A bloke at work brought a load of WW1 documents and asked me if someone could explain what these pages actually reffered to and what they actually ment, these are authentic and secret, which leads to a possible nacval bombardment or encounter, also why has someone used a typewriter and mis-spelt a lot of words considering this is some 90 plus years ago, also I am wondering if these are fake. The bloke at work has photocopied several pages for people to read, and to see if in deed these are real. Look forward to your reply.

Hmmm... interesting. It could be authentic, or not. The only clue I could come up with as to it being real or not was by double checking the careers of the various ships mentioned to see if they match. Everything matched except HMS Prince Eugene. HMS Prince Eugene was scheduled to have her 12" guns replaced with an 18" gun originally intended for HMS Furious. According to internet sources this wasn't completed until after the war ended. This B.O., (Bombardment Order?), was dated for Oct 13 1918 so if the work done on HMS Prince Eugene, (Isn't ironic there was a British ship named Prince Eugene), wasn't completed by then then the whole document might be bogus. Of course it might have been written up under the assumption that the P.E. would be ready in time.

I wouldn't be too concerned by spelling errors as this would have been typed up by a fairly low ranking yeoman who might not be able to spell all that well.

Rodger Cole - that's the best information I have so far, and I wil pass it on, thank you.

Well as I am not to sure about what's happening, and while this was a very long time ago, I must admit I would like to know about this engagement, it would appear to be a bombardment by the Royal Navy and during the closing stages of WW1.

So far the surface craft engagement isn't that clear, I am showing a Erebus class deatroyer HMS Terror and HMS Gorgon, still not clear why a British ship would carry a German name.

Alec,

if you are talking about the 'Prince Eugene':

First of all Eugene (1663-1736) was not German, but rather French: Eugene, Prince de Savoy. He was French career soldier/officer nobleman who, when his services were not wanted by Louis XIV, offered his services to the Austrian emperor. In this capacity he fought the French and Turks on numerous campaigns. In the Anglo-Saxon world he is most famous for his partnership with John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and direct ancestor of Winston Churchill.

Also, in offering his services to the Austrians he was a man of his age (many career soldiers offered their services to foreign monarchs/states, only to fight their homeland).

In fact Eugene was instrumental in Marlboroughs successes at Blenheim, Oudenaerde and Malplaquet. Although Marlborough was usually in overall command, it was an almost equal partnership. He also had numerous successes on his own. He was therefore an important general in the wars that stunted Lousi XIV's ambitions, and freed the path for English colonial expansion.

So in that regard, it is not that odd that an English ship would name a ship after Eugene of Savoy.

Cheers!

Harm

All of the ships that are named, Terror, Erebus, Prince Eugene, General Craufurd, Sir John Moore, Gorgon, General Wolfe, Lord Clive, are monitors. These were fairly large ships, 8000 tons or so, with very wide beams for stability, and with small draughts, 11 feet or so, so they could move into shallow water. They were armed with large guns, 12" or bigger, that were normally taken off of older ships. They were really very clever use of older equipment put to better use. Monitors were excellent bombardment ships and were used successfully in both World War 1 and 2.

This document basically describes a proposed bombardment of the Belgium coast around Zeebrugge, spelled Zoobruggo in the document. Zeebrugge was the site of a raid in early 1918 by the Royal Navy that pretty much closed off the port to the Germans for the rest of the war. The bombardment order from this document is about a latter bombardment planned for mid October 1918 in support of army troops. This is a job monitors did very well.

Most ever thing in the document makes sense and is historically accurate. The doesn't say though that it wasn't faked for some reason. I can't really think of any reason anybody would fake this, unless they were trying to sell it for a great deal of money to some document collector.

Wow - that's certainly an eye opener, never realised how far back something like this would actually go, I guess its the same as the Royal family changing their name as they were related to the German house during WW1 - thank you, and may I look forward to more, please.

Above are some of the ships concerned with the enclosed paper work marked as being secret, there were 3 Divisions as far as I can make out the above, HMS Terror, Erebus, Gorgon among 5 possibly more ships in bombardment, attack and capture, while still very much a grey area, the bloke at work has a stack of such secret documents that were believed to have saved from one of the sinking combative ship.