THE DOVER PATRO.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16725, 7 January 1920, Page 7

THE DOVER PATRO.

» AN EPIC IN BRITISH N7

HISTORY.

(mow om owx coriiesfos LONDON, Novcr Thoro were so many New —especially those in the I attached to bo Dover Patr tcrost will lx» felt by them ij of the foundation stono of •*' the first of the memorials tc rate the valour and endur; officers and men who were this branch of the scrvico. siU' is at Lcatiiercoto's P mill's oast of Dover, and narrow strip iof soa at Caj a similar memorial is to while a third will be set up A tine tributo to the work » Patrol wa.s paid by l'rinco Connauglir, by whom th» was laid. l'rince Arthur said that of the Patrol would always I with the great names of II and Keyos. The gallan Hood, who afterwards lost the battle ot Jutland, in lirst offensive operations on ' ecast with considerable slier sidcring that the material t posal at t-hat stage of the somewhat limited. Sir Regina command, from April, lillo, ever l>o connected with antiwarfare in the Straits, and tl Dover barrage. Rut. alt he tenure of command was more to defensive than to offensiv, tions, tho fact remained that 1 autumn. 191/5, to Juno, 19 fewer than 21,000 merchant had passed through the Strait only 21 wero lost or damaged, those six months more than . cent, of tlie total loss during tboccurred in this area. Tho atta*. the Hroke and Swift ill 191" slu that the old spirit of tho Hritish K was as much ulivo in these days •, scientific warfare as in tho old boa. ing days of Nelson, provided that c portunitj- should occur. Ho felt (H tain that tho exploit would always !• an epic in Hritish naval history. Tin name of Vice-Admiral Sir It-, lveycs would for ever bo connected with the attack on Zeobruggc and Ostond, the net result of those operations being to put an end to all offensive naval operations by the Germans in tho Straits. Tho name of Rear-Admir&l Dampier would always be romcmlxired with the work of tlio Dover Patrol. W'lien in i Juno, 1918, he became Rear-Admiral, in charge of the, controlled minefield, lie made the Dover barrapo so effective that after September the Germans gave up attempts to pierce it. Tho Dover Patrol won one of tho greatest victories in the wAr. and tho fact that, within 40 miles of tho German bases <>" tho Flanders coast, tho Dover Patrol wero ablo to pass through tho Straits, either eastward or westward, 124,858 vessels, of which only 75 were lost, indicated in figures what had been done. As a soldier, the l'rinco had to cross tho Channel on many occasipns from 1914 to the conclusion of tho war, and although the authorities insisted on donning lifebelts before leaving Folkestone, neither ho nor any other officer or man on board a transport ever fell it was necessary, because "we knew the great silent Navy, the stiro shield of tho Hritish Empire, would watch over us. and v.o never felt the least nervousness that any Boclie would do anvthing unpleasant to us." Mr E. W. T. Farley, president of the Dover Patrol Memorial, presided at the luncheon, and remarked that the monument would, when erected, keep nlive tho memory of tho men who had fallen, and would also commemorate tho glorious work of the. Dover Patrol. When its sister monument was )«» place on tho coast of Frnnce, theso two pillars would stand to soamen passing to and from as symbols of tho nation s gratitude to the men who had for four long vears, in good weather and in. bad. kept 'their watch over the gate which the enemy were so anxious to force. It was owing to such men as the Dover Patrol that they wero.able to inscribe on the Castle Gato that proud old Kentish motto "Invictn." Some members of the Dover Patrol lay quietly •deeping on the green hill beneath the Window of the Castlo wall, while others still had found a resting nlaco in the silvery streak, but nil iiad left a record difficult to emulate and lmpnsI siblo to surpass—a record worthy of the very highest traditions of tho ser- *' Oimmodore Davidson said that tho Dover Patrol, by its coaseless actiyities and by its vigilance, had maintained » permanent bridgehead to Franw, which hnd enabled our annuai to cros. in comparative safety. But they realised they would havebeen ablo to do what they had done if the* lm not had behind them the power of th. Grand Fleet, without which there wtfuld have been nothing to prevent the Germans "mopping up" tne Dover Patrol