Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1918-10-04

one of the commanding otil3ers Oh lhe
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 VINO
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
lbs Brownrigg, chief naval censor.
THE spectacular story of the raid; the
almost superhuman work done in the
face of Il whirlwind of fire, and the
heroic attack of the stcrming party
scrambling over the Mole were all
placed by the British officer as mere
incidentals in the tremendous assault
that was determined upon.
1.-The problem that lay before us"
he said. twas 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 a harbor pro-
tected by shore batteries, because the
channel to be blocked was narrow,
snd ship or ships must be placed
carefully to make the effort success
tul Moreover, the waters through
which the vessels must dash were I'M
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
he block ships. must arrange their
cash under cover for Is miles. And
then, having run the coast batteries,
they must run close to heavy bat
iery on the Mole, located practically Il
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
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
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
that 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 a night
as the tide would be high at about
10 their destruction, and then come
out again before the shore batteries
would have the daylight to help them.
"There were something like 100
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
n ethod of illumination until the last
moment That necessitated the use
of smoke screens. A smoke screen is
cery little use unless 1t approaches
with you: thus you must always have
The wind blowing in your direction Of
advance. In our case 1t was from the
north. The use of any craft to make
smoke would not be of much avail
unless they could approach the coast
Icaking 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
particular period of the night, wind
blowing directly into the harbor, calm
weather and. of course, no fog, Tor
the latter would prevent the blocking
ships from finding the coast
"Having attained these, there still
were other matters TO be worked out.
Pr the blocking ships to find their
d destination it was quite obvious that
hey must be able TO see for certain
4 distance. say for a mile or two at
ltA,st. And this means that the mo-
n ent the entrance to the canal was
ii. the same area of clear atmosphere
With the blocking ships, namely, dur
irt2 the final run in, the shore bat
,erieS on the coast line also would he
u. the clear weather and able to con-
centrate on the blocking ships, much
&c their d 2 iment.
''This applied both to Zeebrugge
and Ostend, where the German bat
teries are ON the eetual coast line.
Eut ut Zeebrugge there was the adj
ditional obstruction which is absent
ut Ostend-the Mole.
'"The Mole at Zeebrugge extends
rather more than three-quarters of a
mile from the entrance of the canal,
and the outer end of the Mole had
been turned into a veritable fortress.
The position of the navigable channel
LOADING RI the crnpl entrance was such