On 28 September 1918 General Wolfe operated in the third division beside the newly completed coastal-defence ship HMS Gorgon off the Zeebrugge-Ostend coast. At 07:32 she opened fire on the railway bridge at Snaaskerke, about four miles south of Ostend. The range was 36,000 yards, nearly 33 kilometres. The shoot set a Royal Navy combat record by combining the largest gun, the heaviest shell, and the longest range used to that date. Wolfe fired fifty-two of her sixty 18-inch shells that day, all reported landing close to the target. A slow, shallow-draught monitor could therefore project battleship-scale fire far inland from coastal waters.
Chapter · 39:50-41:24
General Wolfe sets an 18-inch combat-range record
General Wolfe fired fifty-two 18-inch shells at a railway bridge from 36,000 yards, a Royal Navy record for gun size, shell weight, and combat range.