It was the summer of 1914, and only two weeks had passed since Germany declared war against
France.
As the German troops proved hard to contain by the French forces, the British spirits
were high, with most people eager to see the newly formed Grand Fleet crush the Germans
into submission.
However, no significant naval encounter took place during the following days, and instead,
the French continued to lose territory.
As the British Expeditionary Force rushed across the English Channel to reach the French
frontlines, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill grew more impatient by the minute,
disgruntled that the Royal Navy was not taking the initiative to attack the German High Seas
Fleet.
Finally, Commodore Robert Keyes came forward with an ambitious plan to attack parts of
the German Fleet outside their main base in Wilhelmshaven, and Churchill swiftly endorsed
the operation.
The scheme was highly risky and contentious, which led Admiral John Jellico to offer the
support of the Grand Fleet and its battleships.
But Jellico's offer was disregarded by an overconfident Admiralty, and the British destroyers
moved to Helgoland Bight to meet a much more powerful force than they had bargained for…
A German Weakness
As pressure mounted for the Royal Navy to make a move against the German High Seas Fleet,
Commodore Robert Keyes approached the Admiralty with a bold plan of attack devised to exploit
a critical German weakness.
Keyes explained to Churchill that after conducting submarine patrolling at Helgoland Bight, he
had found a gap in the German defense perimeter where no mines had been laid.
Instead, the area was guarded by a complex arrangement of German destroyer patrols.
The plan was to use the Harwich Force of two destroyer flotillas to ambush the German patrols
and lead them toward Keyes's own submarines to be destroyed.
The submarines would also intercept any additional German ships that came to the aid of the ambushed
patrols.
On August 24, 1914, the Admiralty approved the ambitious plan, and everything was put
in motion for the attack to take place on the 28th.
Despite Keyes's confidence and the complete support of the Admiralty, the plan was extremely
dangerous as it entailed committing over 40 British ships to an area a few miles away
from the German coast without a full understanding of the German's capacity to respond.
Although not consulted for the planning of the operation, Admiral John Jellico, the commander
in Chief of the Grand Fleet, became exceedingly concerned about the scheme when he learned
about it, immediately offering to reinforce Keyes’s submarines with his own battle fleet.
The Admiralty, not wishing to commit the Grand Fleet to what was still regarded as a minor
operation, responded in a brief but decisive message: (QUOTE) "Co-operation by battle fleet
not required.
Battlecruisers can support if convenient."
In a similar fashion to all the other troops hastily mobilizing across Europe, Harwich
Force dashed across the Northern Sea confident that it would secure a swift and decisive
victory over its foes.
The Battle
It was the cold foggy morning of August 28 when the Harwich Force, composed of over 30
British destroyers and a few light cruisers led by Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt, arrived
at Helgoland Bight.
Communications between the British were poor and intermittent, and the leader did not know
where the British submarines were.
With fewer than 500 yards of visibility, the encounter threatened to be chaotic and unpredictable.
Then, seven minutes before 7:00am, a German torpedo boat patrol ran into one of Tyrwhitt's
destroyer flotillas, and the Germans immediately turned around as four British destroyers gave
pursuit.
As the German sailors sounded the alarm, Rear Admiral Franz Hipper prepared a quick response
to meet the British assault on Helgoland Bight.
Hipper believed this was a destroyer raid launched by the British and assumed that deploying
his light cruisers would be more than enough to retaliate.
As the German cruisers moved into position, the German patrol units in the area mobilized
to help the torpedo boat patrol ambushed by the British.
But in their eagerness, and amid the hazy air, the German patrols emerged from the mist
just to be pummeled by British Destroyer fire.
The German patrols then turned back and attempted to flee through the fog.
Just in time, the German cruiser Stettin emerged from the mist to cover the torpedo boats as
they withdrew south.
Although outnumbered, Stettin managed to repel the British ships, who were now concerned
they could be targeted by coastal battery fire from the nearby Heligoland Island.
The British then managed to sink the German destroyer V-187, marking the first evident
success of the operation.
Meanwhile, Tyrwhitt took his destroyers further south, where he encountered the German light
cruiser Frauenlob.
Tyrwhitt's flagship HMS Arethusa immediately attacked, and both warships dealt heavy damage
to each other.
Confusion
Unbeknownst to the Harwich Force commanders, Admiral Jellico had decided to go with his
gut feeling, regardless of the Admiralty's assessment of the situation.
To that end, he deployed the First Battlecruiser Squadron, commanded by Vice Admiral David
Beatty, along with Commodore William Goodenough's first Light cruiser squadron.
Both squadrons broke off from the central Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow and traveled south
to reinforce the British coming to Helgoland Bight.
Incredibly, the Harwich Force participants had no idea they would be dealing with large
friendly warships in the area.
In fact, neither Beatty nor Goodenough understood precisely what they were supposed to be supporting
until a few hours before the battle.
When the fighting started, only Tyrwhitt's destroyer flotilla knew they were being supported
by additional British ships, as he had spotted them before.
Still, he did not communicate the information to Keyes or the other commanders.
As Arethusa and Frauenlob dueled each other off the coast of Heligoland, Commodore Goodenough
decided to send two of his light cruisers to aid Tyrwhitt's flagship.
Coincidentally, Keyes suddenly spotted the two light cruisers at a distance and reported
them as hostile vessels.
Even so, Goodenough received Keyes's message and immediately moved north to try to reinforce
Keyes's position, but as his forces approached Keyes, he identified them as more hostile
vessels.
Tyrwhitt got hold of the message and asked Goodenough to engage the newly identified
enemy ships, which sent the commander on a quest to intercept himself.
The circus-like mayhem finally ended when Goodenough approached Keyes and identified
his ships as British, saying through the radio: (QUOTE) "Cruisers are our cruisers whose presence
in this area I was not informed."
Three hours after the battle began, all officers in the area finally knew exactly which British
forces were participating.
Counterattack
Regrouping after the humiliating confusion and taking time to conduct some light repairs
on Fearless and Arethusa, the British forces proceeded slowly, giving the Germans enough
time to launch a significant counteroffensive.
Tyrwhitt's destroyers were suddenly ambushed by German light cruisers Strasburg and Koln,
and they only managed to turn the attackers away with a series of coordinated torpedo
attacks.
But the destroyers were now sitting ducks for the more prominent German warships, and
Tyrwhitt immediately radioed Beatty for help.
For the Vice Admiral, it was now or never; he either committed his battlecruisers to
deal as much damage to the German light cruisers as possible before larger German ships arrived,
or he needed to withdraw and avoid the wrath of the entire High Seas Fleet.
Beatty rushed towards Tyrwhitt as Light Cruiser Mainz engaged Tyrwhitt's destroyers with relative
ease while keeping a distance.
But Mainz was suddenly encircled by Goodenough coming from the north, forcing the German
vessel to flee south right into the fiery muzzles of Tyrwhitt's destroyers.
With no way to run, Tyrwhitt ordered 20 destroyers to jettison torpedoes into the approaching
Mainz, completely ripping her to pieces.
With no engines and carried only by the ocean, the men aboard Mainz continued to fire their
weapons even as the floating wreck passed through the British firing force.
Incredibly, they managed to cause considerable damage to the British destroyer Laurel before
they scuttled Mainz.
Tyrwhitt had no time to celebrate the victory, there were at least three enemy light cruisers
in the area, and his destroyers were easy prey for them.
But then, out of the mist, five battlecruisers emerged in front of Tyrwhitt, unleashing a
massive firestorm.
It was Beatty, and he was firing at the German light cruisers Strasburg and Koln, which had
been trying to ambush the British destroyers but were now fighting to survive the pummeling
of the battlecruisers’ 13.5-inch guns.
Strasburg managed to flee north, leaving Koln to receive the full wrath of Beatty's battlecruisers,
which turned it into a flaming wreck.
The German’s lousy luck streak continued as another friendly light cruiser dashed into
the scene to find herself face-to-face with Beatty's force.
She would meet the same end as Koln.
After that, Beatty gave the order to retire; they had done enough damage.
And by the time the heavy German warships made it to the scene, the British were gone...
Aftermath
The first clash between the German and British fleets in World War 1 was a decisive British
victory.
They managed to sink three light cruisers and one destroyer while severely damaging
another three light cruisers and inflicting over 1,200 casualties.
One British light cruiser and three destroyers were damaged, and they suffered 75 casualties
across all ships.
Even so, the event became highly controversial because of the terrible British organization
and the humiliating confusion of not knowing which forces were participating in the battle.
Strategists and journalists of the time concluded that if it wasn't for Beatty and his forces,
the battle would have turned into a catastrophe for Harwich Force.
Beatty was deemed a national hero for his actions, despite having little to do with
the operation's planning.
In Germany, the Kaiser was furious, prohibiting the German fleet from engaging with the British
superior forces for the foreseeable future.
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