Did you ever know about what happened on April 23, 1918? On this date the royal navy from Britain attacked the German Navy base at the Belgium port of Bruges- Zeebrugge. The navy base was used to keep all the German’s U-boats. The British planned to block the canal, so that the German U-boats can’t get through.
The operation was led by Sir John Jellicoe. The raid consisted of 75 volunteered ships and 200 soldiers. The attack started on the one mile mole. The British first sent out 3 ships with 2 old submarines. The submarines were heavily armed with explosives to bomb the viaduct.
The viaduct was important because it was connecting the mole to the shore. One of the 3 ships, HMS Vindictive drifted to the Bruges Canal and was to send out 200 soldiers to shoot out the German’s gun positions. The British used the smoke screen strategy in order to send out the soldiers. Unexpectedly the wind currents changed, causing the smoke to go away.
The operation was led by Sir John Jellicoe. The raid consisted of 75 volunteered ships and 200 soldiers. The attack started on the one mile mole. The British first sent out 3 ships with 2 old submarines. The submarines were heavily armed with explosives to bomb the viaduct.
The viaduct was important because it was connecting the mole to the shore. One of the 3 ships, HMS Vindictive drifted to the Bruges Canal and was to send out 200 soldiers to shoot out the German’s gun positions. The British used the smoke screen strategy in order to send out the soldiers. Unexpectedly the wind currents changed, causing the smoke to go away.
Immediately, the German gun positions spotted the HMS Vindictive alone with the other ships. Under fire by long ranged German artillery, the British lost lots of casualties. Eventually one of the submarines conducted by Lt. Sanford was able to bomb the viaduct. The plan to block the U-boats from going through didn’t work out.The 3 ships that were suppose to sink and block the canal went out wrong. One of the ships were heavily fired and destroyed. The other 2 ships sank in the wrong part of the canal.
My opinion to this is that the British should have planned better. The smoke screen should have worked, so that the marines could go destroy all the German gun positions. If that was successful it would’ve made the block ships full of cement successful of sinking at the right place in order to block the German U-Boats for a longer time.
Sources: http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/zeebrugge.htm http://www.mckenzie.uk.com/zeebrugge/Preparation_-%20_Albert_McKenzie_/preparation_-_albert_mckenzie_.html
Picture Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/images/gal_sea_zeebrugge.gif
Picture Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/images/gal_sea_zeebrugge.gif
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