Bourke at the Blockship Raid of May 1918

Roland Bourke's Personal Account of the Blockship Raid of May 1918

In a letter to his brother written in October 1918, Victoria Cross and Distinguished Service Order recipient Roland Bourke describes the 1918 blockship operations. A member of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, Bourke served on motor launches in Larne, Ireland and Dover, England during the First World War. In the spring of 1918, Bourke was captain of His Majesty’s Motor Launch 276, rescuing blockship crews at the raids on Ostend, Belgium. This episode recounts the second blockship operation that targeted Ostend, which began on May 9, 1918 and ended the following morning on May 10, 1918.

Audiogram Subjects

Below is a list of the people and ships mentioned in the audiogram for reference.

People

Subjects mentioned in these programs include the following and information about most of them can be found in various places online and in the article below this section.

Roland (Rowland) Richard Bourke, VC, DSO (1885-1958)
Sir Ion Hamilton Benn, 1st Baronet, CB, DSO, KStJ, TD (1863–1961)
Arthur Reginald Marsden Lower, CC FRSC (1889–1988)
Keith Robin Hoare, DSO (1890-1959)
Alfred Edmund Godsal, DSO, Croix de Guerre (1884–1918)
Sir Victor Alexander Charles Crutchley, VC, KCB, DSC, DL (1893–1986)
Roger John Keyes, First Baron Keyes, GCB, KCVO, CMG, DSO (1872-1945)
Geoffrey Heneage Drummond, VC (1886-1941)
Alexander McBain Young (1894 – 1950)

Vessels

The following vessels are mentioned in the video and in the article below.

His Majesty’s Motor Launches
HMS Vindictive
HMS Warwick

Resources

For more information on the topic of this programme and the sources used, please use the links below. You can also read an article created from the audiogram below the links.

Videos

To watch more about the Blockship Raids of 1918 view the following videos.

Websites

For more information on the topics covered in this program, visit the following websites.

Books

If you prefer to read a book about the Blockship Raids of 1918, there are several modern accounts & vintage histories including the following.

The Zeebrugge & Ostend Raids 1918 by Deborah Lake: This is one of the most accessible and thorough modern narratives of the entire operation. Written by a former RAF officer, it excels at breaking down the sheer logistical nightmare, the strategic context, and the planning failures of the raid. Lake meticulously tracks both the diversionary assault on the Zeebrugge Mole and the terrifying movement of the concrete-filled blockships (HMS Thetis, Intrepid, and Iphigenia) as they tried to navigate into the narrow canal mouth under devastating fire.
The Raids on Zeebrugge & Ostend 1918 by C. Sanford Terry & Keble Howard: This modern republication combines two prominent wartime accounts written in the immediate aftermath of the 1918 events. It provides a fascinating look at how the British public and the Admiralty viewed the tactical success—and the intense human cost—of the blockship strategy just months after the smoke cleared.

The Blockship Operation of May 9, 1918

By K.M. Lowe

As noted in the previous post, in 1915, Roland Bourke was rejected by all Canadian military services due to his defective eyesight, which had been damaged in an explosion in 1907. Undeterred, he travelled to England in 1916 and talked his way into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, where he was assigned to motor launches, often crewed by Canadians. Motor launches were eighty-foot wooden vessels designed for coastal defence and submarine chasing. Powered by petrol engines with a top speed of around 19 knots, they were typically armed with a single three-pounder and several machine guns.

A transcript of a letter written by Roland (often spelled Rowland) Bourke to his half-brother John in October 1918 is in the Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum archives. The letter describes the block-ship raids that garnered Distinguished Service Order and Victoria Cross medals for Roland while he served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR).

Bourke had been assigned to motor launches as a Sub-Lieutenant, but was promoted to Lieutenant in command of His Majesty’s Motor Launch 341 at Larne, Ireland. In November 1917, he transferred to Dover, taking command of Motor Launch 276. Dover in England, and Dunkirk in France functioned as a single tactical unit for the Dover Patrol. Dover was the administrative and logistical heart, as well as the primary repair yard and safe harbour behind the Dover Barrage, a massive anti-submarine net and mine system. Dunkirk was the frontline springboard as it was significantly closer to the German-occupied Belgian ports.

By 1918, Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare was close to starving Britain into submission. The inland Belgian city of Brugge served as a massive protected nest for German U-boats and destroyers. The block-ship operations in the spring of 1918 were designed to obstruct the Zeebrugge and Ostend channels with obsolete ships, packed with concrete and rubble. The April 23rd operation had been partially successful at Zeebrugge. But at Ostend, the ships did not reach their target. So in May, they tried again.

The Courage of Roland Bourke

Immediately after the April 23rd raid, Bourke put in for leave to go home to Canada, which was approved by his commanding officer, the Dover Patrol Captain, Sir Ion Hamilton Benn, First Baronet. Benn was the commander of a flotilla of motor launches in the Dover Patrol for three years during the First World War. Benn’s wartime service was recognised with the Distinguished Service Order, appointment as a Companion of the Order of the Bath and the Croix de Guerre. His motor-launches played a major role in the spring 1918 raids by creating chemical smoke-screens and rescuing crews from the block-ships.

But as soon as his leave was approved, he learned that there would be a second blockship operation. He immediately put his leave on hold and volunteered. He wrote in the letter that he learned Commander Godsal had again volunteered.

Alfred Edmund Godsal, Distinguished Service Order, Croix de Guerre, had served on a variety of ships in the Mediterranean, West Indies, and China Station, and by 1914, was an elite officer. Godsal was promoted to Commander at the age of 32, and volunteered for the 1918 blockship operations. During the operations on April 23, 1918, Commander Alfred Godsal was in command of the First Ostend Raid—the simultaneous sister operation to the more widely known Zeebrugge Raid. He led the assault force and captained the obsolete cruiser HMS Brilliant, which was packed with concrete and intended to be used as a blockship to seal off the German-held canal entrance at Ostend. Unfortunately, the Ostend portion of the April 23rd operation was unsuccessful when the blockships ran aground before reaching their targets.

After HMS Vindictive was designated as the blockship for the second Ostend Raid, Godsal volunteered to captain her. Vindictive had been the main assault vessel during the April 23rd Zeebrugge blockship raid. But the ship had been so damaged by German shelling that she was converted into a blockship for the second raid, which would target Ostend.

In lectures after the war, Bourke explained that all the participants in the blockship raids had volunteered for the operations. As a blockship, HMS Vindictive was manned by volunteers mostly drawn from the crews of HMS Brilliant and HMS Sirius from the previous blockship operation. Bourke noted that his motor launch crew had declined to volunteer for the second Ostend operation.

“Sub-Lieutenant Young and my crew did not care to volunteer again. And the Senior Officer Dunkirk reported my motor launch was too damaged for the work. So the Commanding Officer and crew of ML 245 who volunteered were chosen. There was, however, a vacancy on 245 as First Lieutenant. So I volunteered to wave my command and go with her in that capacity.”

They stood by at Dunkirk waiting for a favourable wind, which did not materialize. The winds would have been necessary for the smoke screens necessary to get the operational fleet to the channel without being seen by the Germans on shore. After a week with no favourable wind, they returned to Dover and had a few days leave.

“On returning from leave, I was informed I must not go as Drummond’s Number One. But might act as standby if I could get my motor launch in shape in time. This was giving me 24-hours notice. And as I had stripped my motor launch for ML 245, and my dynamo was out of action, it was not giving me much time. Anyway, I got together all the gear, such as rope mattresses, shrapnel helmets, Lewis guns, etcetera, etcetera, and also got the dynamo from another launch which was out of action. Also a complete new volunteer crew gathered from here and there, and was ready on time and crossed to Dunkirk. We then had ML 245 and ML 128 as rescue, and ML 283 and ML 276 as standby.”

Hastily prepared, Vindictive sailed with another cruiser, HMS Sappho, intended as a second blockship. But Sappho had to turn back due to engine trouble. The support fleet left Dunkirk and carried out creating smoke screens while HMS Vindictive made for the shore.

“ML 128 and ML 283 standby failed to find her in dense smoke. Consequently, there was ML 245 and ML 276 with her as she went in. On account of thick smoke and mist, Vindictive got within one-quarter mile of the piers without seeing them. And Commander Godsal, rather than risk putting his ship aground outside harbour, turned and maneuvered.”

Vindictive was guided in part by flares and supporting motor launches under heavy German fire and challenging conditions, including smoke, mist, and strong defences. As Vindictive approached the Ostend piers, massive heavy shells from inland batteries rained down from miles away, while field guns and rhythmic thumping anti-aircraft pom-poms shredded her superstructure at point-blank range. A relentless blizzard of machine-gun fire and snipers came from the piers, all illuminated by the blinding flickering glare of German searchlights cutting through the artificial smoke.

“For close on forty minutes, Commander Godsal maneuvered his vessel in this shoal water. Sometimes the searchlights got him, and the guns opened on him at point blank range. He would dodge into a smoke bank, and the batteries continued to put down a barrage. Finally he found the harbour, and put her right in between the piers and started to turn her. Although the shell fire, pom-pom, and machine gun fire were terrific, Commander Godsal left the armoured conning tower in order to see better in the smoke. A shell struck the conning tower at this moment and killed him in the hour of achievement. He was one of the finest men I have had the honour of meeting, and I greatly regret his death. The smoke was so thick that in following the Vindictive, I got to the east of the eastern pier and had to turn and go round to the other side. In the meantime ML 254 had gone to Vindictive and got her crew. As I went in, she came out and I shouted to know If they had everyone. Crutchley, on whom the command had developed when Godsal was killed, answered yes, he had. But I did not hear him. I thought someone might have been overlooked, so went into the harbour and turned, shouting to see if I could get a reply. We thought we heard someone, but could not be sure. And then as we heard nothing, started out of harbour. And again we thought we heard someone, so put back. We could not however locate where the shouting came from and thought it might be the wily Hun trying to detain us till we were quite done in, so started out again. We started to leave the harbour three times altogether before we finally located Lieutenant Sir John Allen and two seamen in the water, hanging to the end of an upended boat. We maneuvered along side and got them, and started out of harbour, full speed, both engines. Just as we left the harbour, my compressed air tank was shot away. If this had happened a minute earlier, we could not have started our engines. Previously a six-inch shell had passed through my dinghy and exploded overboard but of course rendered the dinghy useless, so we certainly would have been done in.”

Captain Godsal had aimed to position Vindictive broadside across the channel to block it effectively. However, intense shellfire, which worsened the previous damage suffered at the Zeebrugge raid, disabled her port propeller and steering. She was sunk at an angle, only partially obstructing the channel. German forces could still use the channel with some difficulty, but it was a bold and costly effort that boosted British morale. Most of her skeleton crew was evacuated by motor-launches. Victor Alexander Charles Crutchley, who took over when Godsal was killed, was a career navy officer with ties to the British monarchy. By 1918, he was already a veteran; Crutchley eventually rose to Admiral in the Second World War and was knighted for his service. Total British casualties were relatively light compared to the earlier Zeebrugge Raid with eight dead, 10 missing and 29 wounded.

“My steering-hand had been killed at the wheel next to me, and another of my four deck-hands killed. Sub-Lieutenant Petrie, my volunteer Lieutenant, acted splendidly throughout the operation. When the landing-hand was killed, Petrie immediately took the wheel, and only relinquished it when I gave the orders to open fire on the piers with Lewis guns. He then, among other things, shot all the glass out of the lighthouses on each pier. Later, Petrie was the first, when we located the men in the water, to jump down and help to get them aboard. This was all under heavy machine-gun fire and pom-pom fire. Later, he did good work looking after the gassed and wounded men. My port acid-tank had again been pierced, and as my water-hose had been shot away, I could not sluice acid overboard. So that about two hours after leaving Ostend, it had eaten its way through the deck into the after cabin. And on contact with water in the bilges, started to smoke.”

When a monitor ship appeared near Bourke’s motor launch, he put his wounded and gassed men aboard her.

“I went alongside her blister, and her men waded over, carrying the surgeon who superintended the removal of the wounded, slung in stretchers. We then had to be towed on account of having no air to start engines again. We arrived at Dunkirk at 6.30 am, and again I was not sorry as I had been on the bridge twelve hours and had nothing to eat. All my remaining men had to go to hospital, gassed, but Sub-Lieutenant Petrie and I were alright. I had, after leaving Ostend, insisted on everyone being sick, as this is a great safeguard against results of poison gas. Luckily, there was no one to insist on my being sick, so I escaped that inconvenience.”

When Bourke examined his motor launch after arriving, he found more than 55 holes including 16 through the wheelhouse.

The actions of James Petrie, Temporary Sub-Lieutenant, Bourke’s first officer and second-in-command of ML 276, were critical to the success of the rescue. For his conspicuous gallantry, Petrie was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Petrie returned to Scotland for a few years after the war, then moved to Hong Kong where he founded the Hong Kong Naval Volunteer Force in 1933.

The Supporting Fleet and Aftermath

The destroyer HMS Warwick served as Admiral Keyes’ flagship during the blockade. Roger John Keyes, First Baron Keyes, GCB, KCVO, CMG, DSO, was commander of the Dover Patrol in 1918. Famous for altering tactics that resulted in the sinking of five U-boats in a month, he orchestrated the Zeebrugge and Ostend raids. As the first Director of Combined Operations in the Second World War, he was later instrumental in the formation of the British Commandos.

HMS Warwick was commanded by Captain Victor Campbell. After surviving Scott’s Antarctica expedition in 1911, Campbell served at Gallipoli, and then in May 1917 sunk a U-boat by ramming it. While navigating through the German-laid minefields outside Ostend following the operation, Warwick struck a mine, which nearly broke her in two. In a feat of seamanship often cited in naval history, the destroyer HMS Velox lashed herself to the side of the crippled Warwick and towed her across the English Channel. For his gallantry during the First World War, Campbell was awarded a DSO and two bars. In his further service with the Royal Navy, he reached the rank of captain.

When Geoffrey Drummond, commanding officer of ML 254, had reached the Ostend pier-heads earlier in the night, a shell exploded on his motor launch, killing his second-in-command, Lieutenant Gordon Ross, and a deckhand, and severely wounding the coxswain. Drummond himself was wounded in the head and legs by shell splinters. Despite his severe injuries and the fact that his boat was sinking, he successfully maneuvered alongside the Vindictive. He stayed on the bridge and oversaw the evacuation of two officers and 38 men. He then navigated the overcrowded and damaged launch out to sea, away from the German searchlights and batteries. He remained conscious and in-command until he reached the safety of the HMS Warwick, at which point he collapsed from exhaustion and blood loss. He survived the war, but died in 1941 due to a fall caused by the leg injuries he suffered during the Ostend raid.

“Well, I again put in for my leave shortly after this affair, and it was granted… A few hours after I left Nelson on my way back to England, a cable arrived saying I had been gazetted Distinguished Service Order for rescue of Brilliant’s crew and of ML 532 in the April 23rd raid. Shortly after my arrival back in England, I was gazetted Victoria Cross for rescue from the Vindictive. I forgot to say I was promoted Lieutenant Commander just before leaving for Canada. Recently I was decorated by the King with Victoria Cross and Distinguished Service Order, and had the honour of being the first of the 300 officers and men decorated. Lieutenant Drummond also received the Victoria Cross for his rescue. I have been back on duty now for several months and hope the war will end soon. I am fed up with the monotony and no signs of excitement. P.S. Of course, please don’t let any of this get into the papers.”

Vindictive’s wreck remained visible at Ostend, postwar. Her bow was later preserved as a memorial, and the May raid is marked each year in Ostend as Vindictive Day. Bourke’s wish for the war to end would come on the 11th of November, only a few weeks after he wrote the letter.