Frank Arthur Brock - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Frank Arthur Brock was a British

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

First World War Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

Officer who devised and executed the smoke screen used during the Zeebrugge Raid

Zeebrugge Raid

The Zeebrugge Raid, which took place on 23 April 1918, was an attempt by the British Royal Navy to neutralize the key Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge...

on 23 April 1918, the British

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

's attempt to neutralize the key Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

port of Bruges-Zeebrugge.

Background

Brock was born in Cheam

Cheam

Cheam is a large suburban village close to Sutton in the London Borough of Sutton, England, and is located close to the southern boundary between Greater London and Surrey. It is divided into two main areas: North Cheam and Cheam Village. North Cheam includes more retail shops and supermarkets,...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, the son of Arthur Brock of Haredon Sutton, Surrey

Surrey

, of the famous C.T. Brock & Co. fireworks manufacturers. He was educated at Dulwich College

Dulwich College

Dulwich College is an independent school for boys in Dulwich, southeast London, England. The college was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn, a successful Elizabethan actor, with the original purpose of educating 12 poor scholars as the foundation of "God's Gift". It currently has about 1,600 boys,...

where he blew up a stove in his form room. Frank Brock went into the family business in 1901 (later becoming a director) where he remained until the outbreak of the First World War.

He originally obtained a commission in the Royal Artillery

Royal Artillery

The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...

but was within a month loaned to the Royal Naval Air Service

Royal Naval Air Service

The Royal Naval Air Service or RNAS was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of the First World War, when it merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form a new service , the Royal Air Force...

to which he transferred, becoming a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

Royal Naval Reserve

The Royal Naval Reserve is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. The present Royal Naval Reserve was formed in 1958 by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , a reserve of civilian volunteers founded in 1903...

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

on 31 December 1914. He was a member of the Admiralty Board of Inventions and Research and had founded, organized and commanded the Royal Navy Experimental Station at Stratford

Stratford

Stratford is a place name found in many English-speaking countries. It derives from the Old English words stræt and ford...

.

Among his many developments were the following:

The Dover Flare - used in anti-submarine warfare.
The Brock Colour Filter
The Brock Bullet (or Brock Incendiary Bullet or Brock Anti-Zeppelin Bullet) - the first German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...

to be shot down was destroyed by this bullet).

By the time the Royal Naval Air Service

Royal Naval Air Service

merged with the Royal Flying Corps

Royal Flying Corps

The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...

to form the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

on 1 April 1918, Brock had risen to the rank of Wing Commander

Wing Commander (rank)

Wing commander is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries...

and had been awarded the O.B.E.

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

for services to king and country.

Zeebrugge Raid

On the night of 22–23 April 1918, the Zeebrugge Raid

Zeebrugge Raid

The Zeebrugge Raid, which took place on 23 April 1918, was an attempt by the British Royal Navy to neutralize the key Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge...

began when an armada of British sailors and marines led by the old cruiser, HMS Vindictive

HMS Vindictive

HMS Vindictive has been the name of more than one Royal Navy ship*HMS Vindictive, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line launched in 1813 and sold in 1871.*HMS Vindictive, an Arrogant class cruiser used in the Zeebrugge Raid...

, attacked the Mole

Mole (architecture)

A mole is a massive structure, usually of stone, used as a pier, breakwater, or a causeway between places separated by water. The word comes from Middle French mole and ultimately Latin mōlēs meaning a large mass, especially of rock and has the same root as molecule.Historically, the term "mole"...

at Zeebrugge

Zeebrugge

Zeebrugge is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and a seafront resort with hotels, cafés, a marina and a beach.-Location:...

, Belgium

Belgium

, in order to negate the serious threat to Allied

Allies of World War I

The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

shipping, that was being posed by the port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

being used by the German Navy

German Navy

The German Navy is the navy of Germany and is part of the unified Bundeswehr .The German Navy traces its roots back to the Imperial Fleet of the revolutionary era of 1848 – 52 and more directly to the Prussian Navy, which later evolved into the Northern German Federal Navy...

as a base for their U-boats and light shipping. Brock brought on board with him a box marked 'Highly Explosive, Do Not Open' which actually contained bottles of vintage port

Port wine

Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties...

which were drunk by his men. For the attack, Brock was in charge of the massive smoke screens that were to cover the approach of the raiding party:

Brock's new and improved smokescreen, or "artificial fog" as he preferred to call it, was ingenious. Essentially, a chemical mixture was injected directly under pressure into the hot exhausts of the motor torpedo boats and other small craft or the hot interior surface of the funnels of destroyers. The larger ships each had welded iron contraptions, in the region of ten feet in height, hastily assembled at Chatham. These were fed with solid cakes of phosphide of calcium. Dropped into a bucket-like container full of water, the resulting smoke and flames roared up a chimney and were dispersed by a windmill arrangement. It was more toxic than its predecessor. Taking in a lungful was an extremely unpleasant experience.

At Zeebrugge, Brock, anxious to discover the secret of the German system of sound-ranging, begged permission to go ashore, not content to watch the action from an observation ship. He joined a storming party on the Mole

Mole (architecture)

and was killed in action.

He is commemorated by a special memorial at the Zeeebrugge Memorial because his body was never recovered. The Zeeebrugge Memorial commemorates three officers and one mechanic of the Royal Navy who died on the mole at Zeebrugge and have no known grave. The memorial stands in Zeebrugge Churchyard where 30 Commonwealth

Commonwealth

Commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has sometimes been synonymous with "republic."More recently it has been used for fraternal associations of some sovereign nations...

servicemen of the First World War are buried or commemorated. 17 of the burials are unidentified but a special memorial commemorates the officer of the Royal Naval Air Service

Royal Naval Air Service

known to be buried among them.

Henry Major Tomlinson wrote of Wing Commander Brock: A first-rate pilot and excellent shot, Commander Brock was a typical English sportsman; and his subsequent death during the operations, for whose success he had been so largely responsible, was a loss of the gravest description to both the Navy and the empire.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.