The Twin City star., 1918-10-05
Zeebrugge Raid Told
By Commanding Officer
Superhman Work in Face Of Wwnd Of Fire and Heroic Attack
Of Storming Party Graphically Described-Bock Ships
Still in Position Sealing the NavigabIe Channel
Into Canas-Keyes in Charge. .....

q.
London.-An Official interview with
one of the commanding officers of the
Zeebrugge raid gives for the first
time some idea of, the tremendous, in
tricate schemes that must be devised
for modern naval operations, such as
bottling up the Zeebrugge submarine
base.
While the name of the officer who
gave the interview may not be used,
for obvious reasons, the study was
arranged with the permission of the
first sea lord. Sir Rosslyn Wemyss'
and through the courtesy Of Sir Doug
las Brownrigg, chief naval censor.
The spectacular story of the raid; the
almost superhuman work done in the
face of whirlwind of fire, and the
heroic attack of the stOrming party
scrambling over the Mole We're all
placed by the British officer as mere
incidentals in the tremendous assault
that was determined upon.
"The problem that lay before u.s."
he said, "was far bigger and greater
than the landing on the Mole, or any
mere spectacular features. 1t was
vastly different from. merely sending
one or more ships into harbor pro-
tected by shore batteries, because the
channel to be blocked was narrow,
end ship or ships must be placed
carefully to make the effort success
full. Moreover, the waters through
which the vessels must dash were un-
der the protection of heavy guns
which commanded the sea practically
for Is miles out from the coast.
Dash Under Cover.
''This meant that the vessels, with
the block ships, must arrange their
dash under cover for Is miles. And
then, having run the coast batteries,
they must run close to a heavy bat
terry on the Mole, located practically a
mile out in the harbor. and which
could fire practically point blank at
the vessels. And then, Of course, also
under cover of the near shore bat
teries Of the Mole and the heavier
coast batteries, making another run
of Is miles. The German mine fields
also had to be encountered.
"Various elements had to be taken
into consideration. Naturally the
Dash must be made at high tide.
There was only one way in which we
could hope to protect the vessels If
the raid were made by daylight, and
that was a smoke screen. But air
Llanes, scouting above, would lay a
fleet open to observation and to prac-
tically the same attack by indirect fire
as on land. So the dash had to be
made at night, and on such a night
rs the tide would be high at about
midnight, for the ships must go in,
do their destruction, and then come
out again before the shore batteries
would have the daylight to help them.
"There were something like $50
guns on the shore commanding the 10
mile radius. If these discovered the
vessels none of the ships could have
lived through the falling shells. AS
the batteries ALL had> the use of
searchlights and star shells it became
Necessary to take measures to pre-
vent the ships being seen by any
method of illumination until the last
moment. That necessitated the use
Of smoke screens. A smoke screen is
-ery little use unless it approaches
with you; thus you must always have
The wind blowing in your direction Of
advance. In our case it was from the
north. The use of any. craft to make
smoke would not be Of much avail
unless they could approach the coast
making smoke to the last minute.
This necessitated light draft vessels,
and they in turn required calm
| weather.
Details to Be Worked Out.
$50 the conditions necessary de-
manded high water occurring at a
larticular period of the night, wind
blowing directly into the harbor, calm
weather and, Of course, no fog, for
the latter would prevent the blocking
ships from finding the coast.
"Having attained these, there still
were other matters to be worked out.
For the blocking ships to IND their
destination 1t was quite obvious that
they must be able to see for certain
distance, say for mile or two at
| least. And this means that the mo-
ment the entrance to. the canal was
in the same area Of clear atmosphere
with the blocking ships, namely, dur
ing the final run in, the shore bat
] teries on the coast line also would be
| IN the clear weather and able to con
centrate on the blocking ships, much
| to their detriment.
"This applied both to Zeebrugge
and Ostend, where the German bat
teries are on the actual coast line
But at Zeebrugge there was the ad
ditional obstruction which is absent
| ut Ostend-the Mole.
"The Mole at Zeebrugge extends
rather more than three-quarters Of {
mile from the entrance of the canal
and the outer end of the Mole hat
tA-l l.