Skirmish on the Dogger Bank
| date | January 24, 1915 |
|---|---|
| place | on the Doggerbank , North Sea |
| output | British victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 5 battle cruisers 38 other ships |
3 battle cruisers 23 other ships |
| losses | |
|
6 to 15 dead, |
943 to 986 dead |
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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 battle on the Dogger Bank in the North Sea took place during the First World War on January 24, 1915 between warships of the German Imperial Navy and the British Royal Navy .
Starting position
In January 1915 from undertook Vice Admiral Franz Hipper led German Association of the three battle cruisers Seydlitz , Moltke and Derfflinger and the armored cruiser Blucher , shielded from four light cruisers and 18 torpedo boats , an advance to the Dogger Bank in the North Sea to the local British patrol boats to destroy or expel. The inclusion of the last German armored cruiser, the Blücher , later proved fatal. The project corresponded to a strategy of " pinpricks " to provoke the Royal Navy to careless counterstrikes. This was to create the opportunity to put parts of the superior British Grand Fleet to battle under conditions favorable to the Germans and to destroy them.
In this company, the German naval command under Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl failed to provide remote security through battleships . The British Admiralty was also warned by its deciphering service Room 40 , since the order to operate Hipper was unnecessarily given by radio and could be deciphered. Fifteen minutes after Hippers' Association left the Jade Bay in the late afternoon of January 23, the five battle cruisers HMS Lion , HMS Tiger , HMS Princess Royal , HMS Indomitable and HMS New Zealand were underway under the command of Vice Admiral David Beatty, as well as three light cruisers and 35 destroyers out of the Firth of Forth .
battle
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At daybreak, the two squadrons collided at the position expected by the British, around thirty nautical miles north of the Dogger Bank and 180 nautical miles west of Heligoland in calm seas and good visibility. In view of the British superiority, Hipper then turned and went on the opposite course. So that the slowest ship in his formation, the Blücher , did not lose touch, he failed to increase the speed. This enabled the British battle cruisers to catch up. Due to the high speed, Beatty also had to leave some of his ships behind , including the battle cruisers Indomitable and New Zealand . These slower units could not keep up the speed of 27 knots ordered by Beatty and were therefore slow to catch up with the enemy.
At 9:52 a.m. the leading Lion opened fire on the Blücher , and at 10:05 a.m. the order was given to open fire. Since the German ships had a shorter range, they could only fire on the British capital ships some time later, the first to be the penultimate ship Derfflinger at 10:11 a.m. Hipper alerted the fleet management, but the German deep sea fleet was too far away to be able to provide help to his ships in time.
At 10:12 am, the Blücher received the first hit. Because of its short range, it was only able to return fire at 10:18 a.m. from a distance of 17 to 17.5 km. The British slowly passed the Germans on the right. The Lion shifted her fire to the Derfflinger , and the Tiger took over the bombardment of the Blücher . Finally the Lion reached the top ship Seydlitz .
Then Beatty gave the order: "Everyone fights the enemy facing him!" Thereupon the Tiger changed target to the Seydlitz , which was already being shot at by the Lion . The Princess Royal fired at the Derfflinger and the New Zealand at the Blücher . The Moltke remained undefeated for a long time and was not hit during the entire battle, while the Indomitable could not reach a target.
A heavy hit of a 34.3 cm grenade below Tower D led 10:43 at an ammunition fire on Seydlitz , put two turrets out of action and killed the 165 men of the tower operation. Pump master Wilhelm Heidkamp opened the red-hot flood valves with his bare hands , thus preventing the rear ammunition chambers from exploding . As a result, the ship sank to 10.5 m aft. At 11:25 a.m., the Seydlitz received another heavy hit in the central nave. The Derfflinger also suffered a severe hit in which the cartridges could only be prevented from exploding with difficulty.
The Blucher was at 11:30 a heavy hit in the ammunition transport path in the center aisle. 35 to 40 cartridges burned down and the flames set the front side towers on fire. The main steam pipeline in boiler room 3 was also badly damaged. The speed of the Blücher sank to 17 knots and therefore lagged behind the rest of the fleet. Shortly before noon Beatty ordered the still lagging Indomitable to sink the Blücher .
The Germans concentrated their fire on Beattys flagship HMS Lion , and especially the Derfflinger scored several direct hits. At 11:52 the Lion had to pull out of line as she was only 15 knots fast. Commands could only be passed on with flag signals . The tiger was also badly damaged .
In response to an erroneous submarine report - the German torpedo boat V 5 had shot down a torpedo from a great distance - Beatty gave the order “90 degrees port” in order to avoid it. Since this turn would have given the fleeing German ships too much of a head start, he corrected his order a few minutes later by having "course northeast" set to limit the turn to 45 degrees. To make it clearer that the fleeing ships should be pursued further, he also had "attack rear enemy ships" set. Since the two signals were hoisted on the same mast, instead of on separate masts, the other ships understood the two signals as a single signal: “Attack rear enemy ships in the northeast”. There was the Blücher , which had fallen far behind the German unit , which is why the deputy commander Rear Admiral Moore on board the New Zealand had all units attack the Blücher at around 12 p.m. , which gave the remaining German ships the opportunity to distance themselves from the enemy. To correct this, Beatty wanted to follow the order to "attack enemy at closer range", a well-known order from Admiral Nelson . However, since this was not in the signal book, it would have had to be laboriously set by flagging out the individual words, which is why Beatty had the command “Stay closer to the enemy” set from the signal book , which in his opinion came closest to Nelson’s order in this situation. However, this signal could no longer be recognized by the rest of the fleet. Since Beatty was just about to switch from the incapable of maneuvering Lion to the destroyer Attack , he was only able to resolve the misunderstanding later. Beatty took up the pursuit of the fleeing opponents, but could no longer reach them.
From 12:10 p.m., the Blücher was taken under heavy fire by all British ships. The light cruisers and destroyers also took part in the sinking. In doing so, the Blücher was able to severely damage the destroyer Meteor with her last ready-to-fire gun in the aft tower . At 1:13 p.m. the Blücher capsized after 2 to 7 torpedo and 70 to 100 shell hits. She keeled up for a few more minutes and then sank.
British ships saved 260 men. A German airplane that did not recognize the rescue operation hindered this process. 792 crew members died.
The picture taken from a British ship showing the capsizing ship from which crew members are trying to escape is now one of the most famous war photographs of the First World War.
Balance sheet
On the British side, two modern battle cruisers were badly damaged. On the Lion , hits in the engine system and the generators meant that it had to be towed in, unable to maneuver. The Germans had lost the armored cruiser Blücher . Although it was mistakenly believed to have sunk the British battle cruiser Lion , the battle was viewed as a setback, which is why Admiral von Ingenohl was dismissed. His successor Hugo von Pohl kept the German fleet on the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II in the safety of the German Bight . An analysis of the damage on the Seydlitz led to a series of technical improvements that reduced the risk of explosions and fires and were intended to contribute significantly to the great resilience of the German battlecruisers in the Skagerrakschlacht .
On the British side, they ignored the poor shooting performance, the confusion in the transmission of commands and the weaknesses of the armor and fire protection. Only Rear Admiral Moore was quietly replaced and did not receive a new front command. He was held responsible for the escape of most of the German squadron, even if he had only followed an assumed order from Beatty. In contrast, Beatty's flag lieutenant Ralph Seymour , who was responsible for the breakdown in signaling, kept his post and was also responsible for transmitting Beatty's orders in the Battle of the Skagerrak , where he again made a serious mistake.
Calls for an investigation were made, but stopped by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill , so as not to question the public image of a sea victory.
literature
- Kurt Gebeschus : Dogger Bank. Battle and sinking of the armored cruiser "Blücher" . With 12 pictures, 8 drawings and 3 battle maps. Berlin: Brunnen-Verlag, 1935
- Magnus von Levetzow : The sea battle at the Dogger Bank . Berlin: Norddeutsche Verlags- und Treuhand-Gesellschaft, 1927
- Lützow: The North Sea War . Doggerbank - Skagerrak (Naval Archives, Vol. 1), Stalling 1931
- Elmar B. Potter, Chester W. Nimitz: Sea power. A history of naval warfare from antiquity to the present , Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching 1986, ISBN 3-88199-082-8 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German Warships , Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, 1979, ISBN 3-88385-028-4 .
