Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1918-10-09

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 devisec
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,
tor obvious reasons the study was
arranged with the permission OF the
first sea lord Sir Rosslyn NemEss'
and through the courtesy of Sir Doug
las Br0Wnrigg. chief naval censor.
The spectacular story of the raid the
Utmost Superhuman work done ID the
face of whirIwind of fire, ana the
heroic attack of the storping party
Scrambling over the Mole were All
placed by the British officer as mere
incidentals in the tremendous assault
;nat was determined upon.
THE problem that lay before us,
he said, was far bigger and greater
ihan the landing on the Mole, or any
mere spectacular features. 1t was
vastly different from merely sending
one or more ships into II harbOr pro-
tected by shore batteries, because the
channel to be blocked was narrow,
md a ship or ships must be placed
carefully to make the effort success
lul. Moreover, the waters through
which the vessels must dash were un-
der the protection of heavy guns
which commanded the sea practically
FOR 10 miles out from the coast.
Dash Under Cover.
This meant that the vessels, with
he block ships, must arrange their
dash under cover for II miles. And
then, having run the coast batteries,
they must run close to Il heavy bat
lery on the Mole. located practically
nile 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
ferries of the Mole and the heavier
coast batteries, making another run
Of Is miles The German mine fields
also had TO he encountered.
Various elements had 10 he taken
into consideration Naturally the
cash 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
hat was a smoke screen. But air
Flames, scouting above. would lay a
feet open to observation and to prac-
t'cally the same attack by indirect fire
as on land So the dash had TO he
made at night, and on such night
as the tide would be high Mt about
midnight, for the ships must go in,
do their destruction. and then come
out again before the shore batteries
would have the daylight 10 help them.
There were something like 40
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
'Iethod of illumination until the last
moment. That necessitated the use
Of smoke screens. A smoke screen is
"ery little use unless ii approaches
with YOU; thus you must always have
The wind blowing in your direction Of
advance. In our case ii was from the
north. The use of any craft to make
smoke would not be of much avail
unless they could approach the coast
lGaking smoke to the last minute.
CHS necessitated light draft vessels.
end they in turn required calm
weather.
Details to Be Worked Out.