Operation Hush - Aftermath

Aftermath

1st Division left the camp at le Clipon on 21 October, the rest of Fourth Army following on 3 November.

J. F. C. Fuller, on the staff of the Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps (as the Tank Corps was then called), called the scheme "a crack-brained one, a kind of mechanical Gallipoli affair" and when in the area in 1933, discovered the sea-walls were partially covered in a fine green seaweed, which the tanks might not have been able to scale. Admiral Keyes thought that the operation was doomed to fail and Admiral Jellicoe expected a great success. Despite the demands of the battles at Ypres, Haig had kept a large force on the coast throughout, ready to exploit a German general withdrawal. Haig resisted the suggestion to launch the operation independently, wanting it to be synchronised with the advance on Roulers which loomed in October but did not occur until a year later. On 23 April 1918 the Dover Patrol raided Zeebrugge to sink blockships in the canal entrance, intended to stop U-boats leaving port.