St. John's Daily Star, 1918-04-25

              the st john's daily star volume iv 3.00 per annum newfoundland — — - —' r - — thursday april 25 1918 probs strong s w to n w winds rain no 93 raid of british on german submarine bases on the coast of belgium proves most skilful ano daring naval operation of whole war entered port of zeebrugge under terrific german fire w german guns picked up british ships when with in half mile of port of zeebrugge vindictive got in and landed men london april 24 not only was the mouth of the canal at zee bruggee blocked but brit ish sailors and marines who participated in the raids on the german submarine bases bebeve^that they de stroyed everfe gun on the mile demolished the sheds throughout it/entire length and blew up large stores of munitions contained in the sheds according to stories given by the survivors to the correspondent of the aily chronicle at a kentish port until they were within a half mile of the harbor of zeebruggee no ships in the attacking force picked up the lights on the mole the attacking ship which start ed for the mole followed by muttered calls of good luck from the ships com panies of the escorting fleet outside the harbor had scarcely got within sight of the light when it was dis covered by the germans star shells instantly pierced the thick haze showing up the cruiser as clearly as though it had been daylight terrific fire in one second it seemed as if every battery in the neigh borhood had concentrated its fire on the cruiser how she was able to get ahead none of these watching her understood great seven teen-inch shells and other shells of smaller calibre flew around her like hail she was apparently hit by some of the smaller shells but she plugged ahead and was seen to turn the corner of the mole and gain the in concrete-laden ships suor in harbor entrance german defenders chas ed from mole british board enemy warships side of the harbor the ger man fire apparently was de flected from her vital parts by they intervening struc ture^tr the mole and most of the damage done was above the water line disregarding al that had happened the cruiser went up to the mole and landed a large party of blue-jackets and marines some of the germans bolted in masses from the nearest batteries leaving their guns to the british the guns were de stroyed one by one while others in the landing party dealt with the sheds and munition stores with flame throwers old ships sunk apparently under cover of this operation continues the account sent by the daily chronicle's corres pondent the concrete-laden emisers with which it was intended to block the chan foe launches strong drive on the somme $ first assaults are repulsed by british but enemy succeeds in capturing vi*ll*r rrpttoneux rulers brettoneux means mile gain for enemy forces savage fighting also re ' . ■»■? ~ c xr ported northeast of yp res—assaults on british lilies near bethune — : l ondon apr 25 after three *■" days of preparation on the during which . time they launched an offensive in flanders the germans have resumed their krr.merins'atr-the front of amiens for days there has been heavy ar firing along the north sectors omme salient and finally the infantry began their attempts ice on the line passing thru brcuoneux hangard hailles astel the first attacks were : subsequent attacks cen ut villers brettoneux have caused a british retreat from this vil cording to a tepcrt from field rm"arsha haig narks a german gain of a bou a mile villers brettoneux is a 8 miles directly east of am ; is on the northern end of t fighting front between the :■ and luce rivers and while iked on the south by low ly is backed by rolling hills to he west and northwest drive has been made at the le that another blow has been . at the british and french lines ■ . ypres savage fighting rted at various points along from bailleul to merville and ecii:i claims that the heights to the northeast of bailleul have been storm ed coincident with this attack there have been assaults by the british for ces near bethune along the lawe river but these have been repulsed some of the uncertainty as to the success of the british exploit in at tempting to seal up the harbours of zeebrugge and ostend has been clear ed up by observation carried out by aviators great damage was done to the mole at zeebrugge while the hulks of the sunken steamers are said to partly block the channel leading out from ostend with the exception of the somme salient there has been little fighting of unusual nature on the rest of the fronts where the enemy has resum ed the drive toward the allied base of supplies in northern france his at tack has not so far as known resulted in any noted retirements on the part of the allies the official report of wednesday was silent as to events in this sector an attack on this part of the line in the somme region had french battle with germans foe gains footing in woods north of hangard-en-santerre paris april 25 the battle on the whole front south of the somme and avre lasted all day and still continues according to the war office statement tonight the germans gained a foot ing in the woods to thr north of han gard-en-santerre and aiso on the out skirts of the village which the french ate desperately defending " several enemy assaults were shat tered at hailles and attacks at sen eca wood and hilt 82 failed for all we have and are r . by rudyard kipling * ** to for all we have and are for all our children's fate m stand up and meet the war m the hun is at the gate "** our world has passed away * in wantonness o'erthrown ** . there is nothing left today but steel and fire and storte m though all we kne\y depart m the old commandments stand ** in courage keep a'our heart in strength lift up/your hand ** once more we hear the word that sickened earth of old w no law except the sword w unsheathed and t/ncontrolled ' once more it knits mankind once more the riations go "** to meet and break and bind w a crazed and driven foe w comfort content delight the ages slow-bought gain w i they shrivelled in a night "•* only ourselves remain "•* - to face the flaked days "** * in silent fortitude through perils and dismays renewed amd re-renewed though all we made depart the old commandments stand * in patience keep your heart in strength lift up your hand to no easy hopes or lies ** shall bring us to our goal \ " but iron sacrifice ** of body will and soul there is but one task for all — '"'* * for each one life to give * - who stands if freedom fall " who dies if england live *. * it * this space donated to royal newfoundland \ regiment by bowering bros ltd x ii the kaiser's barometer hangardis captured by foe paris reports french relinquish position after battling with german forces all night changed hands number of times before french troops withdrew paris april 25—the germans have captured the village of han gard on the front southeast of am iens the war office announces today the battle continued with violence through the night in this sector the french lost hangard recaptured it and finally were again forced out of the town but are holding the ground immediately around it the state ment follows the battle continued with violence around the village of hangard on which the germans concentrated their efforts during the night french troops resisted valiantly and counter attacked several times with success the village was lost then retaken by the french and finally remained in the hands of the germans at the cost of heavy losses the french are holding the im mediate outskirts of hangard and the germans have not been able to de bouch from the town in spite of re peated efforts on both banks of the avre the ar tillery fighting continued with vio lence the french made several suc cessful raids especially west of las signy south of coucy le chateau and in lorraine we took a certain number of prisoners , the artillery fighting was very act ive in the woovre in the regions of flirey and regneville relations suspended v , amsterdam ap * * ril 24—the heth * volk announces ** that the german * minister to the ne therlands has left * ** the hague for ber lin and the dutch minister to germ **■ any is on his way from berlin * to.to.to.to.to.to.to.to.to.to.to.'v germans fail in strong assaults on allied positions at robecq british maintain lines intact and capture prisoners ! position taken from german forces at festubert i0nd0n april 24—(official about 4.30 a.m today after a violent bombardment the enemy at tacked our whole front south of the somme and the french on our right and was repulsed later an attack in oilr positions on this sector was re newed in strength and although re pulsed with loss on the southern and northern portions of the front made progress at villers-bretboneuj where the fighting has been se^erf through out the day by eveningthe enemy had gained possession of the village and the fight was continued other attacks beginning this morn ing on the north bank of the somme and north of albert were repulsed " we.took a few prisoners by a local operation carried out northwest of festubert a post captured by the enemy in this locality on the 22nd was retaken the hostile garrison offered a strong resistance and lost heavily we captured a few prison ers and four machine guns early in the day the enemy deliv ered a strong attack without success against our new positions east of robecq our line was maintained in tact and 84 prisoners were left in cur hands additional prisoners were secured in minor enterprises in the forest of nieppe and in the neighborhood of meteren effective work inner end of zeebrugge mole des troyed—ostend channel blocked \ london april 24—air observation shows a clear break of 20 yards in width in the zeebrugge mole on the inner end and that the sunken ob ject blocks the greater part of the channel in the harbor of ostend ac cording to an official report issued by the admiralty italian ship losses rome april 25.—one steamer o more than 1500 tons one of less wen sunk during the week ending apri 20th according to the official repor on losses by mine or submarines is sued tonight « * « good crop reports calgary alta april 25.—crop re ports being received from all parts of the province indicate conditions were never better and it is estimated the average in acreage seeded will be in the neighborhood of 20 per cent hun forces led by three tanks battle into villers bretoneux assault on allied positions was preceded by sustain ed bombardment—foe attacks virtually all repulsed by associated esress .. with the british army in " france april 24.—the first enemy attack along the whole brit ish front south of the somme river today was thrown back but tbe ger mans returned and pushed on to wards villers-brettoneux with three tanks leading the germans got a footing in the east fringe of the town where the battle is still raging . southern end of the line of villers bretonneux hangard hailles and castel villers-bretonneux was the storm centre accompanying the in fantry were the three tanks which at tbe latest reports had battled for ward into the eastern outskirts of the town trouble has been brewing in the somme sector for daysi the enemy pier blown up sub load of explosives does big damage at zeebrugge dover april 24—the crew of one of the british subs which was used to destroy the german piers at zee brugge during yesterday's raid were rescued according to a member of the crew by an escorting destroyer the sailor said that after the de stroyer slipped the sub at the en trance to the harbor the u-boat made straight for the target a time fuse was set and the crew abandoned the craft a few minutes later the sub struck the object and blew up the sailor said the pier was blown to pieces exploding submarine blew up zeebruge mole and defenders ; . little british craft ran in to port under hail of shells and took up ap pointed position course was set by fire of foe i ondon april 25.—an officer of one of the motor boats has given the daily mail a story of the blow ing up of the mole at zeebrugge the submarine which did it says this officer went at it from the outer side the german star shells helped very greatly in showing the way we could see about two hun dred germans on the bridge leading from the mole to the shore they apparently thought that the submar ine had lost her way and were re joicing in the belief that they were going to trap her but the submar ine pushed under the bridge and when her cargo of explosives was touched off it blew the bridge and all stand ing on it into the air for a little time afterwards frag ments of germans and wreckage of the bridge were falling around us by the blowing up of the bridge the mole was isolated and it was on this island that the vindictive's men were landed and the fighting occurred gangways skot away british marines who landed on the mole at zeebrugge according to a narrative printed in the daily mail say that when the cruiser vindictive got alongside the mole it was found that of the fourteen gangways aboard all had been shot to pieces except two which were damaged and shaky nevertheless the men headed by captain edward bamford and lieut g g cooker dashed over and land ed on the first ledge of the mole but lost severely from the terrible shell fire from the ledge there was a wall to be climbed and then a drop of twenty feet which was negotiated by ropes and rope ladders they tried to take our ladders said a marine but we let them come within ten yards and then blew them away with grenades everyone of us had grenades and we made the place lively with them for an hour we chased tke germans through sliding doors and underground passages some of them ran but others got in k to corners and sniped at us with rifles and machine guns evidently they were prepared for a pss^rbie attack for the place was stuffed with mach ine guns / used smoke screen how the vindictive went in is de scribed by an officer of the marines all the ships used the smoke cloud device the smallest emitting as much as the largest until there was an impenetrable smoke wall all the way from zeebrugge to ostend this deceived the defenders for a while but when they found us out and sent up star shells we steamed through and got hell all our men were on deck and we were shelled unceasingly for twenty minutes the vindictive had three howitzers aboard and before we left the crew of the foremost gun had been wiped out three times by the guns ashore but our gunners did re markable work and pumped lyddite into the german gunners on the beach several german destroyers were alongside the mole and three of them kept firing at the vindictive at close range we charged on and threw in fifty bombs a loud explo sion followed and we saw that one was afire and sinking we could not reach the others and we do not know what became of them after sinking the destroyer we forced out way ashore at the point of the bayonet and charged a gun crew which had been giving much trouble killing many and dispersing the rest and capturing the gun when we got back the yin i germans were chased from mole and their h big guns used to shell zeebrugge vindictive's men v had very hot time dictive presented a sad sight the upper decks were slippery with blood the cries and moans were heart rending all around lay dead dying and wounded stoker bendall of the submarine which blew up the zeebrugge mole , ■ is quoted as saying that the explos ion of the submarine caused much concrete to fall from the mole ben dall said it was a silent and nervy business we were going full tilt when we hit the viaduct it was a good jolt and we ran right in the middle of the viaduct and stuck there as we inten ded to do i don't think anybody said 9 anything except well we are here all right we lowered a skjff and stood by while the commander touched off the fuse and then tumbled into the skiff and pushed off by bad luck the pro pellor fouled the exhaust pipe and left us with only two oars and two minutes to get away the enemy lights were on lis and the machine guns were firing from the shore before we made two hundred yards the submarine went up and there was a tremendous flash and roar and lots of concrete from the mole fell around us luckily we were not struck rowers shot down bendall described how one after another the towers were hit by en emy bullets but in the nick of time a picket boat found the skiff and took the crew aboard lieut stanford who commanded the submarine pays a tribute to/the gallantry of his crew which number ed five and speaks modestly or his own achievements the lieut said there is no doubt abqtffour get ting there i set the fuse myself and i think it was done all right we were lucky in being picked up by the picket boat the firing from the shore was severe and only the fact that the sea was rough and jumped us up and down saved us devised plans for naval raid commander brock killed at zeebrug ge in hour of triumph london april 24.—some of the newspapers say that the officer refer red to by admiral sir eric geddes the first lord of the admiralty as having developed the fog and smoke screen for the british raiders on the belgian coast submarine bases and as having been killed in the attack was acting wing commander frank a brock he was the son of a wide ly known fire works manufacturer young brock entered the naval service in january 1916 as a flight lieutenant became a flight command er and received the order of the british empire this year continued on page 2 continued on page a continued on page a continued on page a