![]() Unfortunately, the buoy had been moved by the local German commander and both ships ended up sinking in the wrong place. They tried to navigate by dead reckoning and using a navigation buoy that marked the channel towards the canal. Just as at Zeebrugge, the smokescreen was blown away from the land by the prevailing wind, and meant that the blockships could not see their target. ![]() There was considerable fire support from four Lord Clive-class and three M15-class monitors and they engaged the German coastal defences. Only two blockships were involved – HMS Sirius and HMS Brilliant – and there was no assault by Royal Navy personnel or Royal Marines. The attack on Ostend was an altogether smaller affair and involved a much smaller force. Lieutenant Richard Douglas Sandford (Royal Navy).Ordinary Seaman Albert Edward McKenzie (Royal Navy).Lieutenant Commander Arthur Leyland Harrison (Royal Navy).Sergeant Norman Augustus Finch (Royal Marine Artillery).Lieutenant Percy Thompson Dean (Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve).Commander Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter (Royal Navy).Lieutenant Commander George Nicholson Bradford (Royal Navy).Major Edward Bamford DSO (Royal Marine Light Infantry).Eight Victoria Crosses were awarded, and the recipients were: Of the 1,700 men involved in the operation, 227 were killed and 33 wounded. The raid was not a 100% success – the Bruges-based submarines and destroyers were soon able to use the canal again after some dredging work had taken place and the canal entrance had been widened – but it took place at a time when even a reasonably successful aggressive action was welcomed by the British government. Whilst this diversionary attack was taking place, three old cruisers that had been converted in blockships – HMS Thetis, HMS Intrepid, and HMS Iphigenia – were supposed to sail into the mouth of the Bruges-Zeebrugge canal and then be scuttled so that they blocked it. To help to obscure events from the shoreside defenders and coastal defence batteries, motor launches and coastal torpedo boats were fitted with smokescreen equipment developed by Wing Commander Brock (of the famous family of firework manufacturers) and were supposed to lay a dense smokescreen offshore. Once in place, the explosives were to be detonated after the crews had been evacuated by motor boats. Two obsolete C-class submarines ( C1 and C3) that had been turned into floating bombs by the addition of five tons of explosives in their bows, were tasked with crashing into the viaduct that connected the shore to the mole. Additional troops were carried aboard the requisitioned Mersey ferries Daffodil and Iris. The main assault force was carried aboard the heavily modified Arrogant-class cruiser HMS Vindictive. This was intended to disrupt the German defences – particularly the gun batteries on the mole – and was undertaken by a mixed force of Royal Navy personnel and Royal Marines. The raid on Zeebrugge began with an assault on the mile-long mole. More recently my wife discovered that one of her relatives – Able Seaman Sydney G Digby (J36259) – was one of the Royal Navy volunteers who took part in the raid, and who was killed very early on in the action. As I grew older I read more and more about the events of 23rd April 1918, and it has become a scenario that I have always wanted to recreate on the tabletop but never quite got around to. ![]() I first became aware of the raid when – as a young child – I saw the model of HMS Vindictive in the Imperial War Museum as she was at the time of the raid.
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