PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 185, 25 April 1918, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A nav.Ui exploit is reported to-day which should rank as one of the most brilliant of the war-. A splendidly daring attack has been made upon the enemy bases on the Belgian coast by British forces, with some French destroyers co-operat-ing, find from the particulars thus far supplied it would appear that Zecbrugge—much tho most important of these establishments—has been made for the timo being useless lo the enemy. Present indications are that the attempt simultaneously made to close the entrance to Ostcnd harbour was not attended by equal success, but in its total scope and in the results achieved, the affair is one of which the Navy has every right to be proud.

Zeebruggb owes much of its importance as an enemy submarino base to tho fact that it is the coast terminus of a ship canal from Bruges. So long as the harbour works at Zecbrugge were intact and the canal entrance clear, the Germans were in a position to assemble submarines on an inland waterway, out of reach of attack except from the air, and send them out to sea by way of Zecbrugge, which in itself is a base conveniently located for attacks upon' shipping in the North Sea and in the , narrow seas. The permanent destruction of the sea-gate at Zecbrugge would therefore be an achievement of capital importance, as tending to foil and defeat tho enemy submarine campaign, and even if the enemy is only prevented temporarily from using it, the achievement recorded to-day must stand as one of very great importance.

The hazards.and difficulties faced and overcome by the Navy on this occasion aro measured by the fact that the Germans long ago realised the value of Zoebrugge and Ostend, and drew freely upon their resources in making both ports as nearly as possible impregnable. As long ago as November, 1914, they began to develop Zeebruggc as a submarine harbour, and towards tho end of that month the place was bombarded by a British squadron. Such guns as the enemy had on the coast at tliat time were outranged by the British naval artillery, but within a few days' he had brought up and mounted long-range guns. Subsequently both Ostend and Zeebruggc were on numerous occasions bom-, barded from the sea and by aerial squadrons, but;nevcr with such effective results as aro now reported to have been achieved at Zeebruggc. Considering the serious disadvantage at which ships arc placed in attacking shore positions and the extraordinary difficulties of navigation in the shallow and heavily-' mined waters of the Belgian coast, the success attained implies a wonderful combination of skill and dar j ing in the attacking force. The l ' later reports now in hand make if' quite clear that a very irallanfc un-! dcrtaking, unprecedented in tho an-1 nals of naval warfare, was carried I out with signal success. . Tho loss j of life was unfortunately serious in I

proportion to the not very largo numbers engaged, but the "loss of ships, apart from the old cruisers and obsolete submarines which ver? deliberately sacrificed in bottling-up operations, was limited, as information stands, to one destroyer * * * '.* ' An appreciation of what has been accomplished will be assisted by a brief description of the harbour works and canal entrance at Zcebrugge. The harbour is tidal. The ship canal runs between walls which are carried out to low-water mark. There is a lock.in the canal about 700 yards up from the entrance. The entrance is covered by & mo ] ft which leaves the coast about half a mile to the west, and strikes seaward, forming practically a i|iiar-ter-circlc. Over a great'part of its length, the mole is of masonry, b u t, as tho reports mention, the' shore section consists of wooden piling On tho molo the Germans'had ns-

tablished ;i battery, jjn:siiinjibly of heavy guns. The very during (if the attack seems lo have made its, success possible While storming parlies were landed on the fortified iiinln from three old ships specially prep.'M'Dil and armed for that outerprise, one of two ohsolete submarines prepared as honih vessels was run against the piling of lh>i molo, thus cutting off tho fortified part from the shore, and other sections of the attacking force worked three old cruisers loaded with concrete in towards the canal entrance. Two of these ships were- blown up and sunk in the entrance and the third going in, so that there should be no doubt that the ship canal is for a time at least effectively blocked. The work of clearing Uie entrance would in any case present difficulties and occupy a good deal of time, and it will no doubt be greatly hampered by naval bombardment and aerial attacks. What the Navy has done on this occasion is to break into the very heart of a sea-fortress winch might well have been regarded as impregnable.