 When the forces had reassembled and the commanders conferred , the full facts of the failed operation were revealed . The German commander of Ostend had been better prepared than his counterpart at Zeebrugge and had recognised that without the navigation buoy no night attack on Ostend could be successful without a strong familiarity with the port , which none of the British <unk> possessed . However , rather than simply remove the buoy , the German commander had ordered it moved 2 @,@ 400 yd ( 2 @,@ 200 m ) east of the canal mouth into the centre of a wide <unk> of <unk> , acting as a fatal decoy for any assault force . 
