Those who took part in the Zeebrugge operation in destroyers or monitors are liable to discount their value or the risks they took. However, as the North Star was sunk and Warwick nearly so, this undue modesty should be seen only in relation to the inner core of the conflict on the Mole and in the harbour. Life on the support boats was no bed of roses on 23rd April 1918.
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From C. J. Winter – In the engine room
I took part in both the Zeebrugge and Ostend raids 1918, serving as a stoker in HMS Warwick, the flagship of Admiral Keyes on both occasions.
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From H. G. Undey – HMS Phoebe
I was at Zeebrugge April 1918 and was on destroyer HMS Phoebe. The Phoebe and North Star went in to guard Vindictive against German destroyer attack. We got right inside the harbour making artificial fog, the wind was blowing on to the shore. Then all of a sudden it changed and blew out to sea and left us at point blank range of the German guns. It was like daylight with the German star shells lighting the place up. North Star got hit and was sinking; we went alongside, got a wire rope aboard but the wire rope snapped so we went alongside again. The Captain shouted to everyone to jump aboard that could, then we had to leave otherwise we would get it ourselves. The funnels were partly shot away and we lost two killed.
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From H. G. Hawkes: HMS Mentor
My late father served in the Dover Patrol as a W/O in HMS Mentor and took part in the raid on Zeebrugge 1918.
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I was a midshipsman RNVR in the destroyer Trident. We towed submarine C3 to Zeebrugge, and towed Daffodil home to Dover; during the action we patrolled off the end of the Mole to deal with any German TB’s that might escape. I was in charge of the two guns and had a front view ‘from the stalls’.
During the earlier action attempt when we all turned each off Zeebrugge someone turned the wrong way and we rammed the destroyer Sceptre, cut her bows open and exposed her mess deck lights. Luckily on the seaward side. A few feet the other way would have exposed our lights to the shore. We could not go astern with C3 on a string behind us. A few minutes later we were nearly rammed by the blockships which luckily dodged ahead of us.
Trident was also in the Ostend party on 9th/10th May 1918. We found an abandoned ML in the fog and I was sent away in the whaler to board her, but she blew up when we were being lowered. We escorted Warwick and Velox, which were lashed together back to Dover.
As far as I know I am the only officer left from Trident, and I know of only one seaman. We used to have a Zeebrugge Officers Dinner, but gave up about ten years ago when Bishop Broadmore died and our members shrank to ten.
There will be a ‘Vindictive Day’ Service at Ostend on Sunday 15th May.
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From P. Ellison: HMS Erebus
An uncle of my late husband, Vice-Admiral Charles Samuel Wills CMG, DSO, was commander of HMS Erebus at Zeebrugge. The following is taken from an obituary notice in my possession, but the date of Admiral Wills’ death or name of the newspaper is not given:
Admiral Wills (then Captain) commanded the monitor Erebus in the bombardment of Zeebrugge during the operations at Ostend and Zeebrugge in April 1918, and special reference was made to the work of his vessel in despatches of the Vice-Admiral of the Dover Patrol.
It will be recalled that the Erebus with her sister ship the Terror (Captain C. N. Burton) at 11.20 p.m. on the night of the historic attack on the Mole opened the long range bombardment which proved so effective in making the larger part of the Garrison take cover, a fact which greatly facilitated subsequent operations, and which dealt so great a blow to the morale of the German forces. It was undoubtedly the effects of this exacting operation which undermined Admiral Wills’ health and which, together with a wound in the head received in the action, eventually gave rise to the grave breakdown, causing his death. The Erebus was afterwards blown up, etc.
Another short (un-named and un-dated) cutting states:
After two years in command of the armed merchant cruiser Laconia he was appointed to the command of the new monitor Erebus and saw much service on the Dover Patrol, being frequently in action off the Belgium coast. He was wounded when the Erebus was torpedoed and for his work in that ship was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the DSO and also the Legion of Honour, etc., etc.
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Account by Captain J. S. Cowie CBE, RN from Bermuda:
HMS Warwick
Herewith, at long last, my piece about Zeebrugge – I hope it reaches you in time.
You will, I am sure, appreciate that it relates only to Zeebrugge, and not to the subsequent attack on Ostend on 10th May. In that affair Warwick was mined, and only just succeeded in getting back to Dover (held together by her mine-rails).
THE ASSAULT ON ZEEBRUGGE
At the time of the assault I was the sub-lieutenant of HMS Warwick (Commander Victor Campbell) in the Dover Patrol.
A fleet destroyer of the W class, Warwick (who was also equipped to lay mines) had to some extent been made capable of carrying out the functions of a flotilla half leader. For example, she carried a qualified navigating officer and an RNVR doctor, and her W/T installation had been enlarged.
On the occasions when the Vice-Admiral Dover proceeded to sea, it was the practice for him to wear his flag in Warwick, and to have with him various members of his staff, and this arrangement was followed for the Zeebrugge operation. By this I mean the actual assault on 23rd April, not the earlier attempt made on the night of the 11th/12th, which had to be abandoned due to a change in the direction of the wind.
However, as the official account noted ‘some useful lessons were learnt’. Also, in so far as I was concerned, some new cuss-words.
As in all destroyers, my duties as the sub were many, but primarily I was the Torpedo Control Officer. Normally, my action station was on the bridge, but as it was expected that there would be an exceptional amount of noise, it had been decided that the whole ship’s armament should be in ‘local control’. This put me at the torpedo tubes, situated just abaft the engine-room hatch, with full authority to fire torpedoes at my own discretion.
Together with Warwick, the destroyers North Star and Phoebe formed the Inshore Division, and in the final paragraph of our orders all three ships were cheerfully forecast as being certain losses.
The first thing that I recall was the bursting of an enormous enemy parachute flare overhead. For a few moments night was turned into day, and I could see Vindictive coming in. From then on Warwick and various other craft proceeded to make artificial chemical smoke screens and duck into them, and it became difficult to judge distances.
At some time during these early doings, the engine-room hatch opened, and the Engineer Commander (Rampling) stuck his head out. Down on the foot-plate I could see our small black kitten drinking from a saucer of milk. ‘I’ve never known this ship let off such regular salvos,’ shouted the Chief. When I replied that we had not fired a single gun, and that he had only heard shells from enemy coast-defence batteries bursting, he thanked me very much and descended, closing the hatch behind him and (presumably) went on feeding milk to the kitten.
My next recollection is of the planned blowing up of the ancient submarine C3 with five tons of explosives in her bow compartment, under the viaduct in the Mole. At the time, Warwick was near the viaduct. I saw the explosion, but did not hear it, an indication of the intensity of the general background noise.
Then Vindictive hauled off, with flames pouring from her shot-perforated funnels. Warwick, who again was rather close in, had to take drastic action to avoid being run down by her.
I have no precise idea of our next movements, but we presumably got round to the eastern or inner side of the seaward end of the Mole, and I sighted what appeared to me to be a German destroyer, and brought the torpedo-tubes to the ‘ready’.
I was just about to pull the firing lever when I realised that the vessel I was aiming at was not an enemy destroyer some little distance away, but one of our own motor-launches (MLs) very close to us. I ordered the tubes to be trained fore and aft, and she came alongside.
She was low in the water, and seemed to have a vast number of people on board, but somehow we hauled them all up. The badly wounded ones were made as comfortable as possible and slowly fleeted forward along the mine-rails to an improvised operating theatre in one of the seamen’s messes.
A demolition charge was placed in the already badly damaged ML and the time-fuse lit. As we were about to move clear of her our 1st lieutenant, Trumble, was killed by the accidental firing of one of her Lewis guns he was attempting to salve. He was Warwick’s only fatal casualty.
Our next encounter was with the two other ships of our division, Phoebe and North Star. The latter had run too close in, been hit by enemy shore batteries, and was sinking. Her survivors were transferred to Phoebe, and Warwick, after a final look round, headed for Dover at full speed.
I was ordered down to the Captain’s day cabin to dispense hospitality, the Admiral’s lady having arranged for two hampers from Fortnum and Mason’s to be placed onboard just before we sailed from Dover, a remarkable feat of clairvoyance on her part.
Of the various characters assembled in the Captain’s cabin, two will remain forever in my memory – Stuart Bonham-Carter, commanding Intrepid, and his Engineer Officer, Lt Bury.
One would have thought that having been miraculously snatched from a watery grave, so to speak, they would have had something to say about the fact, but not so. They were solely concerned with the rights and wrongs of Bonham-Carter’s action in blowing Bury and his skeleton staff up through the deck of Intrepid with the machinery wrapped round their necks, without giving the pre-arranged warning to evacuate the engine and boiler rooms.
At midnight I reluctantly parted from them, and went up to the bridge to keep the middle watch.
Never a dull moment in the life of a sub-lieutenant.
Lieutenant Stuart Sumner Bonham-Carter was awarded the DSO and promoted for handling Intrepid with great skill and coolness in a position of considerable danger under heavy fire. ‘Great credit is due to him for his success in sinking Intrepid in the Bruges Canal.’
Commander Victor Campbell, Engineer Commander Rampling, Lieutenant Trumble and Lieutenant Bury were mentioned in despatches.