and the eXpeditio
 nut to sea, headed for Zeebrugge. ] was not ideal weather for the job, a the horizon was perfectly clear, bu
 every one had got fed up with tn , two previous attempts that we de cided to go ahead and risk it. Thre hours of the 100-nile passage acros the North Sea were made in dayligh ; and then came a moonless pitch dar night. which was intensified by th 2 blacks sent forth from the smok 2 boats.
 We were due to reach the Mole z . Zeebrugge at midnight, and arrive es one minute late. The other boats wel i! barely two minutes behind the sched 2 ule time. Success of the enterpris ! did not depend upon any one unit, bI ' on the initiative and resource of ' very large number of craft. TT
 Zeebrugge Mole was protected vii
 heavy gun battery which might bloc
 ships getting into the harbor. so ' decided to knock them out before ol
 ships arrived.
 "This was accomplished by storn ing the Mole with the marines ar
 biuejackets and actually eapturir T the guns, diyerting them from Il |