in overcoming so far as was possible the difficulties of
supply. The amount of bombing work carried out in 1917 cannot, of
course, compare with that accomplished during 1918, when production had
got into its stride and the number of machines available was
consequently so very much larger.

Whether it was due to our aerial attacks on Bruges that the German
destroyers in the autumn months frequently left that base and lay at
Zeebrugge cannot be known, but they did so, and as soon as we discovered
this fact by aerial photographs, plans were laid by Sir Reginald Bacon
for a combined naval and aerial night operation. The idea was for the
aircraft to bomb Zeebrugge heavily in the vicinity of the Mole, as we
ascertained by trial that on such occasions the enemy's destroyers left
the Mole and proceeded outside the harbour. There we had our coastal
motor boats lying off waiting for the destroyers to come out, and on the
first occasion that the operation was carried out one German destroyer
was sunk and another believed to have been damaged, if not also sunk, by
torpedoes fired by the coastal motor boats, to which very great credit
is due for their work, not only on this, but on many other occasions;
these boats were manned by a very gallant and enterprising personnel.

Numerous other operations against enemy destroyers, torpedo boats and
submarines were carried out during the year, as recounted in Sir
Reginald Bacon's book, and in the autumn, when supplies of the new
pattern mines were becoming available, some minelaying destroyers were
sent to Dover; these vessels, as well as coastal motor boats and motor
launches, were continually laying mines in the vicinity of Zeebrugge and
Ostend with excellent results, a considerable number of German
destroyers and torpedo boats working from Zeebrugge being known to have
been mined, and a fair proportion of them sunk by these measures.

In addition to the operations carried out in the vicinity of the Belgian
coast, the Dover force constantly laid traps for the enemy destroyers
and submarines in waters through which they were known to pass.

Lines of mined nets laid across the expected track of enemy vessels was
a device frequently employed; submarines, as has been stated, were used
on the cross-Channel barrage to watch for the passage of enemy
submarines and destroyers, and everything that ingenuity could suggest
was done to catch the German craft if they came out.

Such measures were