Bourke at the Blockship Raid of April 1918

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

The April 23, 1918 Blockship Raid, better known as the Zeebrugge Raid, was a daring British Royal Navy operation aimed at neutralizing the German-occupied Belgian port of Zeebrugge, a critical base for U-boats during World War I. While the raid was a masterclass in bravery and resulted in the awarding of eight Victoria Crosses, it was only a partial strategic success; the blockships were not positioned perfectly, and the German forces managed to clear a shallow channel around them within a few days. Nevertheless, the operation was a massive propaganda victory that significantly boosted Allied morale during a bleak period of the war. 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 first blockship operation targeting Zeebrugge and Ostend, which began on April 23, 1918 and ended the following morning on April 24, 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.

HMS Brilliant
HMS Iphigenia
HMS Iris
HMS Sappho
HMS Sirius
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 April 23, 1918

By K.M. Lowe

In 1915, Roland Bourke was rejected by all Canadian military services due to his defective eyesight, which had been damaged in a 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.

Bourke had initially been appointed a Sub-Lieutenant but was quickly 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 HMML 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. To reach the English Channel, these vessels traveled through two long canals that emptied into the sea at Zeebrugge and Ostend. The blockship operations in the spring of 1918 were designed to obstruct those channels with obsolete ships, packed with concrete and rubble. Royal Navy-led, featuring British Canadian and Australian personnel, with minor support from the French Navy, these were not raids for glory. They were a desperate defensive move to keep the Allies in the fight.

After his motor launch had been out of service for two months, Bourke returned to Dover. “I heard volunteers had been called for for special dangerous work, the nature of which was not specified. And of course I volunteered at once.” Bourke suffered several setbacks, including the smoke not working satisfactorily, his propellers being fowled by rope and initially not being chosen for the operation. But he persisted, and his motor launch was fitted with smoke gear and selected as backup rescue.

There were two types of smoke screens: chemical and oil. Chlorosulfonic Acid was stored in tanks on decks of Motor-Launches. The chemical was sprayed through nozzles into the ship’s engines or directly into the air. When the acid hit the moist sea air, sulphuric acid droplets and hydrochloric gas formed a dense mist. On larger destroyers, engineers restricted air intake to the ship’s boilers while injecting excess-fuel oil into the furnace, belching thick oily black clouds from the funnels. The British could layer these screens—white chemical-smoke to hide ships at water level, and black oil-smoke blocked spotters in towers or aircraft.

In his lectures after the war, Bourke emphasized that everyone involved in the blockship raids had volunteered for the operations. He noted that when the call went out for 1600 volunteers, they received 3500 applicants, even though they were told it was a suicide mission with the possibility that not one person would survive.

According to a newspaper account, the first expedition comprised seventy vessels and had 588 casualties.“To pass this great array of shipping through our own minefields, to keep station during the crossing, and to take the whole through the German minefields by means which cannot be described, afterwards accurately timing the various phases of the attack, was a wonderful piece of seamanship.”

The operation on the 23rd of April 1918 consisted of two raids to trap German U-boats and destroyers inside the canals using obsolete ships, stripped and packed with concrete and rubble. This was to ensure they settled on the sea floor when sunk and could not be easily moved or blown up.

One raid sailed three blockships into the Zeebrugge canal with the destroyer HMS Vindictive as the main assault vessel. Vindictive’s role was to storm the most heavily defended seawall in Europe, called The Mole. The objective was to distract the German defenders and silence the heavy gun batteries on the end of the Mole, letting the three blockships, HMS Thetis, HMS Intrepid, and HMS Iphigenia, slip past to the canal entrance.

The other raid saw HMS Brilliant and HMS Sirius a few miles down the coast at Ostend. Bourke was on stand-by for the Ostend raid, but because of the heavy smoke and a buoy moved deliberately by the Germans, the Ostend blockships ran aground far from the canal they were supposed to block.
Bourke’s recollections in the letter were focused on the raid on Ostend as that’s where his motor launch was sent.

“Well, at last a favourable night came, and we left harbour anchoring in Divisions outside… The fleet proceeded to Ostend, and motor launches carried out their programme, but blockships did not arrive.”

Bourke wrote that the fleet consisted of monitors with motor launches to make smoke screens for them. These left Dunkirk at dusk and took up their stations about 10 miles from Ostend. Then destroyers, motor launches and coastal motor boats proceeded to the vicinity of Ostend.

“The first duty of coastal motor boats, which are small and extremely fast, was to make smoke east and west of Ostend to screen the approach of the rest of the fleet. The motor launches, on arrival, took up this work. Some smoking from exhausts while under way, and some putting over smoke floats and keeping them replenished as necessary. The destroyers were on convenient positions to backup the motor launches if Hun destroyers attacked us.”
Monitors, designed specifically for coastal bombardment, were used to produce smokescreens and keep the Germans’ heads down with shelling. Because of the heavy smoke, monitors couldn’t see their targets. They used aerial spotting via primitive radio communication from aircraft and pre-calculated blind-fire to lob shells over the horizon and the smoke. While the blockships were making their suicidal runs, monitors ensured that any German destroyers attempting to leave would face their shells.

“At first, the night was calm with a slight onshore breeze, which placed a fine bank of smoke between the motor launches and the shore one-or-two miles distant. The Hun let off a great number of star-shells over the motor launches, which lit them up like bright moonlight, and also shelled us at random. Some of their shells fell near, but there was not much chance of being hit. Just before the blockships arrived, the wind changed to off-shore and blew the smoke out to sea, so that the Hun was able to pick up the blockships at two-and-half miles from the shore with his searchlights. Then pandemonium broke loose. They let fly with everything from six-inch to fifteen-inch batteries and star shells galore. The whole sky was alight, and it was a truly wonderful sight to see these long grey warships, HMS Brilliant and HMS Sirius, being hit over and over again, but never stopping or swerving from their course.”

Star shells were specialized artillery fired high into the air with a timed-fuse that ignited a magnesium-based flare and deployed a small parachute. The magnesium burned with an intense brilliant white light, which, because of the slow descent, illuminated the sea for up to a minute. The ships were silhouetted against the white light, making them easy targets.

“The rescue Motor Launches 283 with Lieutenant-Commander Hoare, and 532 with Commander Benn and 276 with myself followed them in. It was a weird experience. Bunches of star-shells above their shells falling all round. Six big-ones within 40 feet in less than a minute. The most terrifying things were the big-ones rushing overhead like trains and ending with a terrific crash. Also, their chained-shot, which skipped along the water in great leaps. Sometimes passing right over us and sometimes seeming to alter course and follow us round. Well, as bad luck had it, the blockships, which were in a sinking condition, went aground.”

Lieutenant-Commander Keith Robin Hoare was a banker and yachtsman before and after the war, and by April 1918, was already a legend in the Dover Patrol. Just weeks before, he won the Albert Medal for throwing live depth-charges off a burning boat to save the harbour, and is one of the most decorated citizen sailors of the war. Captain Sir Ion Hamilton Benn, 1st Baronet, was the commander of a flotilla of motor-launches in the Dover Patrol for three years during the First World War and was obviously Roland’s superior officer. His wartime service was recognized with the Distinguished Service Order, appointment as a Companion of the Order of the Bath, the Croix de Guerre, and Mentions in Despatches.

“We first went alongside HMS Sirius but found ML 283 on the other side. So we went alongside HMS Brilliant. We got some of the crew and then maneuvered alongside for more. An officer came to the side and called for someone to take his coat. Lieutenant Young, who is a son of Judge Young of Atlin, with a fine flow of language, requested him not to be a God-damned fool and to jump. Next time we got alongside, Crutchley came aboard and shaking Young warmly by the hand said, ‘Mind you go back and get our Captain. He is a jolly good sort.’ The Captain was Commander Godsal, and needless to say we got him. As the crew came aboard, I ordered them below, and it was fine the way the petty officers took it up, and the men went below. The only reluctant ones being those who wished to see their pals were safe aboard. This was of course under machine-gun fire from the shore, as well as shell-fire.”

Commander Alfred Godsal 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 thirty-two, and volunteered for the block-ship operations. Lieutenant Victor Alexander Charles Crutchley 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. Lieutenant Alexander Young was the son of Frederick McBain Young, who was the first judge in the County Court of Atlin in northern British Columbia. While tens of thousands struggled toward Dawson City in 1898, a massive gold strike was found at Pine Creek in Atlin, which became a prosperous frontier town. Roland’s brother John was still in the goldfields when the letter was written, so John would likely have been familiar with Judge Young.

“On leaving HMS Brilliant, we had a look on her port-side, but found no one there, and ML 283 leaving with the crew of HMS Serious. We then started out, but received an S. O. S. call from Commander Benn. On closing him, we found he had rammed a blockship in the dark and crumpled his bough back to the first bulkhead. His exhaust manifold had broken and gassed his two mechanics and another man. We stood by him for a short time and then took him in tow. We parted three lines on him, as his fair leads were gone, and he was shoving six feet of water ahead of him. My port acid tank, used for smoking, had been hit, and we had to keep our hose on it washing acid overboard for hours. This caused smoke, and great credit was therefore due to Sub-Lieutenant Young who had to work in this smoke while passing out lines to Commander Benn’s motor launch. It also made it difficult for me to maneuver astern sufficiently close to pass lines over. We went in with block-ships at 12:30, and at 2 were still east of Ostend. All the small craft had, of course, left for Dunkirk before this. But about 3:30, we picked up a destroyer which stood by us for some time. We arrived at Dunkirk at 6:30. I was not sorry as I had not left the bridge for 12 hours. The HMS Brilliant crew were very enthusiastic, and each man shook hands with me, and when they got ashore cheered us most lustily.”

Chained-shot referred to German Flaming Onions, rapid-fire anti-aircraft and anti-personnel rounds. They were large glowing-green-or-white phosphorus balls discharged in strings of five-to-ten. Because they were launched in such rapid succession and had such bright tracers, they appeared to be physically linked by a chain of fire as they curved through the sky. Despite heavy fire, Roland’s Motor Launch rescued thirty-eight sailors from the sinking HMS Brilliant and towed a crippled motor launch out of the harbour. The letter to John went on to describe the next block-ship operation three weeks later, but that will be in another episode.