The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1918-10-11

LOndUn.-An official interview VIII
nne of the commanding officers or h'
Zeehrugge raid gives for the mrs
time some idea Of the tremendous, In
tricate schemes that must be devised
for modern naval operations, such ~
bottlng up the Zeebrugge submarine
base.
While the name of the officer wh'
gave the interview may not be used
Tor obvious reasons, the study was
arranged with the permission of the
first sea lord, Sir Ro'slyu Wemyss
and through the courtesy of Sir Doug
las BrOwnrigg, chief naval censor
The spectacular story of the raid the
almost supcrhumun work done in the
face OF a whirlwind Of fire, and the
heroic attack of the StOrming 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, "
ne said was far bigger and greater
than the landing on the Mole, or any
mere spectacular features. IL 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 a ship or ships must be placed
carefully to make the effort success
tul. Moreover. the waters through
which the vessels must dash We're UNI
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 II 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 harb0r, and which
could fire practically point blank at
thC 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 10 miles. The German mine fields
also had to he 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 n smoke screen. But air
Llanes, scouting above, would lay a
fleet open to observation and to prac-
t'cally the same attack by indirect fire
as on land. So the dash had to be
made at night, and on such night
as the tide would he high at about
midnight, for the ships must 90 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 10 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
rery 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
smoke to the last minute.
This necessitated light draft vessels,
and they in turn required calm
weather.
Details to Be Worked Out.
80 the conditions necessary de-
nanded high water occurring at
artfcuIar 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 i
we're other matters to be worked out.
For the blocking ships TO find their
destination 1t was quite obvious that
hey must be able to see for certain
distance, say for mile or two at
least. And this means that the mo-
nent 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
eries on the coast line also would be
n the clear weather and able to con-
'entrate on the blocking ships, much
C their detriment.
"This applied both to Zeebrugge
md Ostend, where the German bat
cries are on the actual coast line.
3ut at Zeebrugge there was the ad
IitiOnal obstruction which Is absent
II Ostend-the Mole.
"The Mole at Zeebrugge extends
ather more than three-quarters Of
nile from the entrance of the canal,
md the outer end of the Mole had
een turned into veritable fortress.
The position of the navigable channel
nading to the canal entrance was such
hat the ships were forced to pass close
0 the batteries on the Mole and it was
90 much to hope that they would be
Bile to do this and pass inside these
arteries and then meet the full blast
the shore batteries without being
unll before reaching the canal. 1t
therefore, became clear that it would be V
ecessary either to destroy or to divert II
WOMEN CHAINED TO GUNS h
in