Battle Off Texel

The Battle off Texel, also known as the Action off Texel or the Action of 17 October 1914, was a naval battle off the coast of the Dutch island of Texel during the First World War. A British squadron, comprising one light cruiser and four destroyers on a routine patrol, encountered the German 7th Half Flotilla of torpedo boats which was ''en route'' to the British coast to lay mines. The British forces attacked and the outgunned German force attempted to flee and then fought a desperate and ineffective action against the British force, which sank all four German boats.

The battle resulted in the loss of the German torpedo boat squadron and prevented the mining of busy shipping lanes, such as the mouth of the River Thames. The British suffered few casualties and little damage to their vessels. The battle influenced the tactics and deployments of the remaining German torpedo boat flotillas in the North Sea area, as the loss shook the faith of their commanders in the effectiveness of the force.

Background

After the opening naval Battle of Heligoland Bight, the German High Seas Fleet was ordered to avoid confrontations with larger opposing forces, to avoid costly and demoralising reverses. Apart from occasional German raids and forays by German light forces, the North Sea was dominated by the Royal Navy which regularly patrolled the area. On 16 October 1914, information about the activities of German light forces in the Heligoland Bight became more definite and the 1st Division of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla (Harwich Force), consisting of the new light cruiser (Captain Cecil Fox) and four destroyers, , , and was sent to investigate. At 13:50 on 17 October, while steaming northwards, about to the south-west of the island of Texel, the 1st Division encountered a squadron of German torpedo boats, comprising the remaining vessels of the 7th Half Flotilla (''Korvettenkapitän'' Georg Thiele in ) , , about ahead. The German ships were sailing abreast, about apart, on a bearing slightly to the east of the 1st Division. The German ships made no hostile move against the British and made no attempt to flee; the British assuming that they had mistaken the ships for friendly vessels. The German flotilla was part of the Emden Patrol and had been sent out of the Ems River, to mine the southern coast of Britain including the mouth of the Thames but had been intercepted before reaching its objective.

The British squadron out-gunned the German 7th Half Flotilla. ''Undaunted''—an ''Arethusa''-class light cruiser—was armed with two BL 6 inch Mk XII naval guns and seven QF 4 inch Mk V naval guns, in single mounts (most without gun shields) and eight torpedo tubes. ''Undaunted'' was experimentally armed with a pair of 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns, something most of her class lacked and at best speed could make . The four ''Laforey''-class destroyers were armed with four torpedo tubes in two twin mounts, three 4-inch guns and a 2-pounder gun. The destroyers were slightly faster than the cruiser and could make about at full power. The German boats were nearly equal in speed to the British at . They were inferior to the British in other areas: the 7th Half Flotilla was composed of ageing 1898 class boats and had been completed in 1904. Each of the German vessels was armed with three guns, that were of shorter range and throw-weight than the British guns. The biggest danger to the British squadron was the five torpedoes carried by each German boat.

Battle

Upon closer approach, the German vessels realised the nearby vessels were British and scattered, while ''Undaunted''—which was closer to the Germans than the destroyers—opened fire on the nearest torpedo boat. This German vessel managed to dodge the fire from ''Undaunted'' but lost speed and the British force caught up. To protect ''Undaunted'' from torpedo attack and to destroy the Germans as quickly as possible, Fox ordered the squadron to divide. ''Lance'' and ''Lennox'' chased ''S115'' and ''S119'' as ''Legion'' and ''Loyal'' pursued ''S117'' and ''S118''. Fire from ''Legion'', ''Loyal'' and ''Undaunted'' damaged ''S118'' so badly that its bridge was blown off the deck, sinking her at 15:17. ''Lance'' and ''Lennox'' engaged ''S115'', disabling her steering gear and causing the German vessel to circle. ''Lennox''s fire was so effective that the bridge of ''S115'' was also destroyed but the German torpedo-boat did not strike her colours.

The two central boats in the German flotilla, ''S117'' and the flotilla leader ''S119'', tried to torpedo ''Undaunted'' but it outmanoeuvred the German boats and remained unscathed. When ''Legion'' and ''Loyal'' had finished off ''S118'', they came to ''Undaunted''s aid and engaged the two attackers. ''Legion'' attacked ''S117'', which fired its last three torpedoes and continued to engage with gunfire. ''Legion'' pulverised ''S117'', damaging her steering mechanism which forced her to circle before she was sunk at 15:30. At the same time, ''Lance'' and ''Lennox'' had damaged ''S115'' to the point where only one of the destroyers was needed. ''Lance'' joined ''Loyal'' in bombarding ''S119'' with lyddite shells. ''S119'' managed to fire a torpedo at ''Lance'' and hit the destroyer amidships but the torpedo failed to detonate. ''S119'' was sunk at 15:35 by gunfire from ''Lance'' and ''Loyal'', taking the German flotilla commander with it. ''S115'' stayed afloat despite constant attacks from ''Lennox'', which sent a boarding party, who found a wreck with only one German on board who happily surrendered. Thirty members of the crew were eventually rescued from the sea by the British vessels. The action ended at 16:30, with gunfire from ''Undaunted'' finishing off the abandoned hulk of ''S115''.

Aftermath

Analysis

The battle was seen as a boost of morale for the British as two days previous, they had lost the cruiser to a U-boat. The effect on British morale is reflected in its inclusion in the 1915 novel ''The Boy Allies Under Two Flags'', written by Robert L. Drake. The hospital ship , which had been sent out to rescue survivors from the sunken boats, was seized by the British for violating the Hague Convention rules on the use of hospital ships. The loss of a squadron of German torpedo boats led to a drastic change in tactics in the English Channel and along the coast of Flanders. There were fewer sorties into the Channel and the torpedo boat force was relegated to coastal patrol and rescuing aircrew. The British received a bonus on 30 November, when a trawler pulled up the sealed chest thrown off ''S119'' by Captain Thiele. The chest contained a codebook used by the German light forces stationed on the coast, allowing the British to read German wireless communication for a long time afterwards.

Casualties

Despite the odds, no German vessel struck her colours and the flotilla fought to the end. The four ships of the German Seventh Half Flotilla were sunk by Harwich Force and over two hundred sailors were killed, including the commanding officer. Thirty-one German sailors were rescued and taken prisoner; a captured officer died of wounds soon after. Two more German sailors were later rescued by a neutral vessel. Only four British sailors were wounded and three of their destroyers were lightly damaged. ''Legion'' had one shell hit and one man was wounded by machine-gun fire. ''Loyal'' was hit twice and had three or four men wounded. ''Lance'' had superficial machine-gun damage and the other vessels were unscathed.

Order of battle

Royal Navy

Notes

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Texel
North Sea operations of World War I
Naval battles of World War I involving the United Kingdom
Naval battles of World War I involving Germany
Conflicts in 1914
October 1914 in Europe