ZEEBRUGGE MEN GO BACK

Hokitika Guardian, 21 July 1928, Page 1

ZEEBRUGGE MEN GO BACK

OSTEND MEMORIES. (By H. M. Daniel, D. 5.0., R.N.) OSTEND, Juno 7. Gratitude is the dominant note-at Ostend this week. The burgomaster and councillors have been entertaining the members of the Zeebruggo Association in memory of the heroic achievements of April 23rd. and May 10th. 1918, when the. entrances to the canals at Zeebruggo and Ostend were .blocked, thereby largely destroying their value as submarine bases.

That was ten years ago. The older members of every family in England will remember something of* the seriousness of the submarine menace. But what of the men who carried out the most terrifying raid of naval history ? How many are there who have nothing more than the vaguest memory of what occurred or of the names of those who played a part? Not so in Ostend. I was prepared to smile last night at the firework reproduction of the Vindictive’s final sinking in the canal. Naturally the most lavish display of rockets, bombs, and flares could not do justice to 1 the scenes of 1918, but it was sufficiently faithful to stimulate the imagination. CIVILIAN HARDSHIPS.

Out of approximately 220 who remain of those who carried out the raids, nearly 150 have come to Ostend at their own expense. The number of those who have foregathered each year has steadily increased, and the reason given by one after another of the men was the same. Experience as civilians tenches them there is no comradeship like the Navy. They have had their adventures in civl life—not so thrilling as Zeebruggo, but at the same time anxious and heartrending. There was Horace Nash, who followed Commander B. S. Adams, •the first to land on the Mole. He had to sell picture postcards for some months from door to door to maintain his family.

Now he is in thei workhouse, but not as a pauper. He is a porter in charge of the Hambledon, Hampshire, institutjon, and the authorities have shown their appreciation of his value by raising his salary. JESTER AND SHINGLER.

From bayoneting Germans on the Mole to waving shingled heads is a long way, yet that is the present occupation of Harry Sbff, who was in the Vindictive. This man’s talents, lay in the direction of comedy as well as heroics, and Captain Carpenter, appreciating the value of laughter, appointed him the official jester o'f the ship. The sailors called him the “Duty Clown.” Now he marcels and amuses at the same timo in Barking-road, East Ham.

Colour-Sergeant Wright, Royal Marines, approached me in the boat to express bis gratitude to tbe “Daily Mail” for relieving his wife of intense anxiety in 1918. Sergeant Wright was so busy fighting on the Mole that he missed the recall and was left behind, as he thought, to die. His wife gave up hope too. But lie was taken prisoner and received a German officer's word of honour that he would be safe if lie would hold his hands up. Later he received the Kaiser’s congratulations on the raid, which the Emperor compared to tho Germans' landing at Dover,