Action off Noordhinder Bank

Battle off Noordhinder Bank
Part of the First World War
HMS Leonidas, one of the British destroyers that fought off Noordhinder Bank
Date 1 May 1915 Location off Noordhinder Bank, the Netherlands, North Sea 56°N 03°E Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sir James Domville	Hermann Schoemann †
Strength
4 naval trawlers, 4 destroyers	2 torpedo boats
Casualties and losses
1 naval trawler sunk 1 naval trawler damaged 16 dead	2 torpedo boats sunk 13 dead 46 captured

The Battle off Noordhinder Bank on 1 May 1915 was a naval action between a squadron of four British naval trawlers supported by a flotilla of four destroyers and a pair of German torpedo boats from the Flanders Flotilla. The battle began when the two torpedo boats were sent on a search and rescue mission and ran into a British patrol. The Germans fought with the patrolling trawlers until a heavier force of British destroyers from Harwich Force came to their aid and sank the German vessels.

The battle greatly demoralized the German flotilla at Flanders, as the boats that were sunk had just been launched shortly before the battle. The action off Noordhinder Bank helped bring to the attention of the German high command that the Flanders Flotilla was inadequately armed to protect the coast it was assigned to defend, let alone harass British shipping in the English Channel. Eventually, after similar defeats, the small torpedo boats such as those used off Noordhinder Bank were relegated to coastal patrol and heavier units were transferred to even the balance of power in the channel.

Background

After the 7th Torpedo Boat Half Flotilla was lost during the Battle off Texel, German naval authorities were reluctant to commit any further forces for offensive operations off the coast of Flanders. Despite this, the commander of Marine Corps Flanders—Admiral Ludwig von Schröder—kept pressure on the German naval command for a transfer of a force of submarines and torpedo boats to his command. After several months, the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) relented and decided to send him a force of light torpedo boats and submarines. Although these forces were greatly inferior in armament and displacement to those he had requested, Admiral Schroeder put his new ships to use as soon as he received them. He formed the Flanders Torpedo Boat Flotilla made up of 15 "A"-class torpedo boats under the command of Korvettenkapitän Hermann Schoemann.

Three days later on 1 May 1915, two German seaplanes reported a squadron of four trawlers off Noordhinder Bank. One of the seaplanes was forced to make an emergency landing and Schoeman was dispatched with boats SMS A2 and A6 to rescue the seaplane's crew and destroy the trawlers. While patrolling off the Galloper lightship near Goodwin Sands, HMS Recruit was sunk by the German submarine UB-6. Brazen, Recruit's consort as well as the four trawlers the German seaplanes had spotted, began searching for Recruit's attacker. A2 and A6 caught the trawlers off the Noordhinder Bank at 15:00. The trawlers Columbia, Barbados, Chirsit and Miura were under the command of Lieutenant Sir James Domville on Barbados. Armed with a 3-pounder gun each, the trawlers were out-gunned by the German torpedo boats, which were both armed with two torpedo tubes as well as a 4-pounder gun.

Battle

As soon as the trawlers were spotted by Schoeman's boats, they were engaged. Rather than flee, Domville tried to fight his way out. A2 and A6 both made torpedo runs against the trawlers but of the four torpedoes launched, only one hit its target, sinking Columbia and killing Domville. Barbados rammed A6, damaging it enough that the Germans decided to withdraw from the action. Before withdrawing, the Germans managed to rescue a lieutenant and two deckhands from Columbia making them prisoners of war.

The trawlers had alerted Harwich Force and a squadron of four Laforey-class destroyers were dispatched to rescue the trawlers. The squadron consisted of HMS Laforey, Lawford, Leonidas and Lark from Harwich Force and managed to gain sight of the German boats soon after arriving on the scene. Equally out-gunned as the trawlers previous, the German boats attempted to make for the safety of the Flanders coast, pursued by the British destroyers. Once the British managed to catch up to the torpedo boats, they were engaged in a running fight that lasted nearly an hour. By the end, both torpedo boats were destroyed with many of the Germans, including the new commander of the Flanders Flotilla, going down with their ships, while the British destroyers had no casualties.

Aftermath

When the battle ended, British losses included Columbia sunk, Barbados damaged. Columbia suffered 16 dead, with only one surviving deckhand being recovered after the action. The Germans lost A2 and A6 along with 13 killed (including Schoemann) and 46 captured. Controversy erupted after it was discovered from the captured Germans, that the three men taken from the sinking Columbia, had been locked away below decks on one of the torpedo boats and left to die, when the German vessel started to sink. The Germans reported that they did not have enough time to get to the British prisoners and barely were able to escape the sinking hulk themselves. The battle showed Schroeder the severe limitations of the "A"-class torpedo boats, they were too poorly armed for raiding and the boats were relegated to coastal patrol. The defeat at Noordhinder allowed Schroeder's pleas for reinforcements to finally be heard by the German admiralty and he was reinforced by heavier vessels. The next engagement involving an "A"-class torpedo boat reinforced the perception that the class was too weak for service and several new boats were put in reserve, when larger and more capable boats were transferred to the Flanders Flotilla.

References

• Corbett, J. S. (2009) [1929]. Naval Operations (PDF). History of the Great War based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. II (2nd ed.). London: Longmans. ISBN 1-84342-490-8. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
• Karau, Mark (2003). Wielding the Dagger. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 0-313-32475-1.
• Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships 1815–1945: Major Surface Vessels. Vol. I. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-790-9.
• Hurd, Sir Archibald (1921). The Merchant Navy (PDF). Vol. I. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. OCLC 669059002. Retrieved 22 January 2016.

Further reading

• Massie, R. K. (2004) [2005]. Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany and the Winning of the Great War at Sea (Pimlico ed.). London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 1-8441-3411-3.