OUR FIRST SEA TRENCH.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 October 1918, Page 3

OUR FIRST SEA TRENCH.

Geographical circumstances make the Dover Patrol the front-line trench of the British Navy. Only within its area do our warships come face to face dany with the Hun. There they can see him and lie can see them. He shoots at them and they shoot back at him. No mere spasmodic ebullition of belligerents, these exchanges either, but a part of the ceaseless gun duel that keeps the quaggy soil of Flanders in a quiver.

At Nieuport land front and sea front join, and on the latter it is the ships of the Dover Patrol that stand between the Hun and our shores, just as on land, our khaki-clad battalions stand between him and Dunkirk or Calais. The importance of this fact is not generally understood by the public, among whom exists a hazy idea that the Dover Patrol consists of an assarted variety of ships engaged in policing a part of the narrow waters, but capable of doing bigger things on occasion—ns witness Zoebruggc and Ostend. Not one person in ten thousand lias any adequate conception of what this unit of our Fleet really does or what it stands for in the general scheme of war.

Apart from its fighting activity, the Patrol has to provide safe passage for transports, carrying troops and stores to France, while not tho least important among its functions is keeping the outer ward of the Port of London. At Zoebrugge the Hun keeps a force of destroyers in readiness to rush our upon our merchant ships should an opportunity of doing this present itself. That no such opportunity arises is due to tho vigilance of the Dover Patrol. So that actually, every trading vessel, entering or leaving the Thames is dependent for its safety upon tho ships under Sir Roger Keyes. So likewise are tho scores of merchantmen hound for other ports which use the Straits of Dover. Across these straits the Patrol maintains an impenctratablc harrier against- U-boats and it does certain other things of a like nature in other directions. “Patrol” seems a rather misleading name for what is really a complete little fleet in itself, possessing an unusually diversified number of fighting ships; but though -the whole country, and London particularly benefits directly and every day from the- activities from them force, not many people are able to get a sight of it. Dover being a strictly prohibited area, none but those equipped with special permits can get either in or out of the place. All residents in the town must possess their “little red hook,” also, and anyone arriving at Dover without such an “open sesame’’ has to get into tho train and go back again. That may partly account for so little being known of the Patrol and its doings.