THE WAR AT SEA

THE FIRST BATTLE OF HELIGOLAND BIGHT:  AUGUST 1914

Acknowledgements

North Sea: airspacehistoian.wordpress.com. Map: Express Digest  Pursuit of Mainz: by German artist Willie Stoewer. BritishBattles.com. Sinking of Mainz: by German artist Willie Stoewer, laststadon zombieisland. Heligoland: globalsecurities.org. Vickers Wellington:  digitalcollections.nypl.org

    The First World War saw a change in British naval tactics. The advent of the submarine meant that the close blockade of enemy ports – so effective in the past – was no longer possible. Ships so engaged were sitting targets for the torpedo as well as the mine. The German High Seas Fleet, though smaller than Britain’s Grand Fleet, was a formidable force and needed to be contained by other means. So to “box in” Germany’s sizeable sea power and, at the same time, impose a tight blockade of German ports, the British navy established “mine barrages” from Norway to Scapa Flow, and, in the South, prevented any enemy or inadmissible movement through the narrow Straits of Dover. By so doing, this prevented access to German ports, kept the German fleet confined to British waters, and ensured that merchant shipping arriving at British ports were free from surface attack. Needless to say, however, submarines could not be so easily confined!

     In response, the Germans took to patrolling their coastline. Night and day, a number of destroyers, escorted in and out of harbour by cruisers, would go in search of enemy submarines or minelayers along Germany’s north-west coast, not far from their naval base at Heligoland. This pattern did not go unnoticed by the British. BothxCommodore Reginald Tyrwhitt, commander of a destroyer patrol, and Commodore Roger Keyes, commander of a squadron of long-range submarines, both based at Harwich, devised a plan of attack. Getting no support through the usual channels, they submitted it directly to Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty. He was in favour of it, and after some revision, the tactics were drawn up. Two light cruisers HMS Fearless and HMS Arethusa, accompanied by two flotillas of 31 destroyers and eight submarines, were to ambush the German warships as they began their day patrol. The destroyers were split into two groups. One was to act as decoys, and the other was to prevent the arrival of reinforcements. Back-up support, if needed, would be provided by two battle cruisers from the north-west, and five armoured cruisers from the west.

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     At 8 a.m. on the 28th August the first naval battle of the war took place. It was a resounding victory for the British Navy. Three German light cruisers and a torpedo boat were sunk, and three light cruisers and torpedo boats were damaged. As a result, 712 crewmen were killed, 149 were wounded, and 336 taken prisoner. For the British, only one light cruiser and three destroyers were damaged, together with 35 crewmen killed and 55 wounded. And the hero of the engagement (though he had played no major part in the planning of the attack), was Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty. Called for assistance, he had swiftly arrived on the scene with five battle cruisers, including HMS New Zealand and HMS Invincible, and wreaked a deal of damage upon the enemy ships. Indeed, such was the measure of this victory that – muchxto the annoyance of Grand Admiral Turpitz, the German Naval commander, the Kaiser ordered the navy to “hold itself back and avoid actions that can lead to greater losses”. In the future, he was to decide whether a particular attack should be mounted. Turpitz objected to being “muzzled” and said so.

     This victory was well received by the British public, especially as the war in Belgium and France was not going well for the Allies. In naval quarters, however, the operation was viewed quite differently. Churchill was not alone in speaking about defective staff work, and the risks that had been run. Notably lacking was a clear command structure. The various commanders were not centrally controlled or informed. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, for example, commander of the Grand Fleet, was not told about the timing of the operation until two days before it took place. He had doubtless been side-lined because he had deemed the venture too risky. When he did learn about it, he decided, unilaterally, to send a number of ships in support. The Admiralty, however, failed to inform the task force of these additions, so, when the force emerged out of the mist, it came very close to being a “friendly fire” incident. As it was, one submarine attempted to torpedo HMS Southampton and, having failed, came close to being rammed. And, aboard ship, there was criticism concerning the acccuracy of the gunnery and the large amount of ammunition used. There was room for concern.

    Incidentally, Heligoland is made up of two small islands off the north-west coast of Germay. It was taken by the British without resistance in 1807, but in 1890 was given to Germany in exchange for the East African island of Zanzibar. It was used as a German naval base in both the First and Second World Wars. …… “The Bight” is the name given to a recessed area of the German coastline at this point, containing the ports of Wihelmshaven, Bremerhaven and Cuxhaven, each having access to the Baltic Sea via the Kiel Canal. …… Andxit is worthy of mention that it was just south of this Bight, off the Island of Texel, that in October of this year a British squadron of light cruisers and destroyers sank four German torpedo boats – The Battle of Texel. ……

     …… OnxChristmas Day 1914, the Royal Naval Air Service launched an attack on the German naval base at Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the River Elbe. Seven sea planes, each carrying three 20lb bombs, were taken close to the shore by three converted ferries and, supported by a small force of destroyers, cruisers and submarines, attacked the base. Fog and anti-aircraft fire marred the operation, but the Cuxhaven Raid was the first combined sea and air strike. It proved the feasibility of an attack by ship-borne aircraft. All seven planes survived the raid.

     …… As we shall see, there was, in fact, a Second Battle of Heligoland Bight held in November 1917, but it was only a minor engagement. ……

     …… The first battle of the Second World War was also an attack on the Heligoland Bight, but it was a bombing raid. On the 18th December 1939, twenty-two Vickers Wellington bombers took part, but twelve were lost and three were damaged. As a result, the RAF abandoned daylight missions in favour of night bombing.

    The British Navy was admired and feared world wide, but it could not survive merely on its past reputation. There was need for some urgent reform and, as we shall see, this was seriously reinforced in November when a British squadron was defeated with heavy loses at the the Battle of Coronel in the waters of South America. This grim defeat – the first suffered by the British Navy in over a century – was mitigated the following month – but only partially so – when the British won a decisive victory at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.

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