Sin, — It is to be hoped that recent correspondence in the
press about that splendid feat of arms, Zeebrugge, will end the distortions of the facts: dis- tortions which are undignified, add nothing to the stature of the gallant volunteers who did all and more than was asked of them, and have never appeared in accounts of such comparable operations as the Battle of Britain, St. Nazaire and Arnhem.
In two recently published books it is stated that the operation saved us from defeat. One author states that the blocking of the canal halved at one blow the deadly menace of the submarine campaign, the other states that England was brought nearly to defeat by U-boats operating from the Flanders coast. This is all complete nonsense, and the authors must have ignored or never read the official history.
The canal was not blocked, submarines were using the channel four hours after the force withdrew and there was only a relatively small flotilla of UB and UC boats based on Flanders. The large flotillas of U-boats, operating in the Atlantic, were based on Wilhelmshaven and Emden.
It has always been a mystery why this operation has been singled out for this persistent falsification of what it achieved. Now that the truth is so widely known there is a danger of this splendid feat of arms becoming a subject for caustic or humorous comments and the fame of that gallant band of volunteers becoming tarnished.—Yours faithfully,
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