Wing Commander Frank Brock was probably the last naval officer to fight and to die in a swordfight. On St George's Day 1918, his assailant, Hermann Kiinne a German sailor, died simultaneously from Frank's last thrust. Both men fell a few feet apart and both are buried close together in Zeebrugge churchyard. In 1937, recognising the importance of Frank's death, the Nazis named a destroyer after Kiinne. The most senior British officer to fight that night on the great sea wall, Frank had fearlessly charged and 'spiked' the German guns putting their men to flight with his revolver, his fists and his cutlass.Though only taking one hour, that night's action at Zeebrugge was so intense it could be heard in four countries. It was designed to bottle up the German submarine base in Bruges on the Flanders coast and more VCs were awarded than for any other single action other than Rorke's Drift.
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