The Germans brought down their heaviest guns to the shore and returned the fire in an attempt to drive off the ships. But all their efforts against moving targets were in vain.
They sent out submarines from their hiding places in the Belgian canals; but these, too, were of no avail. The crushing cannonade from the British ships could not be silenced, and there was no alternative but for the Germans to abandon their positions and evacuate a large extent of the country, after suffering terrible losses in material and men.
In the course of this bombardment of the enemy's right flank, the British trawlers were active in sweeping for mines sown by the German submarines. This was perilous work, as it brought the little vessels into the zone of fire. Only one of them, however, was hit, and this happened to be the Dainty.
An enemy aeroplane had been flying over the ships, trying to drop bombs on them. Mark Redisham and Darby Catchpole were watching when they saw a French monoplane rise from the Allies' lines beyond a point of the land and give chase to the German Taube.
The two machines circled about like a pair of swallows, mounting and descending, swooping this way and that. The pursuit lasted fully half an hour when at length the Taube made a determined dash at the monoplane as if to ram it.
Very dexterously the French pilot swerved and ranged his machine up beside his adversary, the expanded wings almost touching. Four spurts of fire were seen. Then the monoplane ascended in a spiral, while the Taube began to drop, quivering like a wounded bird.
Plunging sideways, it turned over and fell down, down with a splash into the sea, midway between the Dainty and the land.
Skipper Snowling put on full steam and steered towards it, to rescue the pilot if he should still be alive.
Immediately one of the German heavy guns on the shore opened fire upon the trawler. Snowling altered his course and bore outward. This saved his boat from the first shell, which fell astern; but a second, from a smaller gun, crashed into her frail hull, and that was the end of her.
In a cloud of smoke and escaping steam Darby and Mark found themselves struggling to swim clear of the wreckage. Neither of them was hurt. They both wore their safety collars and life-belts, and both were good swimmers. But what of their shipmates?