ON THE SEA.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 2 August 1917, Page 3

ON THE SEA.

BOMBARDING ZEEBRUGGE. The suggestion contained in our cables on Monday that the German submarine base is not at Zeebrugge, but at Bruges, is not entirely new. Mr Archibald Hurd recently wrote in the London Daily Telegraph:—"Zeebrugge is not a German naval, or even aerial base. It is only the exit from the naval base, which is Bruges. Zeebrugge is merely the sea gateway of Bruges; it is only used by destroyers and submarines when they are going to sea or returning from sea, usually in the darkness. Consequently, there is nothing much to attack at Zeebrugge. It is no use trying to destroy the breakwater by gunfire, because j the water that surrounds the walls is an effective protection —a cushion for shells; you may injure the coping, and that is all. The dock gate, to which reference has sometimes been made, is, at bombarding range, a mere speck, on which a fortune might be wasted in shells. The port presents hardly any taget except the water which it holds, and in the circumstances it would oe waste of ammunition to strafe it. Bruges is connected with Zcebrugge by a canal about six and a-half miles long, and it is in the ample waterspace at Bruges that the enemy keeps his destroyers and his submarines, the latter being in bomb-proof shel-' ters. The enemy Has had sufficient wisdom also to put hh aerodromes well away from the sea coast. Now a British squadron, which has necessarily to stand out some distance from the shore at Zeebrugge, with its sandbanks, minefields, and coast guns, cannot reach the vital spot—Bruges Harbour and the surrounding district. That must be the object of aircraft, j and, as recent reports have shown, : the naval airmen have been devoting ja [rood deal of attention to this work, and will, no doubt, continue to do no."