"Charge!" repeated Frank and Commander Hastings a moment later.
The British seamen went forward on the double, bayonets fixed.
From out of their fortified positions the Germans sprang forth to meet them, machine-guns from behind covering their advance. At the same moment Frank ordered his own machine-guns wheeled into position, and swept the advancing enemy with a hail of bullets.
But neither side paid much attention to this rain of lead, and directly the fighting became too close for either side to utilize its machine-guns. Steel clashed on steel. Revolvers in the hands of the officers cracked. Men fell to the right and to the left.
For a moment it appeared that the attacking force must be hurled back by the very weight of the numbers against them. But they rallied after one brief moment in which it seemed that they must yield, and hurled themselves forward again. This time there was no stopping them.
Directly the thin German line wavered. Then it broke, and the enemy dashed for the protection of their fortified position at top speed. But the British sailors kept close on their heels, and they reached the coveted spot at almost the same time. There the fighting was resumed, but after a short resistance the enemy again retreated, leaving the position in the hands of the British.
Immediately Commander Adams ordered the machine-guns which had been abandoned by the foe in his flight turned on them and the Germans were mowed down in great numbers.
Having gained his objective, Commander Adams ordered his men to proceed down the Mole and hold a position there so as to cover the operations of the party of destruction, which was now hard at work. To expel these British, German troops were now advancing from the landward end of the Mole.
The destruction of the viaduct by the submarine C-3 had been designed to aid the efforts of the landing party by preventing reinforcements reaching the Mole from the shore. Owing to the Vindictive coming alongside to landward of this zone, Commander Adams' men were now faced with a double duty of preventing an enemy attack from the shore and of themselves attacking a second fortified zone ahead of them. The casualties already sustained were so great that the Iris could not remain alongside the Vindictive to land her company of Royal Marines. This left insufficient men in the early stages of the landing to carry out both operations.
The situation was a difficult one, for to attack the fortified zone first might enable the enemy to advance up the Mole and seize positions abreast of the Vindictive, with the most serious consequences to the whole landing force, whereas, by not attacking the fortified positions, the guns at the Mole head could not be prevented from firing at the block ships.