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Daring
feat at sea
APRIL 24, 1918
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The casualties to
personnel are, I regret to say, heavy in proportion to the numbers engaged
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Under cover of artificial fog, British naval forces carried out a daring raid on the enemy bases at Zeebrugge and Ostend on Monday night. In order to seal the entrance to the Bruges Canal at Zeebrugge, two old British cruisers laden with concrete were run in and sunk there. A third grounded on the way in. Much damage was caused to the Mole approaches by the blowing up of a submarine laden with explosives. Volunteer storming parties of Marines landed at the Mole and gallantly engaged the defenders in a fierce fight which cost both sides heavy casualties and the enemy much material damage. A German destroyer was torpedoed, and other enemy craft damaged. At Ostend two more block ships laden with concrete were run ashore and blown up, but it is not known whether the the port has been blocked.
Sir Eric Geddes gave Parliament a detailed account, based on the information then to hand, of what he described as “the extremely gallant and hazardous raid”:
“I would ask the House to appreciate that most of the officers and men from whom we have to get information have been fighting the greater part of the night, and some of them are not yet in. The raid was undertaken under the command of Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes, commanding at Dover (cheers), French destroyers cooperating. Six obsolete cruisers took part in the attack — Brilliant, Sirius, Intrepid, lphigenia, Thetis, and Vindictive. The first five were filled with concrete, and were to be sunk in the channels and entrances to the ports if that could be managed. Vindictive, with two auxiliary craft, Daffodil and Iris, carried storming and demolition parties to the head of the Mole at Zeebrugge. The men on the block-ships and in the storming and demolition parties were bluejackets and Royal Marines, volunteers from the Grand Fleet (loud cheers) and from naval and marine depots (cheers). A large number of motor launches, coastal motor-boats, small, fast craft carrying a crew of six, and other small craft took part.
“The casualties to personnel are, I regret to say, heavy in proportion to the numbers engaged. All three ships withdrew successfully. One destroyer was sunk by gunfire off the Mole, and two coastal motor-boats and two motor launches are missing.”
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Capture of
Bourlon Wood
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We have effected a
dangerous lodgment in the Hindenburg zone of defence; if we can keep up our
pressure we have hopes of breaking the Hindenburg Line
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Yesterday the British joined in the attack begun by the French and Americans, and gained come very important successes on the old battleground of Cambrai. The most important was the capture of Bourlon Wood and village, which gave us so much trouble in the attack of last autumn. This time there is no doubt about the firmness of our hold, for we are within a thousand yards of Raillencourt, on the road from Arras and well behind Fontaine, which we won but could not retain in our attack last year.
The general course of our operations was extremely satisfactory. On the Arras road, of which we hold considerable sections, we are at places well across the Hindenburg Line as shown on the maps, though it must be remembered that the real German defences bear no resemblance to the geometrical definition of a line, but are more like the rings round Saturn.
We have few details of the battle, but there are certain well-marked differences between the present and the first battle of Cambrai. The first battle owed its initial success to the employment of Tanks and to the complete surprise that was effected. The Tanks are now familiar to the enemy, who recognizes them as his principal tactical danger in the war, and though there may have been surprise, it was not of the same complete character as that of a year ago. The enemy certainly knew that an attack was intended, and if he expected it nearer to St Quentin, that does not detract from the value of our victory, but enhances it by showing that we still retain our superiority in manoeuvre.
There is another striking difference between the two battles. Then the weight of our attack was put on our right wing; now it is on our left. It is like the difference between the first battle of the Somme and the second battle, which saw the same transference of the point of attack from the right to the left wing.
The situation is promising - so much so that it is wiser for the present to take a conservative view of our achievement. We have effected a dangerous lodgment in the Hindenburg zone of defence; if we can keep up our pressure we have hopes of breaking the Hindenburg Line and forcing a great German retirement before the winter. As it is, we are much farther forward than we were at any time in the first battle. The probability of an attack by the British on the western French front was doubtless inferred by most from the news of the Franco-American attack on the eastern front. This eastern attack has made good and in places remarkable progress.
The scene of the French attack is the same as that of the autumn campaign in Champagne in 1915. The French are once more in possession of the uttermost of their former gains; in addition thev have won Ripont, Cernay, Servon, and some other positions that they have never reached before. The bluffs of Champagne, rising above the thin, poverty-stricken soil which the wine of the country likes, make a great natural fortification, and the Germans have been continuously at work strengthening it ever since the third month of the war. The fighting has therefore been extremely hard, and the average of two miles’ progress represents a really great achievement.
The American progress on the right-perhaps because here there was a genuine surprise-was much more rapid. Our American Allies have not only pushed forward north of Verdun and down the Meuse valley for a distance of more than five miles, but they have gained ground in the Argonne region, and by the capture of Varennes they have the command of one of the several famous defiles across this region of wooded hills and almost Polish clay. They are in a region that has great political interest for Republican France. At Varennes Louis XVI was turned back in his flight from Paris, and at Valmy, near St Menchould, the French Revolutionary armies won the earliest and greatest of their victories.
The design of our strategy is still not fully revealed, but it is significant that for the first time in the war the main general intention of attack in France both on the west and on the eastern front, is not so much north and south, but east and west. The horns with which the Germans hoped to impale France four years ago are now grasped firmly by two strong hands and are being twisted back.
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Pinching
out Cambrai
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All ranks are animated by
the great honour entrusted to them of breaking the enemy defence behind
Cambrai, and feel that whatever troops may first enter that city it will have
been won by the Canadian Corps
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With the Canadian Army. At 6 o’clock this morning elements of our Third and Fourth Divisions advanced from the line they held on the Douai-Cambrai road, a double concerted movement along the twin spurs towards Cavillers and Ramillies, the immediate objective being to take and consolidate the line of railway. This was successfully accomplished, and the defence appearing weak, the movement was pushed in some thousand yards east, the object being to exploit to the utmost any disposition the enemy might have of falling back in this sector. Smoke barrages were put down on either flank to protect the movement, but, owing to a gale from the west, proved ineffective, with the consequence that enemy machine-gunners from Blecourt on the north, and Tilloy on the south, opened a heavy fire on our troops on the hilltops. At the same time three battalions of the enemy’s 22nd Division made a frontal attack. Our troops fell back on the railway. Later in the day we established posts in Tilloy.
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In these operations the enemy were served by a greater number of machine-guns than have yet been concentrated on the Canadian front. Our losses were correspondingly heavy, and particularly regrettable were casualties among tried regimental officers. An eastern British Columbia battalion had its colonel wounded, and its two majors an adjutant killed. A Central Ontario battalion lost all its officers but the commander and one other. The majority of the casualties, however, are more or less light wounds from machine-guns. The enemy showed the utmost resolution in his counter-attacks, but could not dislodge us from the railway. On our left the 1st Division remained quiet during the day. Yesterday they advanced up to the railway station of Abancourt, but owing to intense machine-gun fire from the heights on either flank fell back to their original line. The importance the enemy attaches to the defence of this area is shown by his concentration of troops, the following divisions having been identified, either actively on our front or immediately in reserve: 22nd (Saxon), 12th (Prussian froin Silesia), 234th (Prussian from Magdeburg), 207th (Prussian), 200th (Prussian from Rhineland), 38th {Prussian from Thuringen), 12th Reserve (Prussian from Breslau), and 13th (Prussian from Rhineland). Thus eight divisions, seven Prussian and one Saxon, are opposed to the Canadian Corps, and, though some of them are undoubtedly weak, it makes a very tough proposition, especially when the enemy relies mainly for his defence on a dense screen of machine-gun positions which can only be overcome by intense artillery preparation. Where such defence is resolute, infantry advances can only be made at heavy cost. Our casualties since last Friday have been heavy, but in part they are offset by prisoners, not far short of 6,000.
ATTACK ON THE GRAND SCALE.
Reinforced by the 56th British Division which has taken over our left flank south of the Sensee Canal, the Canadian Corps thrust forward early this morning a spearhead into the heart of the enemy defence this side of the Canal d’Escaut. At five o’clock a great barrage was laid down along the entire line and under this concentration much of the enemy’s machine-gun system wilted and disappeared. Troops of the 1st, 4th, and 3rd Canadian Divisions, in that order from north to south, jumped off instantly. Five minutes later the enemy laid down a barrage along what had been our front, but it was empty. At this hour the attack is going well forward on the grand scale. Much of the high ground which hindered or enfladed our advance yesterday is in our hands. Starting at the north we have captured Abancourt, Bantigny, Blecourt and Cuvillers, and the line of the road thence to Ramillies, where we have established a bridgehead on the Canal d’Escaut. North of Cambrai we hold the wood of Morenchies and the Pont d’Aire. The line is reported pushing on and wedging the massed enemy defence into the sharp salient formed by the Sensee.and Escaut Canals. The situation is full of possibilities. Last night it was bitterly cold with torrential rains. The troops detailed suffered this in improvised shelter for the most part, though some battalions were lucky enough to occupy Boche dugouts. in sunken roads. But the elements could not damp their ardour, nor did their heavy losses of the last few days. All ranks are animated by the sense of the great honour entrusted to them of breaking the enemy defence behind Cambrai, and feel that whatever troops may first enter that city it will have been won by the Canadian Corps. This important success is not to be minimized.
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