Battle of Dogger Bank

Battle of Dogger Bank, naval engagement between British and German battle cruisers during World War I. It was fought near Dogger Bank in the North Sea on January 24, 1915. The result was a British victory, and the German navy delayed further significant action against the British fleet for more than a year.

Early naval action in the North Sea

On December 15, 1914, the German High Seas Fleet put to sea on a sortie that took it well across the North Sea. Five battle cruisers and four light cruisers under the command of Rear Adm. Franz von Hipper approached close to the British coast, while the British, acting on reconnaissance reports, mustered four squadrons to intercept them in the open sea to the east.

The forward cruisers of the German fleet reached the British coast on December 16, bombarded Hartlepool, Whitby, and Scarborough and then turned and made for home. They planned to navigate between two large minefields off the coast, separated by a gap opposite Whitby and Scarborough. The British, correctly predicting this choice of route, formed into a long line out at sea and steamed westward to meet the German cruisers as they headed eastward. It seemed that a collision would be inevitable, but morning mists, which are by no means unusual in the North Sea in December, intervened. The German light cruiser screen managed to slip across the shallow patch on the Dogger Bank where battle cruisers could not venture. Contact was made with the British 2nd Battle Squadron, and a few shots were exchanged before mist again obscured the Germans. A series of mistaken identifications and misunderstood signals, made in the thick mist, kept the main squadrons apart, and Hipper’s force was able to escape. The raid on the civilian population of three small towns did little to enhance Germany’s war position and only served to strengthen the resolve of the British people.

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Dogger Bank and the pursuit of the German fleet

As night fell on January 23, 1915, the Germans put to sea again for another reconnaissance in force, with a strong fleet of cruisers and torpedo boats under Hipper’s command setting out to scout the Dogger Bank. Even before the ships had cleared the German home waters of Jade Bay, wireless intercepts had made the British aware of their movements. Vice Adm. Sir David Beatty sailed from the Firth of Forth to intercept Hipper’s fleet. With him were the five battle cruisers of the 1st and 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadrons—the Lion (Beatty’s flagship), the Tiger, Princess Royal, New Zealand, and the Indomitable—along with the four light cruisers of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron under Commodore William Goodenough aboard the Southampton. Beatty planned to proceed to a point in the North Sea some 200 miles (320 km) west-northwest of the German naval base at Helgoland. There he would rendezvous with a Harwich-based force of three light cruisers and 35 destroyers under the command of Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt from Harwich. At 9:00 pm that night, the 3rd Battle Squadron of seven King Edwards-class pre-dreadnought battleships sortied from Rosyth, and Adm. Sir John Jellicoe put to sea with the main battle fleet from Scapa Flow.

Beatty reached the rendezvous at 7:00 am on January 24. It was a crisp winter morning with a calm sea and good visibility. The battle cruisers were in single line with Goodenough’s light cruisers 2 miles (3.2 km) off the port bow. About 10 minutes later the Arethusa, Tyrwhitt’s flagship, was sighted. It had hardly been identified when the flash of guns was seen to the south-southeast. The light cruiser Aurora, some 15 miles (24 km) behind Tyrwhitt, had met and engaged the German light cruiser Kolberg and forced it to retire.

At the sound of the guns, Beatty ordered the light cruisers south. The Southampton had barely gotten under way when the Aurora was sighted, as were German battle cruisers on the port bow to the southeast a few minutes later. Dense clouds of smoke poured from their funnels, as the ships were evidently raising steam for full speed. It was then approximately 7:50 am. Beatty’s appearance had come on Hipper as a surprise, and Hipper, finding himself faced by the enemy in such strength, turned around and made back toward the Helgoland Bight with utmost speed. Beatty took up the chase, and his three fastest ships (the Lion, the Tiger, and Princess Royal) were soon able to catch Hipper’s cruisers (the Seydlitz, the Moltke, the Derfflinger, and the Blücher).

Just before 9:00 am, the British opened fire at 20,000 yards (18 km), a greater range than had ever been tried before, and they soon succeeded in scoring hits on the Blücher. The action continued, running to the southeast, and about 9:45 am the Seydlitz was seriously damaged when a 13.5-inch (343-mm) shell, probably from the Lion, penetrated the ammunition works between the ship’s rear turrets and set off an explosion below deck. The struggling Blücher slowed and dropped out of line, and just after 10:30 am a shell penetrated the ship’s ammunition passage, igniting cartridges and damaging the boiler. The three remaining German cruisers concentrated their fire on the Lion, and Beatty’s flagship was seriously damaged. The Lion’s speed was reduced to 15 knots (17 miles [28 km] per hour), and it fell out of formation, its wireless smashed and its signaling system rendered almost useless. Beatty hoisted flags ordering his squadrons to close on the German ships with all haste, but the smoke of the battle prevented the message from getting through. The remaining ships called off their chase, thinking that Beatty’s signal had been an order to attack the doomed Blücher, which sank shortly after noon. Beatty transferred his flag to the Princess Royal, but further pursuit of the German battle cruiser squadron was hopeless.

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Jellicoe and the main battle fleet met Beatty in the late afternoon, and the Lion was towed to port at the Forth. Although the Germans had lost the Blücher, the Seydlitz managed to reach port safely and was returned to service. The near loss of the Seydlitz taught the Germans an important lesson about the vulnerability of below-deck magazines, and the German navy immediately took steps to better secure these areas and to improve ammunition handling. The Royal Navy took no such notice of similar damage to the Lion, a failure to act that would prove costly at Jutland. The British regarded the Battle of Dogger Bank as a disappointing victory, one that could very well have ended with the destruction of Hipper’s entire fleet. Nevertheless, it was a large enough setback for the Germans that they would refrain for more than a year from attempting to reengage the British fleet.