Battle of Dover Strait (1916)
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Dover Strait that occurred on 26–27 October 1916 was a naval battle
of the First World War
between Great Britain
and the German Empire
. Two and a half flotilla
s of German torpedo boat
s from the Flanders Flotilla launched a raid into the Dover Strait in an attempt to disrupt the Dover Barrage and destroy whatever Allied
shipping could be found in the strait.
Upon approaching the barrage, the German torpedo boats were challenged by the British destroyer
and an engagement broke out. The Germans were able to destroy Flirt and successfully assault the barrage′s drifter
s, but were once more engaged when a flotilla of British destroyers was sent to repel them. The Germans were able to fight off the additional British units before successfully withdrawing. By the end of the night, the British had lost one destroyer, a transport, and several drifters while the Germans themselves suffered only minor damage to a single torpedo boat.
flotilla
s. The transfer of the 3rd and 9th Torpedo Boat Flotillas to Flanders had immediate consequences to the balance of power in the Dover Strait. Where as before, the Flanders Flotilla had only been equipped with three large torpedo boats and several of the smaller inferior A-class torpedo boat
s, they now possessed 23 large torpedo boats capable of meeting the British Dover Patrol
in combat. Due to the lack of large torpedo boats, the Flanders Flotilla had not sortied against the Dover Patrol in several months and as a result British defences were quite lax in the area.
With his newly acquired flotillas, the Flanders Flotilla′s commander—Ludwig von Schroeder—decided to launch a raid in the Dover Strait against the Dover Barrage as well as any Allied
shipping that could be found in the Channel
. Although the British had prohibited transports from being in the Channel at night in anticipation of a German raid, the Dover Barrage was not prepared to meet such an attack. Facing Schroeder′s 23 boats, the Dover Barrage was only guarded by the old destroyer , the yacht Ombra, and the naval trawler
H. E. Straud. The four divisions of drifters manning the barrage′s anti-submarine net
s were only armed with a single rifle each for defence. In addition to the forces guarding the Barrage, there were six Tribal-class destroyer
s at Dover that could be called upon in the event of a raid as well as several units of Harwich Force
dispersed at the Downs
.
s and began attacking them. After hearing gunfire, Flirt—the drifters′ escort—approached the as yet unidentified vessels and challenged them. The unidentified boats responded to the British signal with a similar signal. Confused, Flirt′s commander decided that the approaching vessels were Allied destroyers and that drifters had been attacked by a submarine. An open boat was also launched from Flirt to rescue survivors from the sinking drifters. The German boats then turned their attention from the drifters to the destroyer and attacked her, completely by surprise. Heavily outnumbered, Flirt unsuccessfully attempted to ram one of the German boats and after a brief engagement was sunk by combined gunfire and torpedoes. After sinking Flirt, the Germans continued to attack the barrage, sinking two drifters each from the Eighth and Sixteenth Drifter Divisions. In all, a total of six drifters and damaged three others, as well as the trawler H. E. Straud, before the Fifth Half-Flotilla withdrew.
When British authorities received word of the German raid they then sent six Tribal-class destroyers—, , , , and —as reinforcements to attempt to repel the Germans. Due to a misinterpretation of his orders the British commander of the dispatched destroyer division, Commander Henry Oliphant of the Viking, failed to keep his force compact as a single unit. Instead he deployed his destroyers in two loose groups, one consisting of Viking, Mohawk, and Tartar and the other Nubian, Amazon and Cossack. The destroyer Nubian soon steamed far ahead of her group, and was the first of the dispatched vessels to reach the scene of Flirt′s sinking. Meanwhile another half flotilla of German boats had caught the empty British transport Queen off Goodwin Sands
as it returned from the French coast. The Germans boarded Queen and removed her crew before sinking her.
Upon Nubian′s contact with the German 17th Half Flotilla, she made the same error as Flirt and mistook the German boats for Allied vessels. Surprised with a hail of gunfire, Nubian unsuccessfully attempted to ram the last boat in the German line of battle
but was struck by a torpedo that blew off her bow and reduced her to a drifting hulk. Amazon and Cossack soon arrived to aid Nubian, and began engaging the German boats. The Germans scored several hits on Amazon, knocking out two of her boilers before withdrawing. Viking′s division of boats also clashed with Kaiserliche Marine
torpedo boats. The German 18th Half Flotilla was heading back to Zeebrugge when it sailed into Oliphant′s group of destroyers, engaging them as they passed. Although Viking escaped unscathed, Mohawk suffered several hits before the Germans were able to break away to the safety of the coast. Near the end of the action, Reginald Bacon
—the commander of the Dover Patrol—dispatched the Dunkirk Division to intercept the German torpedo boats before they could return to Flanders
, but the Germans were able to successfully withdraw before being caught by these further reinforcements.
Naval battle
A naval battle is a battle fought using boats, 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...
of the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
between Great Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. Two and a half flotilla
Flotilla
A flotilla , or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class of warship, such as frigates, destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines, gunboats, or minesweepers...
s of German torpedo boat
Torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...
s from the Flanders Flotilla launched a raid into the Dover Strait in an attempt to disrupt the Dover Barrage and destroy whatever Allied
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
shipping could be found in the strait.
Upon approaching the barrage, the German torpedo boats were challenged by the British destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
and an engagement broke out. The Germans were able to destroy Flirt and successfully assault the barrage′s drifter
Naval drifter
A naval drifter is a boat built along the lines of a commercial fishing drifter but fitted out for naval purposes. The use of naval drifters is paralleled by the use of naval trawlers....
s, but were once more engaged when a flotilla of British destroyers was sent to repel them. The Germans were able to fight off the additional British units before successfully withdrawing. By the end of the night, the British had lost one destroyer, a transport, and several drifters while the Germans themselves suffered only minor damage to a single torpedo boat.
Background
In October 1916, the Flanders Flotilla was finally reinforced by the German Admiralty with two full torpedo boatTorpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...
flotilla
Flotilla
A flotilla , or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class of warship, such as frigates, destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines, gunboats, or minesweepers...
s. The transfer of the 3rd and 9th Torpedo Boat Flotillas to Flanders had immediate consequences to the balance of power in the Dover Strait. Where as before, the Flanders Flotilla had only been equipped with three large torpedo boats and several of the smaller inferior A-class torpedo boat
A class torpedo boat
The A class torpedo boats were a class of German single-funnelled torpedo boat/light destroyer designed by the Marineamt for operations off the coast of occupied Flanders in the First World War...
s, they now possessed 23 large torpedo boats capable of meeting the British Dover Patrol
Dover Patrol
The Dover Patrol was a Royal Navy command of the First World War, notable for its involvement in the Zeebrugge Raid on 22 April 1918. The Dover Patrol formed a discrete unit of the Royal Navy based at Dover and Dunkirk for the duration of the First World War...
in combat. Due to the lack of large torpedo boats, the Flanders Flotilla had not sortied against the Dover Patrol in several months and as a result British defences were quite lax in the area.
With his newly acquired flotillas, the Flanders Flotilla′s commander—Ludwig von Schroeder—decided to launch a raid in the Dover Strait against the Dover Barrage as well as any Allied
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
shipping that could be found in the Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
. Although the British had prohibited transports from being in the Channel at night in anticipation of a German raid, the Dover Barrage was not prepared to meet such an attack. Facing Schroeder′s 23 boats, the Dover Barrage was only guarded by the old destroyer , the yacht Ombra, and the naval trawler
Naval trawler
A naval trawler is a vessel built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes. Naval trawlers were widely used during the First and Second world wars. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust boats designed to work...
H. E. Straud. The four divisions of drifters manning the barrage′s anti-submarine net
Anti-submarine net
An anti-submarine net is a device placed across the mouth of a harbour or a strait for protection against submarines.-Examples of anti-submarine nets:*Lake Macquarie anti-submarine boom*Indicator net*Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign...
s were only armed with a single rifle each for defence. In addition to the forces guarding the Barrage, there were six Tribal-class destroyer
Tribal class destroyer (1905)
The Tribal or F class was a class of destroyer built for the Royal Navy. Twelve ships were built between 1905 and 1908 and all saw service during World War I, where they saw action in the North Sea and English Channel as part of the 6th Flotilla and Dover Patrols.-Design:The preceding River or E...
s at Dover that could be called upon in the event of a raid as well as several units of Harwich Force
Harwich Force
The Harwich Force was a squadron of the Royal Navy, formed during the First World War, that went on to play a significant role in the war.-History:...
dispersed at the Downs
The Downs
The Downs are a roadstead or area of sea in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast, between the North and the South Foreland in southern England. In 1639 the Battle of the Downs took place here, when the Dutch navy destroyed a Spanish fleet which had sought refuge...
.
Battle
The German torpedo boats split off into five groups with each attacking a different section of the shipping in the channel. The German 5th Half Flotilla sailed into the Dover Barrage and soon came into contact with five drifters of the 10th Drifter Division tending the anti-submarine netAnti-submarine net
An anti-submarine net is a device placed across the mouth of a harbour or a strait for protection against submarines.-Examples of anti-submarine nets:*Lake Macquarie anti-submarine boom*Indicator net*Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign...
s and began attacking them. After hearing gunfire, Flirt—the drifters′ escort—approached the as yet unidentified vessels and challenged them. The unidentified boats responded to the British signal with a similar signal. Confused, Flirt′s commander decided that the approaching vessels were Allied destroyers and that drifters had been attacked by a submarine. An open boat was also launched from Flirt to rescue survivors from the sinking drifters. The German boats then turned their attention from the drifters to the destroyer and attacked her, completely by surprise. Heavily outnumbered, Flirt unsuccessfully attempted to ram one of the German boats and after a brief engagement was sunk by combined gunfire and torpedoes. After sinking Flirt, the Germans continued to attack the barrage, sinking two drifters each from the Eighth and Sixteenth Drifter Divisions. In all, a total of six drifters and damaged three others, as well as the trawler H. E. Straud, before the Fifth Half-Flotilla withdrew.
When British authorities received word of the German raid they then sent six Tribal-class destroyers—, , , , and —as reinforcements to attempt to repel the Germans. Due to a misinterpretation of his orders the British commander of the dispatched destroyer division, Commander Henry Oliphant of the Viking, failed to keep his force compact as a single unit. Instead he deployed his destroyers in two loose groups, one consisting of Viking, Mohawk, and Tartar and the other Nubian, Amazon and Cossack. The destroyer Nubian soon steamed far ahead of her group, and was the first of the dispatched vessels to reach the scene of Flirt′s sinking. Meanwhile another half flotilla of German boats had caught the empty British transport Queen off Goodwin Sands
Goodwin Sands
The Goodwin Sands is a 10-mile-long sand bank in the English Channel, lying six miles east off Deal in Kent, England. The Brake Bank lying shorewards is part of the same geological unit. As the shoals lie close to major shipping channels, more than 2,000 ships are believed to have been wrecked...
as it returned from the French coast. The Germans boarded Queen and removed her crew before sinking her.
Upon Nubian′s contact with the German 17th Half Flotilla, she made the same error as Flirt and mistook the German boats for Allied vessels. Surprised with a hail of gunfire, Nubian unsuccessfully attempted to ram the last boat in the German line of battle
Line of battle
In naval warfare, the line of battle is a tactic in which the ships of the fleet form a line end to end. A primitive form had been used by the Portuguese under Vasco Da Gama in 1502 near Malabar against a Muslim fleet.,Maarten Tromp used it in the Action of 18 September 1639 while its first use in...
but was struck by a torpedo that blew off her bow and reduced her to a drifting hulk. Amazon and Cossack soon arrived to aid Nubian, and began engaging the German boats. The Germans scored several hits on Amazon, knocking out two of her boilers before withdrawing. Viking′s division of boats also clashed with Kaiserliche Marine
Kaiserliche Marine
The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...
torpedo boats. The German 18th Half Flotilla was heading back to Zeebrugge when it sailed into Oliphant′s group of destroyers, engaging them as they passed. Although Viking escaped unscathed, Mohawk suffered several hits before the Germans were able to break away to the safety of the coast. Near the end of the action, Reginald Bacon
Reginald Bacon
Admiral Sir Reginald Hugh Spencer Bacon, KCB, KCVO, DSO was an officer in the Royal Navy noted for his technical abilities who was described by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jacky Fisher, as the man "acknowledged to be the cleverest officer in the Navy".-Family:Reginald was born at Wiggonholt in...
—the commander of the Dover Patrol—dispatched the Dunkirk Division to intercept the German torpedo boats before they could return to Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
, but the Germans were able to successfully withdraw before being caught by these further reinforcements.