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Information about Battle Of Heligoland Bight

First Battle of Heligoland Bight
Part of the First World War
Date28 August 1914
LocationHeligoland Bight, North Sea
ResultBritish victory
Combatants
British Empire German Empire
Commanders
David Beatty
Reginald Tyrwhitt		Leberecht Maass†
Strength
5 battlecruisers
8 light cruisers
33 destroyers
3 submarines		6 light cruisers
19 torpedo boats
12 minesweepers
Casualties
35 killed
55 wounded		712 killed
149 wounded
336 captured
3 light cruisers
1 torpedo boat
North Sea 1914-1918
1st Heligoland Bight – Dogger Bank – Jutland – 2nd Heligoland Bight


The First Battle of Heligoland Bight was the first naval battle of the First World War, fought on 28 August 1914. The British planned to attack German patrols off the north-west German coast.

British forces

The Harwich Force of two light cruisers, HMS Arethusa and HMS Fearless, and 31 destroyers, under the command of Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt, made a raid upon the German navy patrols west of the German naval base at Heligoland. Its actions were to be coordinated with a submarine force commanded by Commodore Roger Keyes. Providing cover for the Harwich Force were "Cruiser Force C" with five old armoured cruisers and "Cruiser Force K" under Rear Admiral Moore with the battlecruisers HMS Invincible and New Zealand. The Admiralty did not consider more support necessary, but Admiral John Jellicoe, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, subsequently sent the First Battlecruiser Squadron under Vice Admiral David Beatty and the First Light Cruiser Squadron under Commodore William Goodenough to provide cover and support. The Admiralty's failure to inform Tyrwhitt and Keyes of this change in plans later caused considerable confusion on the battlefield.

On top of these, British submarines were deployed. E class submarines E4, E5 and E9 were ordered to attack reinforcing or retreating German vessels. E6, E7 and E8 were positioned 40 miles further out to draw the German destroyers out to sea. D2 and D8 were stationed off Ems to attack reinforcements should they come from that direction.

Opening action

In the early hours on 28 August, the Harwich Force encountered the first German torpedo boats west of Heligoland. Not entirely surprised by the attack, the Germans hastily deployed the light cruisers SMS Frauenlob and SMS Stettin, joined shortly afterwards by four more light cruisers, including Rear Admiral Leberecht Maass' flagship, SMS Cöln.

Finding his force outgunned and under heavy fire, with Arethusa badly damaged by Frauenlob, Tyrwhitt received initial assistance from Commodore Goodenough's squadron of six modern Town class light cruisers: HMS Southampton, HMS Birmingham, HMS Falmouth, HMS Liverpool, HMS Lowestoft and HMS Nottingham. SMS Frauenlob suffered severe damage herself and retreated to Heligoland, but SMS Mainz, arriving on the battlefield from Emden, found herself between Tyrwhitt's and Goodenough's forces and was sunk after a long and valiant battle.

Battlecruisers

With more German cruisers careening about in the fog and smoke and much confusion on both sides, Tyrwhitt requested assistance from Beatty's battlecruisers at 11.25 am. Beatty, with the battlecruisers HMS Lion, HMS Queen Mary and HMS Princess Royal, had by then linked up with Rear Admiral Moore's Force K and was some 25 miles to the north. The five battlecruisers arrived at about 12.40pm and sank SMS Cöln and SMS Ariadne, leaving the scene before the Germans, impeded by low tide, could get their own battlecruisers out of Wilhelmshaven.

Aftermath

The battle was a clear British victory. Germany had lost the three light cruisers Mainz, Cöln and Ariadne and the destroyer V 187 sunk, and the light cruiser Frauenlob had been severely damaged. The light cruisers Strassburg and Stettin had also been damaged. German casualties were 1,242 with 712 men killed, including Rear Admiral Maass, and 336 prisoners of war. The Royal Navy had lost no ships and only 35 men killed, with 40 wounded.

The most significant result of the battle was the effect on the attitude of the Kaiser. To preserve his ships the Kaiser determined that the fleet should, "hold itself back and avoid actions which can lead to greater losses." Admiral Pohl, Chief of the German Naval Staff, wired Ingenohl that, "in his anxiety to preserve the fleet [William] ... wished you to wire for his consent before entering a decisive action."

Tirpitz was outraged by this decision. He wrote after the war, "The Emperor did not wish for losses of this sort ... Orders [were] issued by the Emperor ... after an audience with Pohl, to which I as usual was not summoned, to restrict the initiative of the Commander-in-Chief of the North Sea Fleet. The loss of ships was to be avoided; fleet sallies and any greater undertakings must be approved by His Majesty in advance. I took the first opportunity to explain to the Emperor the fundamental error of such a muzzling policy. This step had no success, but on the contrary there sprang up from that day forth an estrangement between the Emperor and myself which steadily increased."[1]

Churchill after the war observed:

All they saw was that the British did not hestitate to hazard their greatest vessels as well as their light craft in the most daring offensive action and had escaped apparently unscathed. They felt as we should have felt had German destroyers broken into the Solent and their battle cruisers penetrated as far as the Nab. The results of this action were far-reaching. Henceforward, the weight of British Naval prestige lay heavy across all German sea enterprise ... The German Navy was indeed "muzzled". Except for furtive movements by individual submarines and minelayers, not a dog stirred from August till November. [2]

External links

See also

Notes

footnotes
1. ^ Tirpitz-1919">Tirpitz, Grand Admiral Alfred von (1919). My Memoirs. New York: Dodd, Mead, Volume II p 91. 
2. ^ Churchill-1923-27">Churchill, Winston S. (1923-27). The World Crisis - 4 Volumes. London: Thornton Butterworth, Ltd, Volume I p 309. 
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Heligoland Bight (also known as Helgoland Bight) is the southern part of the German Bight, itself a bay of the North Sea, located at the mouth of the Elbe river. Named after the Heligoland Island, it was the location of the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
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David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, GCB, OM, GCVO (17 January 1871 – 11 March 1936), was an admiral in the Royal Navy.

Early career

Born at Howbeck Lodge (originally one of the Earl of Shrewsbury's hunting lodges), in Howbeck, which is a hamlet in the parish of Stapeley,
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Sir Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt, 1st Baronet of Terschelling and of Oxford (10 May 1870-30 May 1951) was an admiral of the Royal Navy in World War I who commanded light forces stationed at Harwich on the east coast of England during the first part of the war.
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Rear Admiral Leberecht Maass (or as the name was then spelled in German, Leberecht Maaß) (24 November 1863 - 28 August 1914) was the commander of German naval forces at the first Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914.
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Second Battle of Heligoland Bight was a naval engagement in World War I. On 17 November 1917, German minesweepers clearing a path through the British minefield in the Heligoland Bight near the coast of Germany were intercepted by two British cruisers, HMS Calypso
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naval battle is a battle fought using ships or other waterborne vessels. Most naval battles have occurred at sea, but a few have taken place on lakes or rivers. The earliest recorded naval battle took place in 1210 BC near Cyprus.
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Clockwise from top: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.
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August 28 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events


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This page is protected from moves until disputes have been resolved on the .
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German Empire is the name used in English to describe the first 47 years of the German Reich when it was a semi-constitutional monarchy: beginning with the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I of Prussia as German Emperor (January 18, 1871), effectively
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HMS Arethusa was the name ship of the Arethusa class of light cruisers. She was laid down at Chatham Dockyard in October 1912, launched on 25 October 1913, and commissioned in August 1914 as flotilla leader for the Harwich Destroyer flotillas.
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Seven ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Fearless:
  • The first Fearless was a 12 gun vessel, launched in 1794 and wrecked in 1804 in Plymouth Sound.

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Sir Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt, 1st Baronet of Terschelling and of Oxford (10 May 1870-30 May 1951) was an admiral of the Royal Navy in World War I who commanded light forces stationed at Harwich on the east coast of England during the first part of the war.
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Helgoland
Heligoland

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armored or armoured cruiser (see spelling differences) is a type of cruiser; a naval warship. The armoured cruiser is protected by a belt of side armor, in addition to the armored deck and protective coal bunkers that define the protected cruiser.
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Battlecruisers were large warships of the first half of the 20th century first introduced by the British Royal Navy. They evolved from armoured cruisers and in terms of ship classification they occupy a grey area between cruisers and battleships.
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The fifth Invincible of the Royal Navy was a battlecruiser, the lead ship of her class of three, and the first battlecruiser to be built by any country in the world.

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