Chapter XIV: The Epic of St. George’s Day, 1918

“ ... Let a plain statement suffice.”--_Rudyard Kipling._

It may be well to emphasise at the outset that the forces which participated in the raids on Ostend and Zeebrugge on the night of April 22nd-23rd, did not set out with the mere intention of giving the world an exhibition of gallantry and dash--a sort of grim Naval and Military Tournament for the benefit of newspaper readers. The enterprise had three clearly defined military objectives: the first of which was the blocking of the Bruges ship canal at its entrance into the sea at Zeebrugge; the second, the bottling up of Ostend harbour from the sea; and thirdly, the infliction of the maximum damage possible in the time upon the enemy in occupation of these two ports. The casualties, considering the desperate nature of the undertaking, were light and scarcely to be compared with those along the British front during a single night of trench raids; and those among that gallant band of volunteers who did not return, died in the knowledge that they had added to history a page as fair as any the Navy has yet contributed.

The heavily fortified coastline between these two nests of the enemy forms the base of a triangle with Bruges at the apex, affording protection to a number of German torpedo-craft and submarines within easy striking distance of the British coast and commerce routes. The scheme adopted for sealing the two exits of this system was roughly as follows.

It was proposed that obsolete craft filled with concrete and manned by volunteers should proceed under their own steam and be sunk in the entrances of the canal opening into Zeebrugge harbour, and of the port of Ostend. A storming force was to disembark on Zeebrugge mole with demolition materials, bombs, and machine-guns, and destroy the seaplane sheds and other establishments. Simultaneously with the disembarkation of this force the viaduct connecting the curved arm of the mole to the mainland was to be blown up, thus preventing the enemy from despatching reinforcements to support the guns’ crews and defenders of the mole. While these assaults were in progress, a force of monitors and aerial bombing squadrons were detailed to maintain a furious bombardment by sea and air of all coastal batteries and works of military importance in the neighbourhood.

The broad outline of the plan having been decided upon, the necessary blocking craft were selected from the Knackers’ Yards of the Navy, ships whose names conjure up forgotten commissions in tropic seas and a Navy fast passing into legend. _Thetis_, _Intrepid_, and _Iphigenia_ for Zeebrugge, _Sirius_ and _Brilliant_ for Ostend. To carry the assaulting parties to the mole, H.M.S. _Vindictive_ was brought from distant waters, and two Mersey ferry-craft, the _Iris_ and _Daffodil_, were commissioned to pass down to posterity as her consorts in this desperate undertaking.

The ships were easier to select than the men. Invitations were sent to the Grand Fleet, the Home Port Depots, and the “Red” and “Blue” Marines to supply the requisite volunteers; the Royal Australian and Canadian Navies claimed their right to participate, and were also invited to send representatives. The response would have furnished a force sufficient to block half the ports of Germany had such an enterprise been contemplated.

Eventually, however, the selections were made, and the flower of the Sea Service set its hand to the task. Acting Captain A. F. B. Carpenter, R.N., was appointed in command of the _Vindictive_, Commander Valentine Gibbs, R.N., to the _Iris_, and Lieutenant H. G. Campbell, R.N., to the _Daffodil_. In these three ships the storming and demolition parties were to embark, and the latter was also charged with the duty of pushing the _Vindictive_ alongside the mole and holding her there if her specially designed mole-anchors failed to grapple.

The commands of the various blockships were distributed as follows: _Thetis_, Commander R. S. Sneyd, D.S.O., R.N.; _Intrepid_, Lieutenant S. S. Bonham Carter, R.N.; _Iphigenia_, Lieutenant E. W. Billyard-Leake, R.N. The officer originally placed in command of the last-named ship, and who actually superintended the early preparations of all the blockships, was Lieutenant I. B. Franks, R.N. After weeks of labour and indefatigable enthusiasm, this officer was laid low by appendicitis two days before the actual attack, and he had in consequence to be removed to a neighbouring hospital.

The two ships destined for Ostend, _Brilliant_ and _Sirius_, were commanded respectively by Commander A. E. Godsal, R.N., and Lieutenant-Commander H. N. M. Hardy, D.S.O., R.N. The attempt to block Ostend proved only partly successful, as it transpired, and on a later date Commander Godsal made a second effort to close the entrance that cost him his life. The _Vindictive_, patched and battle-scarred, was used for the second venture, and lies, at the time of writing, amid the silt at the entrance of Ostend harbour, a fitting monument to the sturdy spirit who took and left her there.

The Naval storming and demolition forces, under the command of Captain H. C. Halahan, D.S.O., R.N., and the Marine storming force under Lieutenant-Colonel B. N. Elliott, Royal Marines, were distributed between the _Vindictive_, _Iris_, and _Daffodil_. The Naval storming party was in charge of Lieutenant-Commander A. L. Harrison, R.N., and the demolition force under the orders of Lieutenant C. C. Dickinson, R.N.

Finally the two submarines which, filled with high explosive and manned by volunteers, were to be launched against the viaduct to blow it up, were assigned to Lieutenant Aubrey C. Newbold, R.N., and Lieutenant R. D. Sandford, R.N., and escorted by a picket-boat commanded by the latter’s brother, Lieutenant-Commander F. H. Sandford, D.S.O., R.N., who personally organised this most desperate coup.

An attack of this nature, involving the use of very light craft, smoke screens, air-craft, and a disembarkation alongside a pier in an open seaway, necessarily depended for success upon a variety of factors. Sea, tides, wind, and visibility all played their part, a conjunction of ideal conditions being such that it could only occur at rare intervals, and then by chance. The ships and men having been selected, and the entire scheme rehearsed, perfected, and elaborated, ships and men settled down to the long wait. The men in the front-line trench waiting to go “over the bags” are not expansive in describing their sensations. Something of that tense grim anticipation should have found a place on board those crowded ships. Nevertheless, a spirit of pure picnic appears to have reigned, coupled with a discipline maintained by the awesome threat of not being allowed to participate in the “show” when it came off.

The day came at length, and on May 22nd--St. George’s Eve--the force proceeded from its place of assembly and, escorted by destroyers and air-craft, passed up Channel. It was a brave and unusual array that swept to the north-east as the light faded from the sky. Modern destroyers steamed on the wings of the columns, one of which flew the flag of Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., M.V.O., the old _Vindictive_ in the van of the centre column with the _Iris_ and _Daffodil_ in tow, for all the world like veteran hound on the trail with her two puppies on her flanks; the five valiant blockships followed, each with specially detailed parties below stoking for all they were worth, that their old ships’ last voyage should be made at a seemly speed. A cloud of motor launches filled the waterways between the columns, and the two obsolete submarines, with their escorting picket-boat, proceeded in tow of destoyers.

Meanwhile, from far and wide below the misty horizon the storm was gathering. Monitors, supported by British and French destroyers, moved quietly towards their allotted stations preparatory to the attack. From the Grand Fleet’s eyrie in the far north to the base of the East Coast Striking Force, covering and supporting squadrons were under weigh as the night wore on. The destroyer flotillas swung into position like cats round a mouse-hole lest any of the enemy’s torpedo-craft should be tempted to bolt for the open when the attack began. The night air was resonant with the drone of aerial craft on the wing.

Once the motley little fleet stopped, while the surplus steaming parties were disembarked, with many a fierce hand-grip and the muttered “Good luck, mate!” that is the fighting man’s _Ave atque vale_! At the prearranged parting of the ways the force divided, steering separate courses for Ostend and Zeebrugge, where, under the respective commands of Commander Ion Hamilton Benn, M.P., R.N.V.R., and Captain Ralph Collins, R.N., the motor launches were already close inshore, trailing their smoke screens across the eyes of an uneasy and apprehensive enemy. A cloud of Coastal Motor Boats, under the command of Lieutenant Welman, R.N., had preceded them and were busily laying smoke floats and aids to navigation.

Half an hour before the Zeebrugge force arrived at its destination, star-shell began to curve skyward from the menaced harbour, fruitlessly searching the darkness and artificial mist that enveloped the mole and batteries. A little later, however, the wind (on which the smoke screen depended for its success) wavered, died down, and awoke lightly again from a contrary direction. Groping through the white billows of fog rolling back upon her, the _Vindictive_ came out into a clear space lit by star-shell, and saw, a cable ahead, her destination. A single gun on the mole opened fired with a bark like a challenge, and the next instant loosed a hellish uproar of guns from ship and shore. Through a tornado of shrapnel and machine-gun fire, Captain Carpenter brought his veteran command alongside the mole, and before St. George’s Day was a minute old the _Vindictive_, blazing defiance from battery and top, was grating against her fenders in the swell that surged across the outer wall.

According to the carefully thought-out scheme, Lieutenant Campbell in the _Daffodil_ thrust the bows of his ship against the _Vindictive’s_ quarter and held her bodily alongside, enabling the already splintered and shattered “brows,” or gangways, to reach the mole.

By this time the point-blank fire had taken heavy toll amid the closely packed ranks awaiting disembarkation. Colonel Elliot and Major Cordner, the two senior officers of the Royal Marine storming parties, and Captain Halahan, Royal Navy, were already dead. Commander Valentine Gibbs brought the _Iris_ alongside in the wake of the _Vindictive_ and endeavoured to grapple; Lieutenant Hawkins, R.N., reached the mole, secured the grappling anchor, and died. He was instantly followed by Lieutenant-Commander Bradford, R.N., who was swung from a derrick with a second anchor, and succeeded in securing it before he, too, was killed, his riddled body falling into the water. A number of his men laboured with fruitless devotion to recover his corpse, one, Petty Officer Hallihan, giving his life in the attempt.

No sooner had the two foremost brows been launched from the _Vindictive_ than the storming parties, led by Lieutenant Commanders A. L. Harrison and B. F. Adams, and Major B. G. Waller, Royal Marines, hurled themselves across. The men were burdened with Lewis guns, bombs, and demolition impedimenta; the scend of the swell caused the _Vindicitve_ to plunge heavily, and the brows rocked above a dizzy 30 feet drop, rising and falling as the ship rolled. Yet the landing was accomplished in the face of a gusty machine-gun fire that swept the face of the mole like the breath of Death.

The first stormers of the mole found themselves on a pathway about nine feet wide inside, and about four feet below the parapet of the mole. Two German destroyers were alongside the mole on the harbour side, but showed no activity, and the handful of the enemy found on the mole who subsequently attempted to regain these vessels were killed, the destroyers being liberally bombed. One of these craft was torpedoed alongside by a Coastal Motor Boat.

Followed by his men, Lieutenant-Commander Adams captured the look-out station on the mole, and was joined here by Wing-Commander F. A. Brock, R.N.A.S., who had come in search of certain information, risking the hazard of that bullet-swept mole to gain it. This gallant and public-spirited officer was missed shortly after, and not seen again.

In the meanwhile Lieutenant-Commander Harrison led a desperate rush to the westward against a machine-gun that was causing heavy casualties. He was killed at the head of his men, and all old Rugby Internationals will mourn that gallant forward who led his last rush to the muzzle of a German gun. Lieutenant-Commander Adams subsequently returned and searched for his body without avail amid the dead and litter of the shrapnel-spattered causeway.

Details of that wild brave hour’s work on Zeebrugge mole will doubtless come to us, as such details do, piecemeal in the years ahead; and many, all too many, will for ever go unrecorded. In all the dashing gallantry of that deathless assault none played a finer part than the Royal Marines, the Corps that wears a laurel wreath in its proud crest. And when the work was done and the syren eventually hooted the Recall through the din and crashing uproar of bursting shell, it was the Marines, shoulder to shoulder, who covered the retreat.

Of the retirement itself mere imagination tells enough to stir the blood and quicken a man’s heart. The enemy had concentrated the fire of every gun that would bear upon the mole and brows leading to the _Vindictive_: back through this savage barrage came the remnants of those gallant companies, reeling along with their wounded on their backs, to be struck down and to rise again and stagger on with their burdens, turning every now and then to shake bloody fists at the flaming docks and town beneath its pall of smoke....

The blockships in the meanwhile had made the entrance, and led by _Thetis_ crashed through the obstruction at the mouth of the harbour. _Thetis_, finding that her propellers were foul of wires and nets, and that she was rapidly losing way, signalled to her two consorts to pass to starboard of her by firing a green rocket. She then grounded, and riddled by gunfire from shore batteries and enemy craft in the harbour, firing on her at almost point-blank range, took a heavy list. Plastered with high explosives and gas, helpless and immovable, she nevertheless engaged the nearest shore battery with her forecastle gun until her own smoke made it impossible to continue firing. Engineer-Lieutenant-Commander Boddie fearlessly stuck to his post in the engine-room and succeeded in restarting one engine. This swung her head into the dredged channel of the canal, up which the _Intrepid_ and _Iphigenia_ had already passed cheering wildly and blazing fury from every gun. Here the _Thetis_ quietly sank. A motor launch under command of Lieutenant H. A. Littleton, R.N.V.R., who had followed devotedly at her heels, embarked the surviving members of the ship’s company and, turning, ran the gauntlet of the harbour mouth and regained the outer sea.

The _Intrepid_, on passing the _Thetis_, made for the canal mouth, which was clearly visible in the pale unearthly light of the star-shell. The enemy fire at this moment being concentrated on the upper works of the _Vindictive_ alongside the mole and the already disabled _Thetis_, _Intrepid_ was enabled to reach the mouth of the canal, where Lieutenant Bonham Carter calmly manœuvred her into position and fired the charges which sank her.

It will be remembered that the additional steaming parties carried by the blockships had disembarked before the ships neared the zone of operations. A number of _Intrepid’s_ party, however, determined to participate in the coming fight, had contrived to remain on board. These surplus ratings, with the whole of the _Intrepid’s_ crew, then coolly abandoned the ship in two cutters and a skiff. In these boats they rowed down the canal and were picked up in the harbour by a British destroyer and a motor launch in command of Lieutenant P. T. Dean, R.N.V.R. Lieutenant Bonham Carter, together with his First Lieutenant and Sub-Lieutenant, and four petty officers, remained behind to ensure that the ship was sunk properly. The seven then launched the Carley float, and in this unwieldy craft, lit by searchlights and with machine-gun fire spurting all round them, paddled calmly down the canal and across the harbour. They were also picked up by Lieutenant Dean, whose handling of the crowded motor launch under a withering fire, and blinded by searchlights, was described by Lieutenant Bonham Carter (whose standard of gallantry may be presumed to be no mean one) as “simply magnificent.”

This motor launch subsequently picked up the survivors of the _Iphigenia_, and succeeded in conveying her freight of over one hundred survivors in addition to her crew outside the harbour and alongside the destroyer flying Admiral Keyes’ flag. Of all the officers and men who formed _Intrepid’s_ ship’s company (and never surely was a ship’s name more happily chosen), only one man, Stoker Petty Officer H. L. Palliser, was killed.

H.M.S. _Iphigenia_, the third of the blockships to enter the harbour under heavy shrapnel fire, followed in the wake of the _Intrepid_. The steam-pipe of her syren was severed, enveloping the bridge in steam and rendered navigation no easy matter. She rammed a dredger with a barge in tow, crashed clear, and drove the barge ahead of her into the canal. Lieutenant Billyard-Leake caught sight of the _Intrepid_ aground with a gap between herself and the eastern bank, and manœuvred his ship into the vacant space. He then cleared the engine-room of its heroic complement, fired the sinking charges, and abandoned ship in the only remaining cutter. The motor launch that had already picked up _Intrepid’s_ crew dashed in to the rescue, finally backing out stern first (her bows being badly holed) and losing half her little complement of deck hands from machine-gun fire ere she reached comparative safety.

As has already been said, the _Brilliant_ and _Sirius_ failed to block Ostend completely, but were sunk where they grounded. The rescues of officers and men were effected by motor launches with the same fearless dash as was shown by the officers commanding these little craft at Zeebrugge. Lieutenant K. R. Hoare, D.S.O., R.N.V.R., embarked practically all the men from the _Sirius_ and sixteen from the _Brilliant’s_ whaler, sunk by gunfire. The remainder of the _Brilliant’s_ crew were taken off by Lieutenant R. Bourke, R.N.V.R.

After leaving the _Sirius_ an officer and a number of men were found to be missing; a Coastal Motor Boat, commanded by Sub-Lieutenant P. B. Clarke, R.N.R., with Lieutenant-Commander Hardy, R.N., and Lieutenant E. L. Berthon, D.S.C., R.N., on board, thereupon returned, boarded the ship under a heavy and accurate fire, and searched for their missing comrades. They found no signs of life in either ship, but the missing officer and men were subsequently picked up by a British cruiser thirteen miles out to sea, still pulling gamely.

The part played by the submarine which destroyed the viaduct, and by her attendant picket-boat, must not be overshadowed by the deathless tale unfolding in the bullet-whipped waters of the adjoining harbour, and along the bloodstained parapet of the mole. It is deserving of a Saga all its own, but until that is written, the tale is best told simply, halting though the prose. Owing to a breakdown, only one submarine reached Zeebrugge, under the command of Lieutenant Sandford, R.N. The mole was sighted silhouetted against the blaze of guns and searchlights: and under a heavy fire of 4-inch shell the craft, with her cargo of high explosives, was launched at full speed at the rows of piers supporting the viaduct. She struck at right angles, riding up on to the horizontal girders and penetrating up to the conning-tower. The crew then launched the skiff, ignited the fuses, and pulled clear, while a company of riflemen on the viaduct above opened fire upon them with machine-guns, rifles, and pompoms. They continued pulling against a strong tide, and although nearly all were wounded (Lieutenant Sandford twice) and the boat only kept afloat by use of a specially designed pump, succeeded in getting about 300 yards clear before the explosion took place. As was anticipated, a gap of 150 feet was blown in the viaduct: concrete, girders, men, guns, and searchlights being hurled to the skies in a column of flame. The attendant picket-boat then swooped down and rescued the occupants of the skiff, transferring them later to one of the destroyers in the offing. The rescue was carried out under most hazardous conditions, and the little steamboat, manned by a crew of volunteers, with her fore compartment full of water, returned to England under her own steam, and thus completed a journey of 170 miles.

One British destroyer which lost herself in the smoke, found herself, when a gust of wind blew the smoke clear, well inside Zeebrugge harbour; she had time, however, to discharge all her torpedoes at the vessels alongside the mole before she was disabled by shell fire. She struggled a couple of hundred yards outside the entrance to the harbour and lay there a helpless log, sinking fast. A sister destroyer, under command of Lieutenant-Commander H. E. Gore-Langton, R.N., swooped down upon her and circled round until she was enveloped in smoke, under cover of which the crew were disembarked. Attempts were made to take her in tow, but the hawser was twice shot away. Her Captain, Lieutenant-Commander K. C. Helyar, R.N., remained on his shattered bridge to the last, and only abandoned her when she was sinking under him.

Back across the Channel as the day was breaking came the _Vindictive_, _Iris_, and _Daffodil_, their task accomplished, and their names flashing proudly to the uttermost outposts of the Empire.

Commander Valentine Gibbs, R.N., who had been struck by a shell while the _Daffodil_ was getting clear, died during the passage, but recovered consciousness before the end to ask faintly if all went well. They eased the passing soul with the assurance that all had gone very well; and in that comfortable knowledge his brave spirit fled.

The dawn broadened into day and lit the smouldering docks and debris-strewn mole and the motionless outstretched figures still lying where they fell. It lit the shell-torn upper works of five of His Majesty’s ships which had finished their last commissions: _Thetis_, _Sirius_, _Brilliant_, _Intrepid_ and _Iphigenia_, lying at the gates of the enemy that none might pass out.

To these, at a later date, was added the _Vindictive_, and though in time the enemy may dredge and blast the passages clear, though weed and rust will creep over the battered hulls, something will long remain for a testimony of the achievement; something--because of the blood which once stained the splintered decks--

“That is for ever England.”