German postcard map of the Western Front in Flanders, looking south and including Lille, Arras, Calais, and Ostend. In the Battle of the Yser in October, 1914, the Belgian Army held the territory south of the Yser Canal, visible between Nieuport, Dixmude, and Ypres (Ypern). Further north is Passchendaele, which British forces took at great cost in 1917.
Der KanalStraße von CalaisThe English Channel and the Strait of CalaisReverse:Panorama des westlichen Kriegsschauplatzes 1914/15 Von Arras bis Ostende.Die Panorama-Postkartenreihe umfaßt mit ihren 9 Abschnitten Nr. 400 bis 408 den gesamten westlichen Kriegsschauplatz von der Schweizer Grenze bis zur Nordseeküste.Panorama of the western theater of operations 1914/15 from Arras to Ostend. The panoramic postcard series includes nine sections, with their No. 400-408 the entire western battlefield from the Swiss border to the North Sea coast.Nr. 408Wenau-Postkarte Patentamtl. gesch.
"Keyes repeated the attempt on Ostend the night of 10–11 May with the battered Vindictive and old cruiser Sappho serving as blockships. The Sappho suffered a boiler accident that reduced her speed to only 6 knots and she had to drop out. The Vindictive at first had difficulty making out the harbor entrance in the fog and smoke, came under heavy fire, grounded, and was sunk by her crew in a position that, unfortunately, blocked only a third of the fairway. Keyes's flagship Warwick was mined while retiring with Vindictive's crew, which she had embarked from the battered motor launch that had picked them up. The destroyer was lucky to avoid sinking and had to be towed back by the destroyer Velox."
Under the command of Roger Keyes, the Royal Navy attempted to block the canals leading to the German submarine base at Bruges, Belgium the night of April 22–23, 1918, raiding the North Sea ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge in hopes of sinking aging warships across the canals. The operation had some success at Zeebrugge, but at Ostend it was unsuccessful, in part because the Germans had moved a buoy on which the raiders were relying. Keyes made a second attempt at Ostend the night of May 9–10, but with no more success. Our author conflicts with other sources, dating the raid one day later.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 414, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
1918-05-10, 1918, May, Ostend
