It was Christmas Day of 1914. While thousands of soldiers celebrated across the trenches of Europe,
several British pilots were flying under atrocious weather conditions.
It was freezing, the fog highly reduced visibility, and some seaplanes even failed
to take part in the mission. However, most of the two-seat Type 74 biplanes finally made it
to the skies and were each carrying three 10-pound bombs. They were also assisted
by several warships of the Royal Navy. Flight Commander Douglas A. Oliver was
worried about the lack of visibility and decided to descend. All of a sudden, several German
warships emerged along the Elbe River. As the enemies spotted the aircraft,
Oliver knew there was no turning back. He then urged his task force to speed up
and race towards their objective, and thus began the first raid to employ both air and
sea assets against an enemy harbor: the German Zeppelin shed at Cuxhaven.
A War Is Coming
Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in June of 1914 at the
hands of Serbian terrorists, violence in Europe quickly escalated, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire
declared war against Serbia after failing to deliver the men that took part in it.
Russia and Germany then joined the fray to support their respective allies, and suddenly,
the fires of a global conflict were ignited. In a matter of weeks, the empires of Britain,
France, and Turkey were already amassing tens of thousands of men to fight in the war.
The first clashes became an ominous premonition of what was to come for years to come.
It was a new age of warfare, and the dawn of new ground, air, and sea war machines.
Honoring its military tradition, Great Britain was confident that its German enemy would be unable to
attack its countryside because the only way to reach it was by water, and the seas surrounding
the empire were protected by the world's most dangerous and numerous fleet: the Royal Navy.
But the British soon realized that Germany had been working on the Zeppelin, a weapon that
could turn the tide and prove that Britain was just as vulnerable as any other nation.
Zeppelin Before the
outbreak of World War 1 in 1914, Europeans had already begun developing airplanes,
but they were still constrained when it came to equipment, power, and range.
However, dirigibles were another matter. Although they had been around since the 19th century,
these gigantic balloons filled with gases lighter than air proved to be reliable combat assets.
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin had improved the concept of dirigibles in the aftermath of the
Franco-Prussian War in the early 1870s, and these airships replaced
the single bag of gas used by the first dirigibles with a rigid metallic structure
that could hold gas cells within its framework. More importantly, the structure held a gondola
on its lower side, where the engines and weapons were stored along with an aircrew.
This new airborne machine then left its balloon propulsion and opted for increased speeds thanks
to its engines, making it possible to carry tons of cargo such as equipment and personnel.
Honoring its creator, the newly-baptized Zeppelins began to be commercialized in the
early 1900s after Count Zeppelin had greatly improved them with the latest innovations,
and the British were afraid that the Germans would militarize them.
Their press even referred to them as ‘The Airship Menace.’
Rumors of a German fleet of Zeppelins invading Britain at the outbreak of the war
suddenly went rampant. The sight of balloons armed with machine
guns and bombs destroying cities scared the population and worked in the Teutons’ favor.
Fortunately for the Germans, the British did not know that they had less than a dozen Zeppelins,
and the bombing of Antwerp using these airships during August and September of1914 was enough
to put the British military on high alert. Although the damage caused by the Zeppelins
was minimal, it helped as psychological warfare against the British and made
them feel vulnerable, prompting them to counterattack and try to neutralize them.
The Royal Flying Corps, created in 1912 with a Military Wing, a Flying School, and a Naval
Wing that later became the Naval Air Service, was immediately notified about the Zeppelin threat.
Most of the pilots from the Flying Corps had been sent to the Western Front to support the British
Expeditionary Force in France, so the task of defending the British Isles fell into the
hands of the Royal Naval Air Service, or RNAS. Captain Murray Frazer Sueter, director of the
Air Department of the Royal Navy, then got in contact with the First Lord of the Admiralty,
Winston Churchill, to come up with a plan to stop the German dirigibles.
Belly of the Beast After the RNAS tested
several strategies to shoot down the Zeppelins, Churchill and Frazer concluded that there was only
one feasible option to take them down for good: blowing up the hangars where they were stored.
British Intelligence was aware that the most significant Zeppelin bases were located at
Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Cuxhaven, and the RNAS bombed the first two bases in September
and October of 1914. The damage was minimal, but they managed to destroy one dirigible.
Still, the British decided to continue with their plans and raid Cuxhaven,
but it was not going to be easy. To start off, the base was located in Northern Germany,
and no aircraft had the range to fly so far and come back. Consequently,
the Royal Naval Air Service decided that the aircraft would have to be launched from the sea.
Although the idea of launching land-based aircraft was new, the Navy was determined to attack
Cuxhaven and knew that it could work. They then decided to use three cross-Channel packets that
had been bought months before and convert them into seaplane tenders for military operations.
These vessels were the Empress, Riviera, and Engadine.
Once the conversions were done, the Navy developed a simple plan.
The three seaplane tenders, each with three seaplanes on board, would be escorted by a
task force of cruisers, destroyers, and submarines to the Heligoland Bight. Once there, the seaplanes
would take off to bomb the Cuxhaven base. Meanwhile, the British submarines would approach
the nearby anchorages to strike down enemy ships that dared to attack the strike force.
The Harwich Force, led by Commodore Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt,
consisted of 8 destroyers and 3 cruisers, and was tasked with carrying out the seaplane raid.
On the other hand, Squadron Commander Cecil J. Estrange Malone would lead the three converted
seaplane tenders and the air attack over Cuxhaven, while the 11 British submarines supporting the
attack would be led by Commodore Roger Keyes. Churchill then approved the plan
and scheduled the operation for the last week of October in order to put the forces together.
However, the attack had to be postponed due to the weather conditions,
and after several setbacks, it was finally rescheduled for Christmas Day.
A Daring Raid
The German Admiralty was warned of a possible sea attack after German spies
in England reported increased naval activity the night before Christmas.
While thousands of men across the trenches of the Western Front had declared a truce to
celebrate the birth of Christ, the men from the Royal Navy were busy getting ready for the raid.
The British forces arrived at the designated zone 40 miles near Cuxhaven at 6:00am.
Half an hour later, nine Type 74 floatplanes, two Type 135 biplanes, and three Folders carrying
three 20-pound bombs took off to raid Cuxhaven. The weather was freezing, and the fog greatly
limited visibility. Two aircraft even had to turn back because of the conditions.
However, at 7:30am, the Harwich Force was detected by German U-boats, and all hell broke loose.
The men at Cuxhaven got ready for the attack, prepared their anti-aircraft defenses,
and began sending ships to fight off the British task force at sea.
Meanwhile, the British pilots struggled with the fog bank and
frequently descended from the skies to see if they had reached Cuxhaven.
However, a barrage of anti-aircraft and machine-gun fire from battleships
only meant one thing: they had reached Cuxhaven. The seven British aircraft quickly descended
from the skies and began dropping their ordnance on top of the closest objectives.
Some went straight for the destroyers and cruisers that were firing at them
to neutralize their machine guns, while others went after a submerging submarine.
The rest of the aircraft raced for the Zeppelin sheds, but they were quickly
dispersed by the German anti-aircraft fire and only one made it to the dirigibles’ base.
As soon as the British dropped their bomb load, they began to turn back to the seaplane carriers
to avoid being shot down. Some got lost in the fog, and others ran out of fuel near the carriers.
However, the men were quickly picked up while the destroyers protected them from the approaching
German vessels. All seven aircrews made it back, and there were no casualties.
Then, at 11:45am, the task force began to retreat while the submarines stayed in the rear guard.
The raid on Cuxhaven was now over, and the following day, a British newspaper wrote:
(QUOTE) "GERMANS SAY CUXHAVEN RAID FAILED. German newspapers state that the British
air raid on Cuxhaven was a failure. All the bombs that were thrown missed their target."
Still, even though the damage on the enemy base was minimal, it proved that sea-air
attacks were feasible and had considerable potential if they were coordinated correctly,
changing the course of history...
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