THE ZEEBRUGGE RAID 1918
A Story of Courage and Sacrifice Told Through Newspaper Reports, Official Documents and the Accounts of Those Who Were There
This edition published in 2016 by Frontline Books,
an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,
47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS
Copyright Paul Kendall
The right of Paul Kendall to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN: 978-1-47387-671-2
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Acknowledgements
T he following organisations have greatly assisted by allowing me to include material from their archives without which this book would not be the valuable reference it is.
I thank the Imperial War Museum Department of Documents and Sound for allowing me to quote from the papers and sound interviews that are held within their archives, and, in particular, Anthony Richards and Richard Hughes.
I thank Amy Adams and the Royal Marines Museum for granting me permission to quote from documents within the museums archives. Likewise I thank Mathew Sheldon at the National Museum of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth and the Australian War Memorial for kindly allowing me to use quotes from testimonies that are stored in their archives.
I also thank Stephen Clatworthy and the Special Collections Department, Liddle Collection at the University of Leeds for permission to quote from their archives. I thank Klaus-D. Postupa at Bundesarchiv, Germany for permitting me to use material from the Federal Archives. I extend my thanks to Dominiek Dendooven at the In Flanders Fields Museum at Ypres for his support and for permission to quote from the testimony of Godelieve Deprez.
I am indebted to The National Archives, for they hold a wealth of material relating to the Zeebrugge Raid.
Newspapers are also an excellent resource, so it is always a joy to step back in time as I study them at the British Newspaper Archives (many of the papers are available online).
I am grateful to John Soanes for providing me with a copy of the diary of Harry Adams who wrote a detailed testimony regarding his experience aboard Daffodil during the operation. I remember when he first sent this wonderful document to me during 2003 and how I was overwhelmed by its contents.
I thank Peter Chapman for his generosity in allowing me to quote from his article Wingless Sailor which was written from his interview with Air Mechanic Sidney Hesse, which appeared in the Cross & Cockade International Journal (Volume 32, No.2, 2001).
I extend my gratitude to Major Graham Adcock RM for allowing me to quote from the Globe & Laurel Magazine.
Once again, I am indebted to all the families who have kindly helped me in providing information relating to their courageous forebears. I would like to thank the following individuals:
Susan Boddie, the late Commander R.G. Boddie, Agnes Palmer and Janet Carlisle regarding their father Engineer Lieutenant Ronald Boddie.
Ruth Thomson, third generation cousin of Deckhand Joseph Baxter.
Lynne and Freda Burnell, relatives of Private Arthur Burnell.
Nigel Calverley, grandson of Lance Corporal George Calverley.
David Clist, nephew of Private Jim Clist.
Philip Gough, son of Air Mechanic William Gough.
Doug Carr, third generation cousin of Private David Latimer.
Colin McKenzie, great nephew of Able Seaman Albert McKenzie VC.
Cheryl Langford, great niece of Leading Seaman Dalmorton Rudd
Major General Nick Vaux, nephew of Lieutenant Philip Vaux DSC.
Andrew Warrington, son of Air Mechanic George Warrington.
I would like to thank Yves Fohlen for proof reading this volume and for his continued friendship, support and counsel while I have been working on this project.
Finally, I am grateful to my Publisher, Martin Mace, for his enthusiasm and for encouraging me to write this book, and John Grehan for his invaluable advice and guidance. I thank them both for providing me with the opportunity to contribute this volume to the Voices from the Past series.
Please note that when referring to the men who participated in the Zeebrugge Raid, I have stated the rank that they held at that time. The exception is Harry Adams, whose testimony features regularly throughout the book. I have been unable to confirm the rank he held at the time of the attack.
Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders of the material that features within this book, but I apologise if any source has not been fully acknowledged. If such an omission has occurred, or indeed if anyone has any additional material, please contact the Publishers so that such alterations can be made in future editions.
Introduction
O n St. Georges Day, during the last year of the First World War, a force of officers and men from the Royal Navy, Royal Marine Light Infantry, Royal Marine Artillery, Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Royal Naval Air Service and an eleven-man contingent from the Royal Australian Navy, approximately 1,000 men in total, was transported by a flotilla of some seventy ships to carry out audacious raids upon the Belgian ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend. Their purpose was to block the canal entrances that connected the German Naval Base at Bruges to the sea, thereby preventing submarines and torpedo destroyers of the Flanders Flotilla from scouring the North Sea and English Channel for Allied merchant shipping.
Towards the end of 1917, German U-boats were on the brink of starving Great Britain into defeat and submission by sinking, at often alarming rates, Allied merchant vessels that were transporting supplies of food, munitions and equipment. A large proportion of these submarines, together with a number of torpedo boat destroyers, were based at Bruges (the naval facilities were located eight miles inland and accessed by canal) under the immediate command of Korvettenkapitn Hans Bartenbach, though Admiral Ludwig von Schrder was in overall charge of German naval forces, known as the Marinekorps Flandern, based along the Belgian coast.
That these submarines had undertaken an effective campaign against Allied shipping was highlighted by Kapitnleutnant (later Konteradmiral) Werner Fips Frbringer, commander of various UB and UC-boats from 1915 to 1918. Frbringer later wrote:
