| Subject: Re: Marines Corps Flanders 23 April 1918 |
Author:
Johan
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Date Posted: 05:42:13 05/05/05 Thu
In reply to:
Paul Kendall
's message, "Re: Marines Corps Flanders 23 April 1918" on 12:33:01 05/02/05 Mon
Hi Paul,
Fact is that I even did research after German victims on the other West-Flanders military cemeteries.
As you said it, it was a massacre, hidden to the public by propaganda and other stories. I was several times on the Mole about twenty years ago, trying to understand what had really happened there. O don't know if you ever had the opportunity to do the same at the time, but it gave a very good idea of the death trap the British marines ran into.
The Germans were behind the concrete wall with their guns when they saw the ships arrive. The ships who where to land the personnel were as good as defenseless and could not really do anything back against these guns. That must already have been responsible for a number of victims. Once they were finally able to land on the Mole, they all came on to it in a narrow location, making them an ideal target. The Germans were in bunkers, hangars, behind other defenses, there were rows with barbed wire, had some machineguns and this explains why they, although seriously outnumbered, were able to hold of the force and prevent them to capture the Mole guns which were firing on the blocking ships.
The numbers on defenses and losses on German side in the book of Deborah Lake are based on the material I've found over the last twentytwo years on the matter. It is unfortunately not what was found in the newspapers and propaganda, it is the sad story of many British men which fell in an action that came on a such a moment in the ware, that it had to be succesfull.
People often don't take it in gratitude when I say that the raid was a disaster. High human losses, no real blocking of the Zeebrugge harbour, no result at all at Oostende...
However it was a victory in another way. One for the propaganda, with all the medals and VC's. But it was also a victory as it had been a very daring and heroic attack on the Dragon's nest (to make a variant on the dragon's tail). By the time it happened Dover Barrage became more and more successfull in destroying passing submarines. Less and less subs would pass the Channel...
Best from Johan
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