200 Medals Won in an Hour - Raid on Zeebrugge 1918 Documentary 

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So this is the map I've always been fascinated by on Battlefield 1. What an extraordinary piece of WW1 history and I thank you for teaching us this!

This really just gave me context for the zeebrugge raid in BF1. The maps shows every objective and how the battle actually went which really makes it enjoyable. Good on ya mate keep up the good content.

fascinating story. Never heard of it before. In public memory WW1 is associated with trench warfare so much and its always good to see it from a different perspective

The 4th Battalion Royal Marines Light Infantry were disbanded not long after, and no subsequent unit would be given that number to immortalise the valour of those brave men. It said "the 4th were special, we'll not see the like again". The entire 4th Battalion Royal Marines was awarded the Victoria Cross for the action, triggering Rule 13 of the Victoria Cross warrant stipulating that a ballot must be drawn to select the recipients. Although the Victoria Cross rules specify that four Victoria Crosses should be awarded this way (one to an Officer, one to an NCO, and two to other ranks) they were not observed and only two Victoria Crosses were awarded - one to Sergeant Norman Augustus Finch RMA and the other to Captain Edward Bamford RMLI. This was the last time that Victoria Crosses were awarded by ballot, although the rule still exists within the Victoria Cross warrant.

That one guy in the british planning room: "Why don't we just use EVERYTHING"

The ability for man to muster up such courage in the face of what they must surely have known was almost certain death never fails to astound me. War is dispicable, it brings out the worst in the human condition, but it also brings out the best. The sheer audacity of this raid is frankly astounding. And for it to be arguably considered a success militarially despite the things that went wrong (no plan survives first contact with the enemy!) shows how well planned and rehersed the operation was. Bravo to all involved, even on the defending side who often are forgotten as fellow humans in narrations such as this. Forced to fight a war that never made sense by old men, but doing their very best regardless.

I remember when I was stationed in the UK, winning a spot in an international 5 country military track and field competition. Then, going on a bus from England to Felixstowe, the hopping a Townsend Thorreson Ferry with 150 cars, trucks and buses under the floor... Then reloading on our buses again after we docked in Zeebrugge, and headed straight line to Muenster / Roxel, Germany. When we arrived in Zeebrugge, our leader, a US Air Force captain, on board with us (he was also a track and field competitor) asked us to take off any hats we would be wearing, and give a moment of silence up on the top deck of the ferry before we went down to board our bus. We ask him why, he said "Respect for the dead."

Having 2 ww1 ships named Erebus and Terror is worth explaining. Most people recognize both names from the Franklin expedition in the 1840s I believe. They were both lost so this Erebus and Terror were built in 1916

As a royal marine this is one of the corps battle-honours I was 'encouraged' to learn about during training. I've never seen it explained in such great detail though, amazing! Also, I had no idea that the infamous Terror and Erebus were present during this raid!

You’ve got to admit British destroyers have the best names.

Hermann Künne (December 12, 1897 in Wierthe, † April 23, 1918 in Zeebrugge) was a German sailor from the torpedo boat SMS S 53, who was stationed in Flanders at the time with the III. Torpedo Boat Flotilla. Künne fell defending the Zeebrugge mole battery on April 23, 1918 during the raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend. He killed a commanding officer, presumably Wing Commander Frank Arthur Brock (1888-1918), of the landing corps of the cruiser HMS Vindictive with his boarding knife and died in the ensuing scuffle. This act played a major role in preventing the capture of the important pier battery and is ultimately one of the reasons why the British attack on Zeebrugge failed. The British side told the story as such: "Künne attacked a British officer who was armed with a revolver and a cutlass. Künne was similarly armed with a cutlass. He slashed his opponent across the neck and grabbed the revolver. The British officer, desperately wounded, stabbed Künne as he fell. Given that the Victoria Cross citation for Lieutenant Commander Harrison makes no mention of a sword fight, there are those who believe that Wing Commander Brock was the British officer killed by Künne." Wing Commander Brock was mentioned in dispatches and received a memorial at zeebrugge with 2 other officiers and a mechanic. The inscription reads: "To the glory of god and in memory of these three officiers and one mechanic of the royal navy who fell on the mole at zeebrugge on st. georges day 1918 and have no known grave" The Kriegsmarine named the destroyer Z 19 of the 1936 series after Hermann Künne. His body was never found as well.

Graphics by Histy, Storytelling by Drach (not that I'm discounting the amount of effort you did for the narration.) Anyway, great stuff

I'd never really considered the implications of German access to the channel coast in WWI. Eye-opening!

My man, your video quality and method of providing a suberb overview is unmatched. I come back to these videos several times over, they are so well made. Please keep ding what you do, this is fantastic!

There was one more award that you didn't mention, Iris, the Mersey ferry was bestowed the title "Royal", so all subsequent ferries with that name were named Royal Iris.

This raid was a part of my dissertation 3 years ago (I did get the idea to study it more from BF1) and I don't understand how it isn't known more as it is an extraordinary story

It’s impressive and horrendous how the raid only lasted an hour. Also, this provides more context on the same raid from Battlefield 1.

Others may have already said it but thanks to BF1 for making me learn about this battle. It may not be a 100% historically accurate game but find me a triple A game which makes a title about ww1 with forgotten battles like this and an ingame encyclopedia

Both this channel and Drachinifels put out videos about this battle within a minute of one another. A buffet of content about this very interesting battle!

It's amazing that HMS Vindictive stayed afloat with weight of the brass balls of those brave men. Same for the HMS Campbeltown in 1942.

My grandfather, Levi Thomas Atkinson (able seaman) was on HMS Vindictive as a gunner. He was only 20 years old at the time and was gazetted along with the entire crew for the VC. All of the men who took part in this raid were beyond brave. He survived the raid but was changed for ever by the experience and struggled with survivor guilt for the rest of his life. For all the men who fought on that day and sadly paid the ultimate sacrifice, I salute you and will never forget. RIP. DAVID ATKINSON

This and the raid on St Nazaire in WW2 are some of the most spectacular operations.

My great grandfather was part of this operation! He never spoke about it or what he experienced, I can see now why. Thanks for this video.

I like to think of Zeebrugge as one of the first ever Spec Ops missions in history

Drach and Histrograph collab on the same subject today. *This is where the **-fun-** raid begins*

Nah man, you forgot when the Royal Marines had to take A and B point on the beach from the Germans, while they only had 100 tickets left (I love your vids btw).

I did not know there were so many machine guns in the Zeebrugge raid :)

>Sail to heavily defended enemy port. >Carry out extensive sabotage >Refuse to elaborate >Sail away

Considering that the Victoria Cross award requirements were raised in 1914 due to the new intensity of modern warfare potentially "diluting" the medal's effectiveness in the eyes of the War Office the fact that Zeebrugge has the 2Nd most VCs for a single action is all the more impressive, by the old standards which Rooke's drift operated under it probably comes out on top.

Well scripted/illustrated/narrated/edited/etc. I am curious about where black-and-white film footage came from. Assumption: 1920’s or early 1930’s production. Re-creating a night scene with the slow stocks available would not have been an easy task. But it predates the classic 35mm format.😊

Holy shit, thought I recognised the name Albert McKenzie. I used to live next to the memorial to him in Bermondsey

The bow of HMS Vindictive is still a memorial in Ostend

Battlefield 1 has a pretty good representation of this. Thanks for this video.

The Apollo class were 'protected cruisers', not 'armored cruisers'; this may seem a nitpick, but the Apollos displaced only ~3000 tons, whereas British CAs of the age were over 7000 tons. Vindictive was ~6000 tons

As you said, Drach covered this, your video adds great detail to his. Great graphics. Thanks!

Very interesting, I had a look at this after seeing Drachinifel’s video. Nicely done.

I enjoyed playing this map in Battlefield 1. I am glad it was almost spot on.

I thought I knew so much compared to my colleagues but despite my huge interest in history I never knew this raid existed, thank you

Man, this map on operations for BF1 is absolute chaos (especially with the 64 player version). The most inaccurate part of the map is probably the concrete submarine pen. There apparently was one of them in the port of Brugges Zeebrugge, but it wasn't located in the specific raiding location. The cannons at the tip also got spread out across the map.

Amazing work as always guys

Great video, never new about this battle.

Fantastic raid . Another gutsy effort from British and Commonwealth personal and forces .

Visitor here from Drach. Excellent work, both of you.

Excellent as always!

Your most interesting video in a long time! Love this one

Heard of it before but nice to see it in more detail here

Amazing video as always.

Very nice collaboration with Drachinifel indeed! While his video does indeed provide lots of photos, context and anectodes, your animations make it much easier to follow the multiple action locations.

Another great video. I impatiently wait for your new one's.

wow 200 medals in an hour, that is quite impressive

Very interesting. Never heard about this operation.

Excellent video!

Great stuff. And I get to watch a Drachinifel video as well.

Brilliant video! I’d never heard of this raid before and I feel like it deserves more of the spotlight. Where was the footage from that you used?

I am subscribed to both you and Drach. I knew two videos on Zeebrugge on the same day had to be coordinated.

HMS Vindictive. One of the most aptly named ships to ever sail.

Thank you for the history plus you honor those men !

Amazing video 📹 Amazing graphics 👌

Came here after watching drachinifels video on a subject. Very entertaining, you two should do More collabs together

No matter what war, the British always do stuff like this.

Thanks to the colas I found your channel. Subbed. Thanks for sharing

Why is this not a movie? This is an amazing assault

Drach brought me here. Very nice video, thanks!

Great video

OUTSTANDING

such tenacity under fire!!

I love this map on battlefield 1

I was wondering how both you and Drachinifel had the same content come out so close together. Im watching this video after I got done with his.

Did hear the landing parties which consisted of Marines and saliors were armed with nothing more than cutlesses and coshes .

Nice to coordinate with Drach.

One word comes to my mind. Wow.

some seriously high ranking casualties on the butchers bill.... not everyone were like lord melchett

Well done. Great comprehensive explanation of this raid

You and drachinifel both at the same time? Yay!

Wonderful presentation of yet another daring raid perpetrated by the brave souls of our friends across the pond. I also do love the redemption of the pair _Erebus_ and _Terror_ after their tragic loss in search of the Northwest Passage.

Will you ever do Napoleonic History? That’d be really interesting with your style of videos

Royal Daffodil, is worth her own story. Built as a train ferry , then used at Zebbrugge , she went on to take part in 'The Second Dunkirk' from St Malo and the Channel Islands , finally she took part in the Dieppe raid , where she was sunk HMS Erebus was also a bombardment ship on D-Day . HMS Terror was sunk in 1940 of Libiya.

great video

Who else got excited when he mentioned Drachinifel?

@9:00 ....Imagine surviving that Hellfire, only to be laid low by an invisible bug only months later.....if THAT isn't a Clarion Call to live every single day and moment as if it was your last, appreciate everything around you no matter how small or insignificant and enjoy literally every single second, well then I don't know what is....

You should do a video on the Battle of the Dardanelles Strait of 18 March 1915 when the British and the French tried to force the Dardanelles. And It should be titled: When 20 mines crippled a fleet.

Another brilliantly awesome and exquisitely terrific tale of operation in which the men and sailors of the royal marines and navy, showed supreme courage above and beyond the call of duty in carrying out said operation. Correct me if I wrong, didn't this raid provide the inspiration for the St Nazaire's raid of world war2?

Incredible

All those men lost only to block the canal for a few days

wow what a video 200 medals that a record

I have a picture of my father standing next to the monument to the British raid on Zeebrugge it is in the shape of St Georges sword

Nice video

See Barrie Pitts history - Zeebrugge ... The bridge was supposed to have been blown while a German bicycle infantry unit was crossing it and one cyclist was seen to be at ts peak, still mounted on his peak of it One correction, the Liverpool ferries Daffodil and Iris were not named 'Royal until after the raid, when HM King George V directed they be renamed in recognition of their Service. For the rest of their lives, they bore plaques detailing their exploits as they crossed and recrossed the Mersey. A second Royal Daffodil served at Dunkirk and Normandy. When she was scrapped, it was national news on the BBC Admiral Sir Roger Keyes was not forgotten, Churchill appointed him the first CO of the Commandos in WW2 Walking from Admiralty House, Dover to the pier with her husband was lady Keyes. She mentioned th the Patron Saint of England, Saint George" w, would be looking over the raiders as "tomorrow is Saint George's Day." Keyes responded by hoisting the ancient English war cry, "Saint George for England" - which became as legendary as Nelson's England expects" - as the task force got underway.

I, too, have played battlefield 1

Basically the WW1 version of Operation Chariot

That was some bad ass pirate raid level shit

Why has no movie been made about this? Or hell a miniseries would likely be needed to tell many of the stories?!

Was Royal Navy insane? Yes,in more ways then one!

You don't win medals....you receive them.

I love your videos so much please do more WW1 videos

I just gave up on the Drachinifel version (what a name) - this looks more like it!

Britain clearly said, *Bonjour.*

A forerunner of the St Nazaire raid in WWII

"8 Victoria crosses where awarded in total. the second most for a single action. Only Rorkes drift has seen more awarded." Thats an insane metric to think about. I don't have any other words. Absolutely incredible.