A map of the Belgian battlefield from Bruges to Ostend and the Belgian coast to Blankenburg. German forces took Ostend on October 17, 1914. Bruges was an important German submarine base with canals connecting it to the North Sea ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge, ports the British attacked the night of April 22–23, 1918 in an attempt to block the canals. Zeebrugge is just off the map to the right.
Belgischer KriegsschauplatzOstende, Blankenberghe u. BrüggeBelgian battlefieldOstend, Bruges and BlankenbergheReverse:Belgische KüsteVerzweiflungskämpfe der Verbündeten. Siegreiches Vordringen der Deutschen. 17 October Ostende eingenommen.(Belgian coastDesperate struggles of the allies. Victorious advance of the Germans. 17 October Ostend taken.)Kunstverlag Eug. Felle, Isny, Wttbg. (Art publisher Eug. Furs, Isny, Wittenburg??.)
"I regret that the effort to block Ostend did not succeed. The Brilliant, Commander A. R. Godsal, with the Sirius, Lieutenant-Commander H. N. M. Hardy, in her wake, did not sight the buoy [marking the channel into Ostend harbour] in its charted position at midnight, as was expected. When the Ostend piers should have been seen, breakers were observed on the Brilliant's starboard bow, and although her helm was put to starboard, she grounded. The Sirius immediately put her helm hard over and her engines full astern, but being already badly damaged by gunfire, she did not answer her helm and collided with the Brilliant's port quarter. Both being then fast ashore, one with her port engine immovable, the other in a sinking condition, they were blown up where they were stranded."
Excerpt from the report of Roger Keyes on the attempt to block the canal from Ostend to Bruges, Belgium, the night of April 22–23, 1918. The North Sea ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge were connected to the German submarine base at Bruges by canals. The British raid on the two ports was an attempt to block the canals, sinking aging warships across them. The operation had some success at Zeebrugge, maneuvering blockships into the canal. At Ostend it was unsuccessful, in part because the Germans had moved a buoy on which the raiders were relying.
Naval Battles of the First World War by Geoffrey Bennett, page 276, copyright © Geoffrey Bennett 1968, 1974, publisher: Pan Books, publication date: 1983
1918-04-23, 1918, April, Roger Keyes, Keyes, Ostend, Ostende, Ostend-Bruges-Blankenburg map
