Keble Howard
Published: 2018-02-26
Total Pages: 84
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Excerpt from The Zeebrugge Affair These men went out on the eve of St. George's Day, 1918, to do those two things - the one utilitarian, the other romantic. They went out to block the Bruges Canal at Zeebrugge - to stop that mouth which for so long past has been vomiting forth its submarines and its destroyers against our hospital ships, and our merchant vessels, and the merchant vessels of coun tries not engaged in this war. They blocked it so neatly, so effectively that it will be utterly useless as a submarine base for - I long to tell you the Opinion of the experts, but I may not - many months to come. This shall be proved for you as we proceed. Now let me explain, very briefly, the nature of the task which the Navy set itself. You imagine Zeebrugge, perhaps, as a long and dreary breakwater, flanked by flat and sparsely populated country, with a few German coastguards dotted about, and a destroyer or two in the offing. I am certain that that is the mental picture most of us had of Zeebrugge - if we had one at all. Now think of Dover or Portsmouth as you knew them in times of peace. Conceive a garrison of no less than one thousand men ever on the breakwater. Glance at the plan of Zeebrugge reproduced in this book, and figure to yourself, at every possible coign of vantage, guns of mighty calibre, destroyers lurk ing beneath the Mole on the harbour side, search lights at all points, and great land guns in the distance ready to pulverise any hostile craft that dares to Show its nose within miles. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.