After the Mersey ferries, Iris and Daffodil, and the cruiser Vindictive, had berthed against the Zeebrugge Mole during the raid in April 1918, the storming parties had to silence the German battery before the blockships arrived – but, as Robert Mitchell explains, the British ships had not reached the targeted position and the marines and sailors were faced with an impossible task.
STORMING ZEEBRUGGE
They had rehearsed it time and time again. The ships would press against the Mole, the brows would be lowered, and the parties of marines and sailors would clamber up to the wall of the Mole before dropping down to the main level. Then they would assemble under their respective commanders and attack the end of the Mole by the lighthouse and neutralise the dangerous German battery before the blockships arrived. That, at least, was the plan. If the Royal Navy was to prevent the U-boats and torpedo boats of the Flanders Flotilla from entering the North Sea, where they preyed upon Allied shipping, then the entrance to the Bruges Canal had to be blocked. For this, three old cruisers, filled with concrete, were to be sunk at the canal entrance. But first, the cruisers had to pass the enemy guns at the end of th…
