Battle off Texel

On the afternoon of 17 October 1914, in the North Sea, a few dozen kilometres south-west of the Dutch island of Texel, the British light cruiser Undaunted and four destroyers caught four German torpedo boats. In less than three hours all the German vessels went to the bottom. More than 200 German sailors were killed, while the British had only a few wounded.

A minelaying sortie to the Thames

The German command wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Royal Navy was busy covering the transport of troops and supplies across the English Channel. It was decided to lay mines in the mouth of the Thames or in the Downs anchorage, near the main shipping lanes. The task was given to the 7th Torpedo Boat Half-Flotilla: S115, S117, S118 and S119. These were old, lightly armed boats from the turn of the century, considered unsuitable for other tasks and whose loss could be borne. They were commanded from S119 by Lieutenant Commander Georg Thiele.

On 17 October the torpedo boats left the mouth of the Ems and steamed south-west along the Dutch coast. That day a force from Harwich was patrolling across their path: the new light cruiser Undaunted, commanded by Captain Cecil Fox, and the destroyers Lance, Lennox, Legion and Loyal, which were larger, faster and much more heavily armed than the German boats.

The chase

At about 2 p.m. the British sighted smoke a few miles ahead. The German torpedo boats were steaming side by side in line abreast. When they recognised the enemy they tried to escape, but they were slower. The British ships quickly closed the range and opened fire, and the Germans split up, seeking safety in different directions.

The fight turned into a series of duels. Lennox and Lance engaged S115, Loyal and Legion took on S119, and Undaunted and Legion finished off the remaining torpedo boats. The Germans replied with their light guns and attempted torpedo attacks, including on Undaunted, but no torpedo hit. At about 4.30 p.m. the last German boat disappeared beneath the water.

Losses

Of about 250 men on board the four torpedo boats, only a few dozen survived. The British picked up 31 survivors from the water, and two more were later rescued by a neutral ship. The number killed varies by source: most often 218 is given, sometimes slightly over 220. Georg Thiele was also killed. On the British side five sailors were wounded, and the destroyers suffered only light damage.

The Germans then sent the hospital ship Ophelia to the scene of the action to search for survivors. The British stopped her, suspecting that she was also being used for reconnaissance, and declared her a prize.

A chest from the seabed

The British obtained their most valuable prize only a few weeks later. Before S119 sank, Thiele had ordered a lead-lined chest containing secret documents to be thrown overboard. On 30 November 1914 a British trawler brought it up from the seabed in its net. Inside, among other things, was the German Verkehrsbuch (VB) codebook, used for communication with warships in distant waters, naval attachés and posts abroad, as well as by senior fleet commanders. It went to the British decryption unit Room 40, which had already received the codebook from the cruiser Magdeburg. British cryptologists called the find the “miraculous draught of fishes”.

The sinking of an entire half-flotilla was a painful blow for the Kaiserliche Marine. For a long time the Germans gave up torpedo-boat sorties towards the English Channel and from then on used them mainly for patrols off their own coasts. Georg Thiele’s name was later borne by the German destroyer Z2 Georg Thiele, sunk at Narvik in 1940.