23 FEBRUARY 1918, Page 2

Very early on the morning of Friday week a flotilla

of ten large enemy destroyers suddenly attacked our Dover Patrol. A trawler and eight drifters on outpost duty were at the moment engaged in hunting an enemy submarine. The little vessels could make no effective resistance, and all but one were sunk in a few minutes. The enemy destroyers then turned and went home before our destroyers could come up. They made no serious -attempt to Interfere-with our cross-Channel communications, and thus achieved nothing of military importance. Just after midnight on Friday week an enemy submarine fired a few shells into Dover, killing a child and wounding seven persons.