The Raid on Zeebrugge - 23rd April 1918

by Colin McKenzie

Keyes was determined that several Victoria Crosses should be awarded and his solution was to invoke Clause 13 of the Victoria Cross Warrant. This allows those present at an action to choose one of their number to be awarded the VC to represent them all. Clause 13 can be used only when the combined effort of the whole unit is worthy of the Cross and the Raid on Zeebrugge was a perfect example of this situation.

Following the strict social divisions of the time, the Naval and Marine officers each voted for their own candidates and the naval ratings and marines voted for their candidates from the ranks. This produced four nominees and Keyes added four more from various parts of the action together with a request for  21 DSOs , 29 DSCs, 16 medals for Conspicuous Gallantry, 143 medals for Distinguished Service and 283 names to be mentioned in despatches. He also submitted 56 names for immediate promotion for service in action. All this for an action which had last only a matter of hours.   

His recommendations were put to the Admiralty but they raised a series of objections. They felt that awarding eight VC's for one action might be seen to be lowering the standard of the award and they objected to the ballot Keyes had held, eventhough it was quite legitimate. Eventually they rejected his recommendations on the grounds that he had asked for too many awards for gallantry and that the proportion of officers to men was too high. They suggested that the that the awards be scaled back drastically.

... Churchill

The AWARDING OF MEDALS

Admiral Keyes was sure the people of England would wish to demonstrate their gratitude to those who had taken part in such a vital attack against the hated German submarine fleet. He was keen to award as many gallantry medals as possible.

King George's opinion of the Raid was quite clear since he had created Keyes a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on the morning of 23^rd April.

Keyes knew that great bravery had been displayed during the Raid and he asked Capt Carpenter the commander of the Vindictive and the most senior officer present during the attack on the Mole, to make his recommendations as to who should be awarded the Victoria Cross. However Carpenter found it impossible to choose who should get an award since all his men had shown such courage.

Keyes was furious and went straight to the Admiralty to tell them to their face that he refused to accept their decision. He informed them in no uncertain terms that he would not leave the building until his recommendations had been approved in full. The Lords of the Admiralty eventually gave in and Keyes won the day by sheer force of personality. This was typical of the way he operated. Soon after this episode Keyes wrote to the Admiralty saying ;

'Out of the many who have earned the VC, I cannot say that I would have selected these particular men, but I do not think the Admiralty will be criticised for awarding medals too liberally, since these men have been selected by the survivors of those who took part in the assault on the Mole, to represent them ... also I feel that all one's energies should be devoted to fighting the enemy - unfortunately I waste a good deal of my time fighting with the Admiralty, who are so infernally rude,  about things that really don't matter.'

The VCs ...