Dover Patrol

Sub-unit of the British Navy based at Dover and Dunkirk throughout World War I. Its primary task was to close the English Channel to German vessels while escorting Allied ships safely through the area.

The Dover Patrol also mounted fighting patrols against the German-held channel coast and German coastal craft, including two daring raids against Ostend and Zeebrugge 1918. The Royal Naval Air Service unit attached to the patrol also made frequent bombing attacks against Zeebrugge, Ostend, Bruges, and other German-held targets on the channel coast. A naval siege gun force attached to the unit acted as heavy artillery support for the left flank of the Allied armies in France. A total of 125,100 supply ships passed through the area controlled by the patrol during the war, of which only 73 were sunk.