al forces which held the Dover
Straits. There can be no doubt that it was part of their plan to take
permanent possession of the Belgian coast. It is not easy to understand
why, before the war, when Zeebrugge and Ostend were made into fortified
harbours, a clause was inserted in the contractors' orders that the mole
at Zeebrugge should be fit to carry hundred-ton guns and to withstand
heavy gun recoil; also, that the Zeebrugge and Ostend locks and basins
should be capable of accommodating a flotilla of torpedo-boats. These
things were not done in the interests of England, nor had the Belgian
Government any reason to fear naval aggression from the west. The plans
which had this beginning were developed and completed during the first
two years of the German occupation. Bruges, which was joined by canals
both to Zeebrugge and Ostend, became the naval headquarters of the
German forces, the base for submarines and torpedo-craft, and the centre
for construction and repair. Everything was organized on a solid basis,
as if to endure; yet at some time during the third year of the war the
enemy must have begun to feel doubtful whether he could keep his hold on
the Belgian coast. About thirty miles along the coast from Ostend, and
forty or more miles from Zeebrugge, lay the port of Dunkirk, occupied in
strength by the navies of France and Great Britain, and by the Royal
Naval Air Service. Dunkirk was a thorn in the side of the Germans. The
docks and harbours at Bruges, Zeebrugge, and Ostend were incessantly
bombed from the air. Ships and works were seriously damaged, but the
effect on the morale of the German forces was even more considerable.
Repeated alarms, which sent all hands to take shelter in dug-outs,
interfered with the work of every day. In the main basin at Bruges, and
alongside the Zeebrugge mole, shelters, jutting out over the water, were
provided for submarines and destroyers. The respect felt by the Germans
for the menace of Dunkirk is perhaps best witnessed by the fierce
nightly attacks from the air which they made on the town during the
later period of the war. Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, who commanded the
Dover Patrol from April 1915 Until the end of 1917, speaks of these as
'the martyrdom of Dunkirk'. A great many of the houses in the town were
levelled with the ground. Yet the inhabitants, knowing that they were
maintaining a force which gave as good as it got, went about their
daily business cheerful and unpertu