Bisbee daily review., 1918-04-24
DARING RAID BY
 BRITISH NAVAL FORCES BLOCK BELGIAN PORTS
Six Old Cruisers Filled with Concrete Sunk or Blown Up at Entrance to Ostend and Zeebrugge.
CRv Review Leased wIrel


 LONDON. April 23.-Sir Eric Geddes. first lord of the admiralty in supplementing the admiralty report on last nights raj dagainst Zeebrusse and Ostend. said giving the house of commons such information as had come to hand of this extremely gal lant and hazardous raid"; "I ask the members to appreciate that most of the officers and men from whom we have got to get the infor. nation have been fighting the greater part Of the night and that some Of them are not yet in
 ''The raid was undertaken under command of Vice Admiral Roger Reyes. commanding at Dover French destroyers cOOperated with the Brit ish forces. Six obsolete cruisers. all from 20 to 90 years old. took part in the attack
 old cruisers Sunk 'They were the Brilliants Sirius. IDhigenia. Intrepid. Thetis and Vim dictive
 "The first five of these were filed with concrete and were to be sunk in the channel and entrenches to the two ports. if this could possibly be managed.
 The Vindictive working with two ferry boats. carried stOrming and demolition parties to storm the head of the mole which runs out from Zee brugge. The Vindictive was specially fitted for landing storming parties and was armed specially for the purpose with flame thrOwers. stoke mortars and that sort of thing.
 "The men employed on tfe block ships and in the stOrmins and demol- ition parties on the Vindictive were blueiackets and marines picked from large number of volunteers from the grand fleet and navy and marine depots There was great competition for the undertaking and we could only use a very small proportion of those who volunteered.
 Instigator Is Killed There were light covering forces belonging to The Dover command and Harwich forces under Admiral Tyr whit covering the operation in the north A force of monitors. together with a large number of very small motor boats took part in the opera ton which was particularly intricate and had to he worked to time table and involved delicate navigation 0n a hostile coast without lights and large ly under unknown navigatiOnal eondi- tions developed since the war, with the added danger of mine fields T should like to mention that the officer who developed the operation was killed.
 The high development of scien- tific use of fog or smoke was one of the essentials to success. lt was more fog than smoke. which. combined with certain wind conditions. was essential to the success Of the operation. sO as to protect the operation from bat teries which might have ianked it.
 Submarines Run Ashore
 The plan was. after an intense bOmbardment of Zeebrugge by the monitors. the Vindictive. with auxil- aries was to run alongside the mole and attack it with gun fire as they approached Storming and demolition parties were to be landed. Meantime. three block ships. assisted by motor boats were to make for the entrance of the canal run aground and be blown up. The old and valueless sub marines. filled with explosives. were to run against the pile work connect ing the masonry withthe shore, in order to cut of the mole from the shore.
 At Ostend the operation was more simple but the difficulties were con siderably increased by mist. rain s' low visibility an dthe consequent ab- sence Of aerial cooperation.
 The results thus far are known to be that two block ships were run