Tombstone epitaph., 1918-06-09
Hail of Fir4 Sent Ship to the Bottom of 0stend
 Harbor.
SURPRISE lS WELL PLANNED
Attack Comes From Sea, Land and Air Before Germans Awake-vin- dietive, Screened by Smoke From Launches. PIods si.
 ientiy to its Goal.

ientiy to its Goal. The British admiralty issued the following graphic story of the recent raid on Ostend. which resulted in blockading nearly all the entrance to the U-boat base by the sinking of the old cruiser Vindictive across the chan nel:
 ''The Sirius lies in the surf some g. 900 yards east of the entrance to Os- tend harbor. which she failed so gall lantly to block. and when. In the early hours of the morning. the vindictive groped her way through the smoke was as though the old fighting ship awoke and looked on.
 "A coastal motor boat had visited her and hung a flare in her stack and rusty rigging. and that eye of unsteady fire. paling in the blaze of star shells. or reckoning through the drift of smoke. watched the whole great enter prise from the moment when 1t hung in doubt to its ultimate success.
 Depended on Surprise Attack.
 ''The planning and execution of that success had been intrusted by Vice Admiral Sir Robert Reyes to Commo- dore Hubert Lynes. who directed the previous attempt to block the harbor with the Sirius and Brilliant. Upon that occasion a combination of unfore- seen and unforeseeable conditions had fought against him.
 Upon this. the main problem was to obtain the effect of a surprise at- tack upon an enemy who was clearly, from his ascertained dispositions. ex- pecting him. The Sirius and Brilliant had been baff1ed by the displacement of the Stroom bank buoy. which marks the channel to the harbor entrance. But since then aerial reconnaissance had established that the Germans had removed the buoy altogether and that there now were no guiding marks of any kind.
 They also had cut gaps In the piers as a precaution against a landing. and further, when toward midnight Thurs day. the ships moved from their an- chorage. 1t was known that some nine German destroyers were out and were at large upon the coast.
 Night Nearly Mindless.
 ''The solution of the problem Is best indicated by the chronicle of events. It was night that promised well for the enterprise-nearly windless-and what little breeze stirred came a point or so west of north. The sky was lead blue, faintly star-dotted. with no moon, and 6 still sea for small craft, motor launches and coastal motor boats. whose work was done close inshore.
 From the destroyer which served the commodore for a flagship the re- mainder of the force were visible only as silhouettes of blackness.
 "From Dunkirk a sudden brief fur ry of gunfire announced that German airplanes were about. They actually were on the way to visit Calais, and over the invisible coast of Flanders the summer lightning of restless artillery rose and fell monotonously.
 "There's the vindictiver The muf- fled seamen and marines standing by the torpedo tubes and guns turned at that name to gaze at the great black ship seen mistfly through the screen ing smoke from the destroyers' fun nels. plodding silently to her goal and end.
 "She receded into the night astern as a destroyer raced to lay a light buoy that was to he her guide. and those on board saw her no more. She passed thence into the hands of the small craft whose mission was to guide her. light her. and hide her in the clouds of . smoke screen.
 There was no preliminary bom- bardment of the harbor and batteries. as before the previous attempt. That was to be the first element in the sur prise. A timetable had been laid down for every stage of the operation, and the staff work beforehand even included precise orders for laying the smoke barrage. with plans calculated for every direction of the wind.
 Gait Aiways Solemn.
 Monitors anchored in firing posi- uOnS Idf BedWurO aWdlteu tne S1&nal. The great sea batteries of the Royal Marine artillery in Flanders, among the largest guns that were ever placed on land mountings. stood by likewise to neutralixe the bigger German artil- lery along the coast. and the airmen who were to collaborate with an aeri- al bombardment of the town waited somewhere in the darkness overhead. Destroyers patrolled to seaward of the small craft.
 '~The vindlctive. always at that solemn gait of hers, found the flag ships light buoy and bore up for where . coastal motor boat command | ed by Lieut.. William R. Slayter was waiting by . calcium flare upon the old 1 position of the Stroom bank buoy.
 -Four minutes before 1t arrived | there and fifteen minutes only before | 1t was due at the harbor mouth, the | signal for the guns to open was given. Two motorboats. under command of | Lieut. Albert L. Poland, dashed in toward the ends Of the high wooden | piers and tcrpedoed them. There was . 0ncAtne gun e the end of the we9e- |