The Start Of The Decisive Battle At The Western Front

Ettlingen's newspaper, the "Badischer Landsmann" reports on March 22, 1918, on the bombardment of Dunkirk by German torpedo boats.


The Start Of The Decisive Battle At The Western Front

Official Preliminary Report

WTB Berlin, March 21, evening (official). Artillery fighting has intensified in Belgian and French Flanders, north of Reims, in Champagne, at Verdun and in Lorraine.
Between Cambrai and La Fere, we have penetrated sections of the English ranks.


Successful Bombardment of Dunkirk by German Torpedo Boats
WTB Berlin, March 21 (official). Three groups of torpedo boat forces in Flanders captured the fortress of Dunkirk and other military installations definitively at Bray-Dunes and de Panne under fire on the morning of March 21. The strikes were successful at all points. In the large encampments at de Panne,  which was held by 800 shooters, two major fires broke out. The coastal battery responded with lively but ineffectual fire.

The return journey saw a shootout with several enemy bombers, who, however, retreated after receiving multiple hits. The forces deployed in the advance arrived without injuries or losses.

Two of our small outpost boats did not return last night from a journey to the west of Ostend and must be declared missing.





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