First sea battle in the canal
| date | Night of October 26th to 27th, 1916 |
|---|---|
| place | Strait of Dover |
| output | German victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 23 torpedo boats | 7 destroyers 1 armed yacht 1 naval trawler 1 troop transport 28 naval drifters |
| losses | |
|
1 torpedo boat damaged |
sunk:
damaged:
|
.svg){kind=small}
Helgoland (1914) - September 22, 1914 - Texel - Yarmouth - Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby - Cuxhaven - Doggerbank (1915) - Noordhinder Bank - Doggerbank (1916) - February 29, 1916 - Yarmouth and Lowestoft - Skagerrak - August 19, 1916 - Canal (1916) - Canal (1917) - Shetland Islands - Heligoland (1917) - Bergen - Zeebrugge and Ostend - Tønder
The First Sea Battle in the Canal was a battle during the First World War between destroyers and torpedo boats of the British Royal Navy and the German Imperial Navy on the night of October 26-27, 1916.
prehistory
The penetration German submarines in the English Channel to prevent the Royal Navy placed after the start of World War I in the Strait of Dover , a first from minefields existing, then increased in February and March 1915 by anchored to the ocean floor steel nets barrier between Dover and the Belgian coast, the so-called "Dover Barrage" (Eng. " Dover lock "). It was completed on April 3, 1915 and was guarded by the ships of the so-called Dover Patrol stationed in Dover and Dunkirk .
From October 1916, the German torpedo boats and destroyers subordinate to the Marine Corps Flanders carried out multiple attacks on the Dover Barrier from their bases in Zeebrugge and Ostend . It came in October 1916 and April 1917 to two major naval battles with units of the Dover Patrol, which are referred to on the British side as the "1st and 2nd Battle of Dover Strait". The German admiralty reported them as "naval battles in the canal".
The battle
On 23/24 October 1916 laid 22 large torpedo boats of the III. and the IX. Torpedo boat flotilla to Zeebrugge. On the night of October 27, 1916, a total of 21 boats of the III. and IX. Torpedo boat flotilla and three boats from the Flemish destroyer flotilla opened the Dover Barrier and the sea area behind it between Folkestone and Cap Gris-Nez . Target of the III. T-Flotilla were the guards of the Dover lock and the shipping traffic in the Dover- Calais area . The IX. T-Flotilla should meanwhile pass the Dover Strait as unnoticed as possible and attack enemy shipping in the area between Dover and Calais immediately north of the Varne Sandbank . Commodore Andreas Michelsen , the first leader of the torpedo boats , personally led the 5th half flotilla for this company.
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During their attack on the Dover Barrier, the 5th Half Flotilla sank a total of seven small guard ships, practically unarmed drifters , and damaged another two, and the 6th Half Flotilla then sank the old destroyer HMS Flirt, which had been added to rescue its crews .
After the first reports of gun noise and muzzle flashes had arrived in the area of the Dover Barrier, the six Tribal-class destroyers of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, which were on standby in Dover, were put on the march to repel the German attack, and there was one on the British side confused skirmish. The British units were at a disadvantage, as they mostly operated individually and on their own and could not know whether the appearance of other ships was own or enemy. Each of the German semi-flotillas, on the other hand, had been assigned a different operational area so that they should not interfere with each other.
Both semi-flotillas of the IX. Flotilla made the advance into the English Channel , but it was unsuccessful because the British had largely stopped shipping across the Channel at nightfall in anticipation of such an attack. Only one small freighter, the Queen , was encountered and sunk after its crew went into the boats.
While marching back, the 17th half-flotilla met the destroyer Nubian , who was the first and only one to arrive at the attacked Dover Barrier , and who initially thought the German boats were British units. The German boats shot him to the wreck as they drove past. The hopelessly inferior Nubian tried to ram the last German boat, but was hit by a torpedo below the bridge , which tore off the forecastle. Fifteen men died on the Nubian , which was left behind as a burning wreck by the German boats. The German boats continued their journey home and soon after met the destroyer Amazon , who also appeared alone and which they severely damaged in a short artillery duel. The Amazon received two hits: one destroyed the rear gun, the second the rear boiler room. Five people died. All boats of the 17th half flotilla reached their base in Ostend without any combat damage.
The 18th semi-flotilla also encountered British forces on its march back to Zeebrugge - the three destroyers Viking , Mohawk and Tartar , who had left Dover together and remained in the formation. While the surprised British were trying to find out who they were looking at, the German boats opened fire. Hits on the Mohawk , the second ship on the British keel line, killed four of her crew and put her steering gear out of action. She pulled out of the formation and the Tartar followed her. The attempt of the Viking to follow the German boats was thwarted by the fact that the Mohawk, which had gotten out of hand, got in her way, and the 18th semi-flotilla marched back unscathed to Zeebrugge. (P. 78)
On the German side, only G 91 from the 6th half flotilla suffered slight damage.
literature
- Henry Newbolt: History of the Great War: Naval Operations: Vol. IV. Longmans Green, London, 1928, pp. 55-64
- Reginal Bacon: The Dover Patrol 1915–1917, Volume II. George H. Doran, New York, 1919
- Mark D. Karau: The Naval Flank of the Western Front: The German Marinekorps Flanders 1914-1918. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, 2014, ISBN 978-1-84832-231-8 , pp. 75–79 (first edition: Mark D. Karau: Wielding the Dagger: The Marinekorps Flandern and the German War Effort, 1914-1918. Praeger, Westport, Conn., 2003, ISBN 978-0-313-32475-8 )
Footnotes
- ↑ The Dover Barrage
- ↑ UK Completes Antisubmarine Dover Barrage , in Today in World War I , April 3, 2015
- ↑ To the III. T-Flotilla belonged to the 5th half flotilla with V 71 as the guide boat, V 47 , V 67 , V 68 , V 73 , V 81 and G 88 as well as the 6th half flotilla with S 55 as guide boat, G 42 , S 53 , S 54 , V 70 and G 91 . The IX. The T-Flotilla consisted of the 17th half flotilla with V 79 (as a guide boat), S 36 , S 51 , S 52 , V 60 , V 80 , and the 18th half flotilla with V 30 , V 26 , V 28 , S 33 and S 34 .
- ↑ Mark D. Karau: The Naval Flank of the Western Front: The German Marinekorps Flandern 1914-1918. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, 2014, ISBN 978-1-84832-231-8 , p. 77
- ^ Henry Newbolt: History of the Great War: Naval Operations: Vol. IV. Longmans Green, London, 1928, pp. 55-64
- ↑ Neither the four destroyers ordered from Dunkirk with the guide boat Laforey nor the four destroyers of the Lawford group stationed in The Downs appeared in time to intervene in the battle.
- ↑ The Nubian was towed by the Lark , but after the break in the towing connection in heavy weather, she finally stranded off South Foreland northeast of Dover. Recovered later, the aft part of the hull of the Nubian was connected to the forecastle of the Zulu, which was badly damaged by a mine hit in November 1916, to form the new destroyer Zubian .
- ↑ The Cossack , which had sailed from Dover with the Nubian and the Amazon , had lost touch soon after leaving and never intervened in the fighting.
- ^ Henry Newbolt: History of the Great War: Naval Operations: Vol. IV. Longmans Green, London, 1928, pp. 55-64
Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 0 ″ N , 1 ° 36 ′ 0 ″ E