Battle of Heligoland Bight (1917)

Second Battle of Heligoland Bight
Part of the First World War
Date 17 November 1917 Location Heligoland Bight, North Sea Result Indecisive
Belligerents
British Empire	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sir William Pakenham	Ludwig von Reuter
Strength
3 battlecruisers 2 large light cruisers 3 light cruisers	2 battleships torpedo boats minesweepers
Casualties and losses
Light cruiser Calypso damaged	1 minesweeper

The Second Battle of Heligoland Bight was a naval engagement during the First World War. On 17 November 1917, German minesweepers clearing a path through the British minefield in the Heligoland Bight near the coast of Germany were intercepted by three British light cruisers, HMS Calypso, Caledon, and HMS Galatea performing counter-minesweeping duties. The German ships fled south toward the protection of the battleships SMS Kaiser and Kaiserin, commanded by Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter. The three cruisers engaged the German battleships, while their own screening force of the battlecruisers HMS Tiger, Renown, Repulse, Courageous, and Glorious were coming up to assist.

All personnel on the bridge of Calypso, including her captain, were killed by a 12 in (305 mm) shell. Repulse—under Captain William Boyle—briefly engaged the German battleships, but the Germans made it back to the safety of their own minefields with the loss of only one minesweeper.

It was during this battle that Able Seaman John Henry Carless of Caledon won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in manning a gun despite mortal wounds.

External links

• http://www.richthofen.com/scheer/scheer17a.htm