As most of know, November 11 is Veterans Day. It’s history started in 1918 on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month signifying the armistice, or the cessation of hostilities between the Allied nations and Germany. Technically, the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, thus ending WWI, the “war to end all wars” (or so it was thought back then). It was in June 1954 that Congress approved November 11 as Veterans Day to recognize American Veterans of “all wars.”
The relatively recent appearance of the movies “1917” and the reboot of “All Quiet on the Western Front” have tried to recapture the themes and pictures of WWI, but as I implied in another posting, there can be no true memories since no one is still alive who can recall or reflect on the events of that era.
In all of our European trips, our historical excursions have mainly focused on WWII and forward, or Roman Occupation and back, with an occasional drift into events involving Napoleon or Louis XIV. The exception was on our most recent trip when our ship ported in Zeebrugge, Belgium (Bruges on the Sea).
First, the stage set. My father-in-law, Peter B. Ashby, gave me a book to read: Gunpowder and Glory—The Explosive Life of Frank Brock, OBE by Harry Smee and Henry MacRory, Casemate Publishers, 2020. Frank Brock was England’s answer to Chinese fireworks in the early 1900’s. Brock’s fireworks were extensive displays of ingenuity used at England’s major events and expositions. However, Frank Brock’s intelligent use of gunpowder was not totally appreciated until WWI.
Throughout WWI, the Germans used zeppelins as bombers and scout vehicles, and the most successful bombing raids on England were in 1915. The original ammunition fired from British aircraft simply pierced the skins through-and-through, and the bullets were not hot enough to ignite the hydrogen. Brock and his engineers developed an incendiary round with a tip on the bullet sensitive enough to pierce the material of the hydrogen bladders THEN start the ignition process for the incendiary portion of the round. This bullet was named “Brock’s Bullet” and the term even went into common use during the war to signify being saved by a “magic or miraculous event.”
Now, back to Earth, specifically Zeebrugge. The other deadly weapon the Germans had was the undersea boat, or U-boat, most of which operated out of Zeebrugge and into the North Atlantic where they were deadly against all forms of Allied shipping and naval operations; Zeebrugge is only 65 miles from the English coast. There was a canal from the port extending some eight miles to the town of Bruges where supplies were obtained by the Germans and where about thirty of the U-boats were docked. The British called this area the “Viper’s Nest.”
Royal Navy planners developed a scheme to attack and disable the Vipers Nest port by scuttling old vessels in the canal to block the U-boats and prevent supplies from being delivered to Bruges. (Earlier attempts to bombard or block the port had failed.)
Frank Brock, now a wing commander in the RAF/Naval Air Services, was called upon to use his experience with gunpowder to develop deployable smokescreens to hide the approaching ships and the 1700 men as they attacked the German shoreline defenses.
Now, the outcome of the raid is in dispute. The book I mentioned above has a couple of chapters dedicated to it, and the Wikipedia site https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeebrugge_Raid has an extensive report as well. Regardless, Commander Frank Brock was killed during the battle and there is a dedicated plaque to him and three others at the Zeebrugge Churchyard where they may or may not be buried.
Now, to wrap this up, the port today is a security-controlled area, and we were unfortunately not able to get to the churchyard during our stop in Zeebrugge/Bruges. So why would this be an issue?
Well, without reading about the Raid in the book from my father-in-law, we would have had no idea about the WWI history of the port. But more importantly, the “B” in Peter B’s name is “Brock.”
Yes, through his great-grandmother’s lineage, Peter B. Ashby, Major, US Army (Ret) is related to Wing Commander Frank Brock, RAF/Naval Air Services (Deceased).
So, here's to Frank, Peter, and all veterans on Armistice Day.
Best regards to all, and let’s be safe out there.
