The year 1917 saw the submarine warfare ruthlessly carried out and the enemy’s torpedo-boats raided the British and French coast.
In the early 1918, during the dismal winter nights, the foe undertook several offensive reconnoitrings up to the British Channel. These were to be their last deeds.
Doggedly determined to bring an end to the U boats’ boundless crimes, the British Admiralty tackled the plan for the bottling up of the two Belgian harbours. It was thus that were performed the most astounding operations, which took the enemy unaware, pinning him down in Zeebrugge and almost paralysing him in Ostend.
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“Kaiser Wilhelm II battery” constitutes one of the typical kind of heavy battery erected by the Germans along the North-Sea.
Armement: Four 12 inch marine guns, firing at 38 kilomètres (23½ miles) a shell weighing more than 400 kilos, needing a charge of 103 kilos.
The tube was 17 meters 25 cms long.
Gun crew: 5 officers and 360 other ranks.
Observation-posts: especially in Knocke’s Kursaal and on the down 23 near Duinbergen.
Ammunition supply: was done by railway.