1940-06-07 — Page 16

Friday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPHY

*June 7, 1940.

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Hongkong Telegraph.

Friday, June 7, 1940.

Wyndham St., Hongkong Telephone: 26015

THE prea "Special to the Telegraph" is used by the "longkong Telegraph" to Indicate news with is strictly copyright under the provisions of the Telecommuni cations Ordinance, 1936. Such news as bears the indication "ET" is received in Hongkong on the date of publication by the United Press Associations, who re- serve all rights and forbid 'republication, either wholly or in part without previo DĖ Arrangement.

THE

GLORY

ZEEBRUGGE

THOSE who recall High Wood upon the Summe--and they must be many, as it way after the

1916-may battles of

easily figure to themselves the decks of H.M.S. Vindictivo as she lies to- day, stark, black proflo against the sea haze of the har- bour amid the stripped, trim shapes of the Sghting ships which throng these waters, That wilderness of debris, that litter of the used and broken tools of war, that lavish ruin and that prodigal evidence of death and . battle, are as obvious and plenti- ful hero as there. The ruined tank nesing at the stout tree which stopped it has its parallel In the flame-thrower hut at the port wing of Vindictive's bridge, ita iron aldes freckled with rents froom machine-gun bullets and shell-aplinters; the tall white' choss which commemorates the martyrdom of the Londoners is sister to the dingy, pierced floated White Ensign which over the fight of the Zeebrugge Mole.

are

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 stilt quarters captains labelled "Ladies Only") Iris and Deffodil,

which shared with Vindictive the honours and urdours 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 grey water and great still ships. tho Their objectives were canal of Zeebrugge and the entrance to the harbour of Ostend their, and those of dive other veteran and obsolete crui- sers and a mosquito fleet of des- and troyers, motor-launches colistal motor-boats.. Three of the cruisers, Intrepid, Iphigenia and Thells, ench duly packed with concrete and with mines It is necessary to have a strong stomach to read without a feeling-of attached to her bottom for the nousea the revelations of Nazi

purpere of sinking her, Merri- mac-fashion, in the neck of the cruelty and brutality contained in the "Papers concerning the Treat-

canal, were aimed at Zeebrugge; ment of German Nationals in Ger-

two others, similarly prepared, many 1938-1939," a copy of which

were directed at Ostend. The hus just been received in Hongkong.

function of Vindictive, with It would have been thought incredi ble that such naked savagery could her ferry-boats, was to attack Mole exist in

half-moon this century

the among a

Kroat civilised people who boast of the which guards the Zeebrugge "Kultur." But the evidence is both

Canal, and bluejackets and circumstantial and accredited by his

marines upon it, destroy what Majesty's Consuls in various German

stores, guns, and Germana she elties, as well as by reputable wit-

could find, und generally create nesses of the foul deeds of which the they have themselves been vicums. So horrible-are-these dis- closures of the spirit that actuates

**** Nazi Infernos

diversion while the block- -ships-rain and sank them- selves in their appointed place.

the Nazi creed that the Foch / •Vico-Admiral Keyes, in the leg-

overcome,

་

un-

Offee have been reluctant to them, for fear of embittering lations.

That

reluctance has been however, by the scrupulous propaganda which the German Government are spreading here and abroad, making against this Empire outrageously false charges of what atrocities. After reading of those who make those charges are themselves

ire capable actions miniscent of the darkest ages in the history of man"—public

opinion, the world over, will be able to judge for itself. The documents now publish- ed all relate to the events of lest year or this, and they show, there- fore, "that neither the consolidation of the regime nor the passage of Ume has in any way mitigated the savagery."

troyer Warwick, commanded the operation.

There had been two previous attempts at the attack, capable of being pushed home if wen- ther 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 them- selves abroad upon their multi- farloas particular duties. The night was overenst and there was a drift of hare; down the coast a great adarchlight awung its beams to and fro; there was a ginall.wind and a short

800.

..

THE ADMIRALTY announced on Wednesday that British warships, pro- ceeding in the face of intense fire, had succeeded in entering Zeebrugge harbour and had blocked the main channel with concrete block ships.

The true story of this exploit, which parallels the Epic of Zeebrugge in the last war, probably will not be told for some months. Here is the story of the first attack on Zeebrugge --one of the most daring naval actions of the World War.

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.AS, "without which," neknowledges the Admiral in Command, "the operation could not have been

The north-east conducted."

wind moved the volume of it shorewards ahead of the ships; beyond it, the distant town and Its defenders were unauspici-¡ ous; and it was not till Vin- diotive, with her bluejackets and marines standing ready for the landing, was close upon the Mole that the wind fulled and came away again from the southwest, sweeping back the ameke-screen and laying her that looked bare to the eyes seaward.

There was Д moment im- mediately afterwards when it seemed to those in the ships as if the dian coast and the hidden harbour exploded into light. A star shell soared

Д score of star- sloft; then shells; the wavering beams of the searchlights swung round and settled to a ghro; the wildfire of gun flashes leaped sky; strings of against tho luminous groen. bende chot nloft, hung and sank; and the darkness of the night was sup- planted by the nightmare day- light of battle fires. Guns and machine-guns along the Mole and batteries ashore woke to life, and it was in a gale of shelling that Vindictive laid her nose against the thirty-foot high concrete side of the Mole, lot go an anchor, and algned to ex- Daffodil to shove her stern in. camp Iris went ahead and endeavour-

Most of these reports and testi- -monies-relate to-the-conditions en- dured in the concentration camp at Buchenwald, near Welmar, where the august Goethe sleeps. In this camp have been herded thousands of Jews and non-Jows, guarded by S.S. men and overseered by professional criminals. The unhappy creatures condemned to this camp have found themselves subjected to a system of deliberate torture of mind and body, from which the only deliverance Has been death. This barbarous usage has not been the mere sadistic caprice of Individuals; it has been the treat- ment ordered by the highest authori- tics, who have apparently experi- enced fiendish delight in inflicting Ignominy and suffering on their captives. Ingenuity has been strain- ed to invent tortures. The elemen- tary decencies of life have been denled; impossibly

is the peril that now overshadows the arduous Lasks have been imposed; punishments, of

civilised world. Such is the destiny of every free people who fall under which flogging is the least, severe,.

this fell, infernal sway. One have been multiplied.

Buchenwald prisoner in the

a

From Vindictive's bridge, us she headed in towards the Mole with her faithful ferry-boats at her hools, there was scarcely a glimmer of light to be seen shorewards. Ahead of her, as aha drove through the water,

police

with

No wonder that one of these official tells of how, after his release, heed to get alongside likewise. witnesses, who has lived among the was interviewed in Berlin by a group

The fire, from the account Germans for eight years and who of officials of the regular had been thinking that he understood force, and how his story of what he of everybody concerned, was While ships plunged them,

Such intense. confesses that recent ex- had endured shocked them. periences have shown him a facet conditions, they said, were revolting and rolled beside the Mole in shows that an unexpected wend of Bea, of the German character which he and a scandal; which

with her greater had not suspected. No wonder, as there are still in Germany people of Vindictive another witness writes, "In present decent, humane instincts. But such day Germany no word strikes greater people are not in control. It is the draught jarring against the terror In people's herrie than the authors and devisers of the Buchen- foundation of the Mole name Buchenwald." Nor were the wald barbarities who rule the roost every plunge, they were swept. conditions any less horrible in the now in Germany. What is done is diagonally by machine-gun fro concentration camp at Dachau, If done not only with their consent, from both ends of the Mole and

heavy such bestial cruelty had been actuated but by their express orders; and the by

batteries ashore. Commander A. F. B. Uarpenter by the parsions of a bitter war it black Infamy of which they bear the

(now Captain) connal Vindic- could never be palliated. But what gulit will never be effaced in living is to be said of such an organised | memory. The outside world has orgy of inhumanity, against fellow only to read these papers to realise tive from her open bridge till no that it is not merely democracy, or her stern was laid in, when he. resistance or provocation, in a time polliical liberty that is at stake in took up his position in not of defast or even of struggle, but the present struggle. It is civilian flame-thrower hut on the port of bloodless triumph?. Such is the tion fiself. It is the very dignity of side. It to this hut that

referenca vile and evil heart of Nazidom. Such the human race,

has already been?

countrymen who have offered"

the

made; it la mзrvellous that any occupant of it should have sur vived a minute, so riddled and shattered is it. Officers of, Iris, which was in trouble-shead-of- Vindictive, describe Captain Carpenter as "handling her like a picket-bout."

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 Fund. The men were gathered in readiness on the main and lower decks, while Colonel Elliot, who was to fead the Marines, waited on the false deck just abhift the bridge, and Captain H. C. Halahan, who camma maled the

bluejackets,-

was armidships. The gangwŁYS were lowered, and scraped and rebounded upon the high para- pet of the Mole as Vindictive rolled; and the word for the assault-hall not yet been given whan both leaders were killed. Colonel Ellot by a shell and the Captain Halahan by machine-gun fire which awept the decks. The astme shall that killed Colonel Elliot also did fearful execution in the forward Stokes Mortar Battery.

samo

"The man were magnificent." Every officer bears the testimony. The merr landing on the Mole was perilous business; it involved a pasange wcross the crashing, splintering gong ways, a drop over the parapet into the field of fire of the German machine-guns which awept its length, and a further drop of some sixteen feet to the surface of the Molo itself.

And Many were killed were wounded as they crowded up to the gangways; but nothing hindered the orderly and epoody landing by every

gangway.

moro

Lieutenant H. T. C. Walker hnd his arm carried away by a sholl on the upper deck and

trod atorning parties

him lay, in the darkness while the

under. He was recognised and dragged aside by the Com mander. He raised his remain- Ing arm in greeting. "Good luck to you," he called, is the rest of the atormers hastened by "ood luck."

The lower deck was salam- bles as the Commander made the rounds of his ship; yet those wounded and dying raise od themselves to choor ne he

OF

made his tour.

Avon

The crow-of- the howitzer which Was mounted forward had all been. killed; A second

*NEW. WORK destroyed likewise; and then a thin crow was taking over the gun. In the stern cahin a firework expert, who had never been to sea before-- one of Captain Brock's ployees-was steadily fring great illuminating rockets out of a scuttle to show up the lighthouse on the end of the Mole to the block shipe, and their escort..

em--

The Daffodil, after aiding to- borth Vindictive, should have- proceeded land her own men, but now Commander Carpenter ordered her to remain as sho was, with hor bows against Vindictive's quarter, pressing the latter ship into the Mole. Normally, Daffodil's boilers de- volop eighty pounds' pre BBUTE of steam per inch; but now, for this particular task, Artificer Engineer Sutton, in charge of thom, maintained a hundred and sixty pounds for the whole - period that sho was holding

Her Vindictive to the Mole. Ousualties, owing to her poultion during the fight, wore small-

and eight one man killed

them her wounded, among

H. Commander, Lieutenant Campbell, who was struck in: the right eye by a shell splinter.

Iris had troubles of her own. 7. Her first attempts to minke fast to the Mole ahead of Vindic- • tive failed, as her grapnels were not large enough to span the parapet. Two officers, Lieut.-

Braxiford

And Commander

climbed Lieutenant Hawkins,

sat ashore and

astride tho-

the parapet trying to make Krapnela fast till each killed and fell down batweon

the ship and the wall.

Wak:

Com-

mander Valontine Gibbs had. both legs shot away and died Lieutenant

next morning.

Spencer, R.N.R., though wound- ⚫ed, took command and refused

to bo relieved.

last Irla was obliged at

to. change hor position and fall in nstorn of Vindictive, and suffer.. ed very heavily from the fire.. A single big sholl plunged through the upper deck and burst below at a point where fifty-six marines were waiting the order to go to the gangways. Forty-nine were killed and the ramaining

wounded. Another shell in the ward-room. which was serving as sick bay. -killed-four-offcors-and-twenty- six mon. Her total casualties were eight officers and sixty- nine men killed and three- officers, and a hundred and two mon wounded.

soven

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

***

the

A bombing party, working up- towards the Mole extension in search of the enemy, destroyed several machine-gun amplace- ments, but not a single prisoner rewarded them. It appears that upon the approach of the Ahips, and with the opening of the fire, the enemy simply re tired and contented themselves - with bringing machine-guns, to the shore end of the Mole. And while they worked and des troyed, the covering party below the pampet could see in the harbour, by the fight of the German star shells, the shapes: of the block whips stealing in and out of their own smoke and ́. making for the mouth of the canal.

Thetis came first, Atoaming into a tornado of shell from the great batteries aahore. All hor crow, Have a remnant who re-. mained to steam hor in and ink her, had already beón takon off her by the ubiquitous motor" launches, but. tho remnant sparod hands enough to koop her four guns going. It was

the hers to show

road to Intrepid and Iphigenia who followed.

She cleared the string of armod barges which defends the channel from the tip of the Mole, but had the ill-fortune to foul one of her propellers, upon the not defence which flanka It on the shore side. The propeller gathered in the net and rendered, her practically unmanageable: the shore batteries found her and pounded her unremittingly: Tum to Page 9, Third: Cölümne: