May 2, 1918 
Land & Water 
1 1 
These did their work most effectively, and had the enemy 
been in occupation of the mole, his force would have been 
isolated. But, as a fact, the mole was not occupied, and the 
enemy relied upon machine and gun fire organised from the 
shore end of the mole for making the landing impossible. 
In spite of a withering fusilade, a considerable landing-party 
of marines and bluejackets got ashore, though Colonel Elliott 
and Commander Halahan and great numbers of their men 
were killed in the attempt. Those that got on the mole 
proceeded to destroy, as far as possible, the sheds, stores, 
and guns, and then turned their attention to the destroyers 
moored against its inner side. 
Meantime, the only enemy destroyer that seems to have 
had steam up tried to escape from harbour, and was either 
rammed and instantly sunk, or torpedoed. Others, less well 
prepared, were either _^___,.,____^__^__^_^^__ 
boarded, after the resist- 
ance of their crews had 
been overcome, and, it 
must be presumed, sunk 
also. Others, again, were 
attacked by motor 
launches, which pre- 
ceded and helped clear 
a way for the block- 
ships. Whether an at- 
tempt on the lock-gates 
was made or even con- 
templated, we have at 
the time of writing not 
been told ; but the main 
purpose of the expedi- 
tion, the sinking of at 
least two out of the 
three old Apollos in the 
right place, seems to 
have been achieved with 
precision. The moment 
the block-ships were in 
place, the jiurpose for 
which the mole was 
occupied was gained, 
and the order was 
rightly given for an im- 
mediate retreat. The 
work had been done, and 
there was no knowing 
what new resources the 
enemy could have 
brought to bear, had 
time been wasted. Many 
of the vessels, including 
Vindictive, had been 
hol^d by ir-inch shells. 
But Vindidive's dam- 
ages were not of a 
serious kind, and the . 
whole force was able to withdraw in safety, with the" ex- 
ception of one destroyer, and two motor launches. The 
destroyer is known to have been sunk by gunfire. The fate 
of the other two is, at the moment of writing, uncertain. The 
successful withdrawal of the expedition is conclusive evidence 
that the enemy was demoralised. 
For such close-quarters work Admiral Keyes, naturally 
enough, armed his forces as for trench fighting. Vindictive 
carried howitzers on her forward and after decks ; and her 
boarding parties were liberally armed with grenades and 
flame-throwers, as well as with rifles, bayonets, and truncheons. 
Machine-guns also seem to have been landed, so that hand- 
to-hand fighting was prepared for in the full Hght of the 
most recent war experience. The plan, it should be noted, 
was to have included aeroplane co-operation to supplement, 
if not to assist, the work of the monitors ; but the change in 
the weather appears to have interfered with this part of the 
programme, and may quite easily have made ciny accurate 
work by the monitors impossible also. 
It is, first of all, patent that the expedition was thoroughly 
thought out in all its details, and therefore closely planned. 
An accurate study of the enemy's defences had been made, 
and suitable means of avoiding his attack or overcoming his 
defences had been elaborately worked out. It is equally 
clear that almost to the moment when the attack was made, 
the weather conditions were those which the plan contemplated 
as necessary to success, and that it was only the sudden 
unexpected change in the wind that threatened the Ostend 
part of the operations with partial failure, and made the 
Zeebriigge operations more costly in life than thev should 
otherwise have been. When it is remembered that the 
H.M.S. Vindictive 
approaches to Ostend and Zeebriigge are commanded by 
very formidable batteries, armed with no less than 120 
guns of the largest calibre, and that the mole and the sides 
of the canal bristled with quick-firing 12-pounders and larger 
pieces, it will be reahsed that, to the enemy any attempt 
actually to bring an unarmoured vessel, with her cement- 
laden consorts, right up either to the mole or to the actual 
mouth of the canal must have appeared an undertaking too 
absurdly hare-brained for anyone but a lunatic to have 
attempted. It was just because Sir Roger Keyes had 
evaluated the enemy's defences with exactitude and had 
thought out and adopted first, methods of evading his vigil- 
ance, and, next, manoeuvres that would for the necessary 
period make his weapons useless, that it was possible not 
only to make the attempt, but to realise the very high degree 
of success that has ap- 
parently been won. 
The essence of the 
matter, of course, was 
to take the enemy by 
surprise. At first sight, 
it may appear a curious 
way of putting him off 
his guard, that he 
should for an hour be 
bombarded by moni- 
tors and aeroplanes. 
But the Vice-Admiral 
probably reasoned that 
this would lead, as it 
often does, to the crews 
of the big guns taking 
shelter underground 
until the attack is over. 
If the monitors were 
placed at their usual 
great distance from the 
ports, and were con- 
cealed by smoke or fog 
screens, the enemy gun- 
ners would know that it 
was merely idle • to at- 
tempt to reply to their 
fire. If nothing was to 
be possible in the way 
of response until day- 
hght, the gunlayers were 
just as well in their 
shell-proofs as any- 
where. Under cover, 
then, of this long-range 
wmbardment, and con- 
.'caling his squadron by 
the ingenious fog 
methods invented by 
the late Comman- 
der Brock, Sir Roger 
Keyes made his way within a very short distance of the veiled 
lights at the end of the mole. It was at this point that the 
wind shifted and the presence of the squadron was revealed to 
the enemy. There was a brief nterval before the big guns 
could be manned, and it was doubtless owing to this that 
Vindictive got alongside before more than one 11 -inch shell 
had struck her. Once under the shelter of the mole, she was 
safe from the larger pieces, and only her upper works could 
be raked by the smaller natures. 
Attack on the Mole 
The policy of attacking the mole and making that appear 
to the enemy the central affair, was a fine piece of tactics. 
The engagement which developed there was, in fact, a con- 
taining action,, which left the execution of the main objective 
to the other forces, and its purpose was to prevent the enemy 
from interfering too much with them. Nelson, it will be 
remembered, cut out a block of ships in the centre of the 
enemy's line at Trafalgar, occupying them so that their 
hands were full, and preventing both them and the van from 
coming to the succour of the rear. The main operation 
was the destruction of the rear by Collingwood. Here it was 
Vindictive, with her landing-party, that played the Nelson 
r61e, while the Vice-Admiral — in Warwick — himself directed 
the crucial operation, namely, the navigation of the block- 
ships to their billets. The moment they were blown up and 
sunk, the purpose of the expedition was fulfilled, and Vin- 
didive's siren recalled all those from the mole that could 
get back to the ship. The actual fortunes of the fight on 
the mole itself, while of thrilling human interest owing to 
tJJflUM i^ttOtO 
