World's War Events Volume III Part 11

[Sidenote: Impossible to meet the second shock on the Tagliamento.]

To meet this second shock on the Tagliamento was not possible. The river itself quickly became, as the rain stopped and the waters fell, too easily traversable an obstacle to be worth fortifying. The line which it would have imposed upon the Italian army was, moreover, too long to be held in the depth desirable for resistance to the attack of superior numbers. So the Tagliamento was occupied as an intermediate position only long enough to shield the further retreat of the army and its transport behind the broader and deeper stream of the Piave.

[Sidenote: The new stand behind the Piave.]

[Sidenote: Winter rains will delay enemy's heavy guns.]

Here at the time of writing the Italian forces are in position and the enemy's advanced detachments have begun to register ranges and destroy possible observation posts across the river with such artillery as they have so far had the time to bring up. Whether the Piave line and the rest of the Italian front to the westward, which has had to be modified in conformation with the general movement of retreat, can be held indefinitely, will probably be a question of heavy guns. If the enemy can bring up his larger artillery before reinforcements of the same character arrive from France and England, a further retreat from north and east to another river line may well be necessary. Fortunately the winter rains that have set in make for delay in the arrival of such c.u.mbrous war-engines as the Austrian seventeen-inch mortars, and it may be that persistent mud and rain will compel the Austrians to be satisfied with holding the considerable tract of territory that they have won.

[Sidenote: Danger that Venice must be abandoned.]

[Sidenote: Cathedrals and palaces are protected by sand bags.]

But all preparations are being made to face the conceivable eventuality of another retirement. The most serious consequence that this would entail would be the abandonment of Venice and the necessity of bringing that inestimable city within close range of the destruction of war. Even at this early stage, therefore, while the danger to Venice is as yet not urgent, the Italian Government is doing its best to surround her with the protection of such neutrality as the conventions of war, for what they are worth, secure to undefended and unoccupied towns. No person in uniform is allowed to enter the place and the civilian population is being encouraged to leave by free railway transport and subventions to support them until they can settle elsewhere. Even in such tragic hours Venice keeps up her old tradition of light-heartedness. The cafes round the great piazza are full in the evenings with a cheerful crowd.

Moreover, to go into St. Mark's is to enter a sort of neolithic grotto; the pillars, set about with sand-bags, have the girth of the arcades of a Babylonian temple; bulging poultices of sacks protect each fresco; as a building it reminds one of a German student padded for a duel. The Doge's Palace, too, is more hidden with scaffolding than it could have been when it was being built; each of those delicate columns of different design is set around with a stout palisade of timber balks.

Venice, indeed, looks like a drawing-room with the dust-sheets on the furniture and the chandeliers in bags, and to complete the parallel, the family is going away before one's eyes.

Sad days for Italy, days unimaginable a month ago. There must, indeed, be virtue in the Allies' cause since such ordeals as these still leave our courage high.

Copyright, Century, March, 1918.

The bottling up of the Harbor of Zeebrugge and the attempted closing of the Harbor of Ostend formed what was probably the most brilliant single naval exploit of the war. These daring and successful attempts are described in the narrative following.

BOTTLING UP ZEEBRUGGE AND OSTEND

THE OFFICIAL NARRATIVE

[Sidenote: The _Vindictive_ as she lies in Ostend Harbor.]

Those who recall High Wood upon the Somme--and they must be many, as it was after the battles of 1916--may easily figure to themselves the decks of H.M.S. _Vindictive_ as she lies to-day, a stark, black profile, against the sea haze of the harbor amid the stripped, trim shapes of the fighting ships which throng these waters. That wilderness of debris, that litter of the used and broken tools of war, lavish ruin and that prodigal evidence of death and battle, are as obvious and plentiful here as there. The ruined tank nosing at the stout tree which stopped it has its parallel in the flame-thrower hut at the port wing of _Vindictive's_ bridge, its iron sides freckled with rents from machine-gun bullets and sh.e.l.l-splinters; the tall white cross which commemorates the martyrdom of the Londoners is sister to the dingy, pierced White Ensign which floated over the fight of the Zeebrugge Mole.

[Sidenote: The _Iris_ and the _Daffodil_ which shared the honors.]

Looking aft from the chaos of her wrecked bridge, one sees, snug against their wharf, the heroic bourgeois shapes of the two Liverpool ferry-boats (their captains' quarters are still labelled "Ladies Only") _Iris_ and _Daffodil_, which shared with _Vindictive_ the honors and ardors of the fight. The epic of their achievement shapes itself in the light of that view across the scarred and littered decks, in that environment of gray water and great still ships.

[Sidenote: The three cruisers that were sunk at Zeebrugge.]

Their objectives were the ca.n.a.l of Zeebrugge and the entrance to the harbor of Ostend--theirs, and those of five other veteran and obsolete cruisers and a mosquito fleet of destroyers, motor-launches and coastal motor-boats. Three of the cruisers, _Intrepid_, _Iphigenia_ and _Thetis_, each duly packed with concrete and with mines attached to her bottom for the purpose of sinking her, _Merrimac_-fashion, in the neck of the ca.n.a.l, were aimed at Zeebrugge; two others, similarly prepared, were directed at Ostend. The function of _Vindictive_, with her ferry-boats, was to attack the great half-moon Mole which guards the Zeebrugge Ca.n.a.l, land bluejackets and marines upon it, destroy what stores, guns, and Germans she could find, and generally create a diversion while the block-ships ran in and sank themselves in their appointed place. Vice Admiral Keyes, in the destroyer _Warwick_, commanded the operation.

[Sidenote: The conditions favorable for the attack.]

There had been two previous attempts at the attack, capable of being pushed home if weather and other conditions had served. The night of the 22nd offered nearly all the required conditions, and at some fifteen miles off Zeebrugge the ships took up their formation for the attack.

_Vindictive_, which had been towing _Iris_ and _Daffodil_, cast them off to follow under their own steam; _Intrepid_, _Iphigenia_, and _Thetis_ slowed down to give the first three time to get alongside the Mole; _Sirius_ and _Brilliant_ shifted their course for Ostend; and the great swarm of destroyers and motor craft sowed themselves abroad upon their multifarious particular duties. The night was overcast and there was a drift of haze; down the coast a great searchlight swung its beams to and fro; there was a small wind and a short sea.

[Sidenote: The _Vindictive_ heads for the Mole.]

[Sidenote: The wind helps make a smoke-screen.]

From _Vindictive's_ bridge, as she headed in towards the Mole with her faithful ferry-boats at her heels, there was scarcely a glimmer of light to be seen sh.o.r.ewards. Ahead of her, as she drove through the water, rolled the smoke-screen, her cloak of invisibility, wrapped about her by the small craft. This was a device of Wing-Commander Brock, R.N.A.S., "without which," acknowledges the Admiral in Command, "the operation could not have been conducted." The north-east wind moved the volume of it sh.o.r.eward ahead of the ships; beyond it, the distant town and its defenders were unsuspicious; and it was not till _Vindictive_, with her bluejackets and marines standing ready for the landing, was close upon the Mole that the wind lulled and came away again from the south-west, sweeping back the smoke-screen and laying her bare to the eyes that looked seaward.

[Sidenote: The star sh.e.l.ls discover the ships and battle opens.]

[Sidenote: The _Vindictive_ reaches the Mole.]

There was a moment immediately afterwards when it seemed to those in the ships as if the dim coast and the hidden harbor exploded into light. A star sh.e.l.l soared aloft, then a score of star sh.e.l.ls; the wavering beams of the searchlights swung round and settled to a glare; the wildfire of gun flashes leaped against the sky; strings of luminous green beads shot aloft, hung and sank; and the darkness of the night was supplanted by the nightmare daylight of battle fires. Guns and machine-guns along the Mole and batteries ash.o.r.e woke to life, and it was in a gale of sh.e.l.ling that _Vindictive_ laid her nose against the thirty-foot high concrete side of the Mole, let go an anchor, and signed to _Daffodil_ to shove her stern in. _Iris_ went ahead and endeavored to get alongside likewise.

[Sidenote: Captain Carpenter in the flame-thrower hut.]

The fire, from the account of everybody concerned, was intense. While ships plunged and rolled beside the Mole in an unexpected send of sea, _Vindictive_ with her greater draught jarring against the foundation of the Mole with every plunge, they were swept diagonally by machine-gun fire from both ends of the Mole and by heavy batteries ash.o.r.e. Commander A.F.B. Carpenter (now Captain) conned _Vindictive_ from her open bridge till her stern was laid in, when he took up his position in the flame-thrower hut on the port side. It is to this hut that reference has already been made; it is marvellous that any occupant of it should have survived a minute, so riddled and shattered is it. Officers of _Iris_, which was in trouble ahead of _Vindictive_, describe Captain Carpenter as "handling her like a picket-boat."

[Sidenote: The _Vindictive's_ false high deck and gangways.]

_Vindictive_ was fitted along the port side with a high false deck, whence ran the eighteen brows, or gangways, by which the storming and demolition parties were to land. The men were gathered in readiness on the main and lower decks, while Colonel Elliot, who was to lead the Marines, waited on the false deck just abaft the bridge, and Captain H.C. Halahan, who commanded the bluejackets, was amidships. The gangways were lowered, and sc.r.a.ped and rebounded upon the high parapet of the Mole as _Vindictive_ rolled; and the word for the a.s.sault had not yet been given when both leaders were killed, Colonel Elliot by a sh.e.l.l and Captain Halahan by the machine-gun fire which swept the decks. The same sh.e.l.l that killed Colonel Elliot also did fearful execution in the forward Stokes Mortar Battery.

[Sidenote: Landing on the Mole.]

"The men were magnificent." Every officer bears the same testimony. The mere landing on the Mole was a perilous business; it involved a pa.s.sage across the crashing, splintering gangways, a drop over the parapet into the field of fire of the German machine-guns which swept its length, and a further drop of some sixteen feet to the surface of the Mole itself.

Many were killed and more were wounded as they crowded up to the gangways; but nothing hindered the orderly and speedy landing by every gangway.

Lieutenant H.T.C. Walker had his arm carried away by a sh.e.l.l on the upper deck and lay in the darkness while the storming parties trod him under. He was recognized and dragged aside by the Commander. He raised his remaining arm in greeting, "Good luck to you," he called, as the rest of the stormers hastened by; "good luck."

[Sidenote: The wounded and dying cheer.]

The lower deck was a shambles as the Commander made the rounds of his ship; yet those wounded and dying raised themselves to cheer as he made his tour. The crew of the howitzer which was mounted forward had all been killed; a second crew was destroyed likewise; and even then a third crew was taking over the gun. In the stern cabin a firework expert, who had never been to sea before--one of Captain Brock's employees--was steadily firing great illuminating rockets out of a scuttle to show up the lighthouse on the end of the Mole to the block ships and their escort.

[Sidenote: The _Daffodil's_ part in the fight.]

The _Daffodil_, after aiding to berth _Vindictive_, should have proceeded to land her own men, but now Commander Carpenter ordered her to remain as she was, with her bows against _Vindictive's_ quarter, pressing the latter ship into the Mole. Normally, _Daffodil's_ boilers develop eighty pounds' pressure of steam per inch; but now, for this particular task, Artificer Engineer b.u.t.ton, in charge of them maintained a hundred and sixty pounds for the whole period that she was holding _Vindictive_ to the Mole. Her casualties, owing to her position during the fight, were small--one man killed and eight wounded, among them her Commander, Lieutenant H. Campbell, who was struck in the right eye by a sh.e.l.l splinter.

[Sidenote: The _Iris_ finds her work difficult.]

_Iris_ had troubles of her own. Her first attempts to make fast to the Mole ahead of _Vindictive_ failed, as her grapnels were not large enough to span the parapet. Two officers. Lieutenant Commander Bradford and Lieutenant Hawkins, climbed ash.o.r.e and sat astride the parapet trying to make the grapnels fast till each was killed and fell down between the ship and the wall. Commander Valentine Gibbs had both legs shot away and died next morning. Lieutenant Spencer, B.N.R., though wounded, conned the ship and Lieutenant Henderson, R.N., came up from aft and took command.

[Sidenote: Terrible casualties on the _Iris_.]

_Iris_ was obliged at last to change her position and fall in astern of _Vindictive_, and suffered very heavily from the fire. A single big sh.e.l.l plunged through the upper deck and burst below at a point where fifty-six marines were waiting the order to go to the gang-ways.

Forty-nine were killed and the remaining seven wounded. Another sh.e.l.l in the ward-room, which was serving as sick bay, killed four officers and twenty-six men. Her total casualties were eight officers and sixty-nine men killed and three officers and a hundred and two men wounded.

[Sidenote: The demolition parties on the Mole dynamite buildings.]

The storming and demolition parties upon the Mole met with no resistance from the Germans, other than the intense and unremitting fire. The geography of the great Mole, with its railway line and its many buildings, hangars, and store-sheds, was already well known, and the demolition parties moved to their appointed work in perfect order. One after another the building burst into flame or split and crumpled as the dynamite went off.