The Belgian Coast Barrage

At 5am on the 24th April 1916, work began on the Belgian Coast Barrage, a scheme devised by Vice Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, commander of the Dover Patrol,  to lay mines and mine nets near the Belgian coast. The aim of the barrage was to interrupt the work of the German naval forces at Zeebrugge etc - German U-Boats based here were causing problems and the surface vessels were a constant threat.

A number of merchant ships were converted to minelayers (Orvieto, Paris, Princess Margaret and Biarritz) supported by small trawlers (Welbeck, Carmania, Osta, Shackleton, Ostrich and Russell) and drifters. About 1421 mines were laid.

On the 25th April, UB13 was caught in one of the first nets and destroyed. It should have been helping the German naval ships involved in the raid on Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.

The German ships heading to Lowestoft were met in the early hours of the 25th April 1916 by ships from the Harwich Force commanded by Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt. The Harwich Force was weaker than it should have been - 12 destroyers had been taken away to defend the ships laying mines for the Belgian Coastal Barrage.

The Harwich Force ships HMS Conquest and HMS Penelope suffered damage and casualties in the above encounter.

There were a number of incidents during the laying of the barrage :

- the drifter Clover Bank hit one of the newly laid British mines on the 24th April during the barrage laying operation. 18 dead.

- the drifter Au Fait was shelled and captured. Her crew was taken prisoner and the boat sunk.

- Harwich Force destroyers Milne, Medea, Melpomene and Murray were involved in a fight with 3 German destroyers from Zeebrugge on the 24th April 1916 while they were defending the minelayers and drifters. All four ships suffered damage; Medea lost 2 killed in action and 1 who later died of wounds.

The Belgian Coast Barrage was completed 26th May 1916.

On the 27th May 1916, u-boat UC-3, a mine laying u-boat, was destroyed by a mine off the coast near Zeebrugge. Her 18 crew all died. She had destroyed one ship off the Suffolk coast before her destruction, The Golcanda was destroyed on the 3rd June 1916 by a mine newly laid by UC-3.

In September 1916, work began on the Cross Channel Barrage which would work in a similar manner to the Belgian Coast Barrage.


April 24th 1916 was also the date that German u-boats were ordered to cease unrestricted warfare against merchant ships, a result of pressure from the still neutral USA.