Another determined attack in the Somme region was begun by the Germans on April 24, after three weeks’ further preparation.  The enemy evidently had not abandoned hope of capturing Amiens, and, he again began hammering at the gateway to that city.  The first onslaught was repulsed by the British, but on the following day, April 25, the enemy succeeded in gaining about a mile of ground.  The combined British and French armies were covering the roads to Amiens, with reserves close at hand, and part of General Pershing’s American forces were co-operating with the French.  The utmost confidence prevailed that the united forces under General Foch, who was called by Marshal Joffre “the greatest strategist in Europe,” would not only meet and defeat this renewed drive by the enemy, but that before long the tide of battle would turn strongly in favor of the Allies, whose reserve armies were held in leash by their supreme commander, awaiting the strategic hour to strike.

BOTTLING UP U-BOAT BASES

One of the most thrilling exploits of the war occurred on the night of April 22, 1918, when British naval forces performed an almost incredible feat, by entering the harbors of Ostend and Zeebrugge, German submarine bases, and practically bottling them up.  French destroyers co-operated with the British in the daring undertaking.

At midnight, under cover of a remarkably developed smoke screen, furnished by the raiders themselves, five old British cruisers were run aground in the harbor channels, blown up, and abandoned by their crews.  The ships were loaded with concrete.  An old submarine, loaded with explosives, was also run under a bridge connecting the mole, or breakwater, at Zeebrugge with the shore, and there blown up, so as to prevent interruption of the raiders while they were doing their work alongside the mole.

Facing dangerous and unknown conditions of navigation, the harbor was rushed by British monitors and destroyers, under heavy fire from the shore batteries.  A storming party of volunteers, sailors and marines, was landed under extreme difficulties from the cruiser Vindictive.  This party boarded a German destroyer lying alongside the mole, defeated her crew, and sank the ship.  The concrete-laden vessels were duly sunk with a view to blocking both harbors, and every gun on the mole at Zeebrugge was destroyed.  The effects of the raid were not easily ascertainable.  It was soon learned that the submarine base at Zeebrugge at least had been put out of business for a while.  The gallantry and daring of the deed were generally recognized as fully in keeping with the best traditions of the British navy.  The loss of life was quite heavy, but the British lost only one destroyer and two coastal motor boats, many of the raiders returning safely to the other side of the Channel.  Even the men on the exploded submarine succeeded in escaping.  The officer who planned the raid, however, was among the killed.