Foreground shows harbor facilities and submarine
pens.]
ZEEBRUGGE HARBOR, BLOCKED BY BRITISH
The Iris was obliged at last to change her position and fall in astern
of the Vindictive, which suffered very heavily from fire. Her total
casualties were eight officers and sixty-nine men killed, and three
officers and 103 men wounded.
The storming parties upon the mole met with no resistance from the
Germans other than an intense and unremitting fire. One after another
buildings burst into flames, or split and crumbled as dynamite went off.
A bombing party working up toward the mole in search of the enemy
destroyed several machine gun emplacements but not a single prisoner
awarded them. It appears that upon the approach of the ships and with
the opening of fire the enemy simply retired and contented themselves
with bringing machine guns to the short end of the mole.
The object of the fighting on the mole was in large part to divert the
enemy's attention while the work of blocking the canals was being
accomplished.
Of this operation the official narrative says: "The Thetis came first
steaming into a tornado of shells from great batteries ashore. All her
crew save a remnant who remained to steam her in and sink her, already
had been taken off her by a ubiquitous motor launch. The remnant spared
hands enough to keep her four guns going.
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