HMS Amphion sunk by a mine
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- War at sea
- Date:
- 6 August 1914
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
- Tags:
- Royal Navy, naval mines, Kaiserliche Marine
On 6 August 1914 at about 6.30 a.m. the British scout cruiser HMS Amphion struck mines laid on the night of 4–5 August by the German ship Königin Luise. She sank within a quarter of an hour or so. She was the first Royal Navy ship lost in the First World War, barely a day and a half after Great Britain entered the war.
A trap after victory
The day before, Amphion had led the ships of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla from Harwich, which sank the minelayer Königin Luise. The British rescued some of the German crew and put the prisoners aboard the cruiser. The German ship, however, had already laid a minefield across the shipping lanes off the east coast of England. Contemporary chronicles placed the disaster near Great Yarmouth; other sources speak of the waters off the Suffolk coast.
Two explosions
Returning to base in the morning, Amphion passed through the minefield. After the first explosion, which wrecked the ship’s bow, the captain gave the order to abandon ship, and the accompanying destroyers came alongside to take off the survivors. Then the ship struck a second mine. The explosion set off the ammunition in the forward part of the cruiser, and her debris fell even on the decks of nearby destroyers. Amphion quickly went to the bottom.
About 150 British sailors were killed. Most of the German prisoners from Königin Luise also died, trapped aboard the ship that had rescued them the day before.
Significance
The sinking of Amphion was a painful lesson for the Royal Navy in the very first days of the war. It showed that mines, cheap and easy to lay, could destroy even a modern warship. The British navy had to expand its minesweeping forces rapidly, and mine warfare in the North Sea became one of the most dangerous aspects of the war at sea for the next four years.
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Meanwhile
(04)Elsewhere in the same days.
- 6 August 1914 · Western FrontBattle of the Frontiers beginsIn early August 1914 the Battle of the Frontiers began, a series of clashes between French and German armies that lasted until the Battle of the Marne.
- 6 August 1914 · Balkan FrontSerbia declares war on GermanyOn 6 August 1914 Serbia declared war on Germany, ally of Austria-Hungary. The two states had no common border, but the declaration was a political statement.
- 6 August 1914 · Eastern FrontAustria-Hungary declares war on RussiaOn 6 August 1914 the Austro-Hungarian ambassador in St Petersburg handed over the declaration of war. The monarchy's main front shifted to Galicia.
- 5 August 1914 · Balkan FrontMontenegro declares war on Austria-HungaryOn 5 August 1914 Montenegro declared war on Austria-Hungary, siding with Serbia. Guns on Mount Lovćen threatened the fleet base at Kotor.
Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 5 August 1914 · War at seaGermans lay mines in the open sea. The sinking of the Königin LuiseOn 5 August 1914 British destroyers sank the German minelayer Königin Luise off Suffolk. A day later her mines sank HMS Amphion.
- 3 November 1914 · War at seaGerman raid on YarmouthOn 3 November 1914 Hipper's German battlecruisers shelled the coast near Yarmouth and laid mines. The British submarine D5 sank on one of them.
- 3 September 1914 · War at seaSinking of HMS SpeedyOn 3 September 1914 the old torpedo gunboat HMS Speedy, serving as a minesweeper, struck a German mine off the mouth of the Humber and sank.
- 3 October 1914 · War at seaBritish lay mines off the Belgian coastIn early October 1914 the Royal Navy laid its first minefield in open waters, between the Goodwin Sands and Belgium, to protect the Channel routes.