Zeebrugge Raid - The Raid

The Raid

The raid began with a diversionary attack against the mile-long Zeebrugge mole. The attack was led by the old cruiser, Vindictive, with two Mersey ferries, Daffodil and Iris II. The three ships were accompanied by two old submarines, which were filled with explosives to blow up the viaduct connecting the mole to the shore. Vindictive was to land a force of 200 Royal Marines at the entrance to the Bruges Canal. However, at the time of the landing the winds changed and the planned smoke-screen to cover the ship proved ineffective. The marines, whose objective was to destroy German gun positions, immediately came under heavy fire and suffered heavy casualties. Vindictive—spotted by German gun positions—was forced to land in the wrong location, resulting in the loss of the marines' heavy gun support. Eventually, the submarine HMS C3—commanded by Lt. R. D. Sandford—destroyed the viaduct as planned, by explosion. Sandford was awarded the Victoria Cross for this action.

The plan to sink three old cruisers to block the flow of traffic in and out of the Port of Bruges-Zeebrugge did not go as planned. The failure of the attack on the Zeebrugge mole resulted in heavy German fire on the three blocking ships, HMS Thetis, Intrepid and Iphigenia, which were filled with concrete. Thetis did not make it to the canal entrance, after it had hit an obstruction and was scuttled prematurely. The two other ships were sunk at the narrowest point of the canal.

The submarines C1—under Lieut. A.C Newbold — and C3 — under Lieut. R.D. Sandford — were old, each with a volunteer crew of one other officer and four ratings. They each had five tons of amatol packed into their fore-ends and were to be driven into the viaduct and then blown up to prevent reinforcement of the German garrison on the mole. The crews were to abandon their submarines shortly before the collision with the viaduct, leaving the submarines to steer themselves automatically, but during the passage from Dover, C1 parted with her tow and consequently arrived too late to take part in the operation.