DOVER PATROL

naval force established during the World War for protection of vital military lines of communication between England and France, its additional functions being (1) to guard and examine the traffic pa ing E. and W. through the Channel, and, later on, (2) to hara the right flank of the advancing German army; (8) to prevent landings by the enemy on the Belgian and Fr. coasts; (4) to cope with enemy submarines and destroyers as they i ued from Ostend to Zeebrugge, and to prevent them from pa ing through Dover Strait; and (5) to inflict damage by bombardment and otherwise on the heavy gun batteries, lock-gates, and other naval and military works, when these came into existence after the Ger. occupation of Belgium. At first the patrol consisted of three scouts, twelve tribal cla destroyers, and twelve little fifteen-year-old destroyers, with three or four small submarines. The monitors Mersey, Severn, and Humber were subsequently added, also the obsolete battleships Revenge and Venerable. With this motley squadron, Rear-admiral Hood checked considerably the enemy’s advance near the shore, until the Belgians flooded the lands surrounding Nieuport. In the spring of 1915 Rear-admiral Bacon was appointed to the command, and the patrol grew until it included twenty-four distinct types of fighting ships, none, however, of the first cla . Bacon devised and established succe ive anti-submarine barrages: the first between Folk est one and Cape Grisnez proved unsucce ful; the second, between the Good win Sands and the Fr. coast, consisted of moored nets, with mines attached, held in a frame of flexible wire rope; mines were laid close to the sea bottom to guard that portion not covered by the net. The final obstruction was an immense minefield laid between Folk est one and Grisnez in the winter of 1917-18. All the antisubmarine barrages were guarded by destroyers and auxiliary patrol ve els, and were illuminated by ‘Dover flares’ at night, so that, except in foggy weather, no submarine could pa through the Channel on the surface or awash without being sighted and hunted. It is considered that this final barrage effectually barred the pa age to enemy submarines through the Strait of Dover. Coastal attacks were conducted by monitors against Zeebrugge and Ostend during the summer and autumn of 1915, but the monitors were outranged, and the operations were abandoned. Late in 1915 monitors with 15-in. guns joined the command, and gun positions in Flanders were constantly and succe fully attacked. Skirmishes between the Ger. and the Brit. naval forces were frequent, but no determined attacks were made on the coast-watching ve els. Heavy naval ordnance was landed for counter-battery work against the mighty Ger. weapons used for bombarding Dunkirk, Adinkerke, and other places. A. few destroyer raids were made by the enemy; on the night of Oct. 26, 1916, six drifters and the twenty-year-old destroyer Flirt were sunk; on April 21, 1917, the famous encounter of Broke and Swift with six enemy destroyers took place. After this reverse enemy craft did not enter Dover Strait for almost a year, At the end of 1917 Admiral Bacon was relieved by Rear-admiral Roger Keyes, who conducted the operations for blocking Zenpruaen and Osrenp. The Dover destroyer flotilla covered the small craft which made a smoke screen during the operations, and the Dover monitors, coastal motor boats, etc., were employed in support. During 1918 more coastal operations were carried out, and in these, monitors armed with 18-in. guns were employed.