Battle of Heligoland Bight

On 28 August 1914 in the Heligoland Bight, off the coast of Germany, the first major naval battle of the First World War took place. British destroyers, light cruisers and submarines attacked German patrols near the island of Heligoland, and the battlecruisers of Vice-Admiral David Beatty decided the outcome of the action. The Germans lost the light cruisers SMS Mainz, SMS Cöln and SMS Ariadne and the torpedo boat V187. The British did not lose a single ship.

The commodores’ plan

The idea came from two British officers: Commodore Roger Keyes, in command of the submarines, and Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt, commander of the Harwich destroyers. Since the start of the war British submarines had been watching the Heligoland Bight and had noticed that German torpedo boats went out on patrol every evening and returned to port in the morning. Keyes and Tyrwhitt proposed cutting off their way home and destroying them close to the German bases. The Admiralty, headed by the First Lord, Winston Churchill, adopted the plan.

The commander of the Grand Fleet, Admiral John Jellicoe, on learning of the plan, sent Beatty’s battlecruisers and the light cruiser squadron of Commodore William Goodenough in support at the last moment. The news of this did not reach Keyes and Tyrwhitt in time. This failure of communication nearly ended in tragedy, because during the battle British ships mistook one another for the enemy.

Fighting in the fog

On the morning of 28 August fog hung over the bight. At about 7 a.m. British destroyers came upon German torpedo boats and gave chase towards Heligoland. German light cruisers came out to help their own. Tyrwhitt’s flagship, the new light cruiser HMS Arethusa, was badly damaged in a duel with SMS Frauenlob. British destroyers sank the torpedo boat V187 and then tried to rescue the survivors.

The German cruisers came out of port one at a time and went straight into action. Around midday the British were in serious trouble, as more German ships kept arriving on the scene and Tyrwhitt’s ships, with the damaged Arethusa, were in danger. Beatty then took a risky decision and led his big ships deep into the bight, despite the threat of mines and submarines. The cruiser Mainz was sunk by Goodenough’s ships and destroyers. The battlecruisers, led by the flagship HMS Lion, shot Cöln and Ariadne to pieces at close range. Rear-Admiral Leberecht Maass, commander of the German torpedo boats, was killed aboard Cöln. Only one sailor of the cruiser’s crew was saved.

Shortly after 1 p.m. Beatty ordered a withdrawal. The German battleships and battlecruisers had been unable to put to sea earlier, because the low tide over the bar at the mouth of the Jade held them back. By the time Rear-Admiral Franz von Hipper led his battlecruisers out, the British were gone.

Losses

According to the figures most often given, about 700 sailors were killed on the German side and more than 300 were taken prisoner. Among the prisoners was the son of Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the creator of the German navy. Several other German ships were damaged. The British lost 35 killed, and the number of wounded is given in various sources as between 40 and 55. Arethusa and three destroyers were damaged.

Significance

In Britain the battle was greeted with enthusiasm, especially as the news from the land was then mostly of retreat. More important, however, was its effect on the Germans. Emperor Wilhelm II, alarmed by the losses, ordered that the High Seas Fleet avoid actions that risked heavier losses, and its commander now had to ask the emperor’s permission before seeking a decisive battle. Tirpitz criticised this policy as “muzzling the fleet”. For months afterwards German surface ships rarely ventured into the North Sea, and the Germans relied more and more on mines and submarines.