The L'Anse sentinel., 1918-10-18

trIcate schemes that must be deViseo
for modern naval operations. such aS
bottlng up the Zeebrugge submarine
base.
While the name Of the officer VINO
gave the interview may not De USED
Tor obvious reasons, the STUDY was
arranged with the permission or the
first sea lord Sir Rosslyn Weihyss'
and through the courtesy OF Sir Doug-
ins Brownrigg, chief naval censor
rhe spectacular story of the raid the
plmost superhuman work done IN the
face of a whirlwind of fire. ana the
heroic attack of the storming party
scrambling over the Mole were all
placed by the British officer as mere
incidentals I'm the tremendous assault
inat was determined upon
"The problem that lay before u.s."
he said, twas far bigger and greater
,han the landing on the Mole, or any
mere spectacular features. II 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,
and ship or ships must he placed
carefully to make the effort success
1ul. 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 Il heavy bat
lery on the Mole, located practically u
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 u miles. The German mine fields
also had to be encountered.
"VariouS elements had to be taken
into consideration Naturally the
cash must be made Mt high tide.
There was only one way in which we
could hope to protect the vessels II
The raid were made by daylight, and
that was n smoke screen. But air.
Ilanes, scouting above, would lay a
fleet open to observation and to prxc-
t'cally the same attack by indirect fire
ns on land so the dash had to be
made at night. and on such night
MS the tide would be high ut about
rlidnight, 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.
"rhcrc were something like $50
guns on the shore commanding the 10
mile radius. If these discovered the
vessels none of the ships could have
i'vcd through the falling shells. As
The batteries nll had the use Of
SenrChlights and star shells II became
EoccSSary to take measures to pre-
vent the ships being seen by any
'TcthOd of illumination until the last
moment. That neccSSitated the use
Of smoke screens. \ smoke screen Is
"ery little use unless 1t 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
ITaking smoke to the last minute.
This neccssitated light draft vessels,
end they in turn required calm
weather.
Details to Be Worked Out.
$50 the conditions necessary de-
Inanded high water occurring at a
particular 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.
"lIaving attained these, there still
were other matters to be worked out.
FIR the blocking ships to find their
d destination II was quite obvious that
;hey must be able to see for certain
distance. say for mile or two Mt
least. And this means that the mo-
nent the entrance TO the canal was
IL. the same area of clear atmosphere
With the blocking ships, namely, dur
ing the final run in, the shore bat
tories on the coast line also would be
IN the clear weather and able to con-
centrate on the blocking ships, much
tc@their detrimcnt.
"This applied both to Zeebrugge
and Ostend, where the German bat
teries are on the gctual coast line.
Eut Mt 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 a
mile from the entrance of the canal.
and the outer end of the Mole had
been turned into veritable fortress.
The position Of the navigable channel
leading 10 the canal entrance was such
that the ships were forced to pass close
20 the batteries on the Mole, and II was
too much to hope that they would be
nble TO do this and pass inside these
batteries and then meet the full blast
Of the shore batteries without being
sunk before reaching the canal. Il
therefore became clear that II would BE-
IA n A. a ~~x