Show r GREAT NAVAL RAID I rt ON BOAT U-BOAT BASES BRI BRITISH ISH AND AND FRENCH ATTEMPT r f T TO TP BLOCK ZEEBRUGGE AND OSTEND CHANNELS f Obsolete Ships Loaded With Con Concrete ret S J Are Sunk at the Entrance of Canal Cana Two i Blockading Ships Being Run r t Ashore at Ostend i j I 11 Ii i l I London It It is believed that the Uie en entrance ene 1 tt trance to the the Bruges Bruges ruges canal has been fl J. J blocked effectively in Ia of F t n a naval raid on April 23 by the British L 4 and Fren French fV Sir Eric Geddes first lord of the adi admiralty ad i rf i ty r reported ported to the house of commons com corn l mons that the raid was undertaken JJ under command of Vice Admiral Roger t v. v Keyes commanding at Dover French f. f destroyers operated co with the British rJ forces Six obsolete obsolete- cruisers all aU from 1 twenty twenty to thirty years old took part partin partI I i t t iF in the attack They were th the Brilliant J Sirius Iphigenia Intrepid Theta and f Vi Vindictive n di c tl ve i i 1 I The first five of these were filled p f with concrete and were to be sunk in inthe 1 the channel and entrances to the two ports if this could possibly be be manc man man- R r c j aged f fAt f i j r At Ostend two of the blockading If t 0 ships were vere r run n ashore and and up t While the operation was in progress f fr British parties were landed to distract the The wh whO r ill enemy officer developed 4 the scheme of attack was killed p 1 Storming parties were landed on the f mole from the cruiser cruiser- Vindictive The casualties to the personnel said Sir 1 k i Eric were heavy in proportion to the number engaged An enemy destroyer I e was torpedoed at Zeebrugge f I Two of the the blockading ships were sunk and blown up at the entrance to the Bruges canal The piling beside the mole at Zeebrugge was blown up r by air an- obsolete te ship filled with The casualties to British craft were were one destroyer and two coastal motorboats motorboats motorboats motor- motor boats sunk and two launches missing 5 The French operated co-operated in the raid I d Sir Eric said He lie characterized it as asan ast an extremely gallant and hazardous t t f undertaking carried out under un unknown un- un r known conditions of navigation There ThereL L was a h high gh development of the smoke attack Q The object t he continued was to tor r block the entrances to Ostend and Zeebrugge Zeebrugge Zeebrugge Zee Zee- Monitors addition brugge were used in f to storming parties and blockading ships The storming parties attacked under under un un- un der an extremely heavy fire and fought with th the greatest gallantry maintaining maintaining maintain maintain- ing lug their position alongside the mole for an hour Sir Eric said They were believed to have caused much damage to the the enemy enemy The ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge on the Belgian coast are the principal 2 bases for the operations of the submarines sub marines in their campaign against chipping i in the No North th sea and English channel They are of great importance I to the Germans for this purpose land a ait 4 it has been recognized by the allies aUles k that to deprive the enemy of them would be one of pf the most effective means of dealing with the submarine An n attack on th these se ports ports' by the British British British Brit Brit- ish fleet has been urged but the British British British Brit Brit- ish naval authorities apparently regard the land defenses as too strong tomake to tomake make snake this practicable Various measures measures measures meas meas- ures have been adopted to destroy Ger German German man submarines on oa entering or leaving these ports Field Marshal Halg's Haigs offensive offensive offensive of of- in Fland Flanders rs last summer was generally believed to have as one of its main objectives the bending back of I. I the tile German flank so as to deprive the enemy of these tw two points |