Towards the end of August, 1914, the submarines under Commodore Roger Keyes discovered a r?le of quite unexpected utility. Their immediate function had been to watch the approaches to the Channel, so as to stop any attempt by the German Fleet to interfere with the transport of the Expeditionary Force into France. In doing this, they found that they had exceptional opportunities for observing the enemy’s destroyers and light craft, and, as soon as the safety of the transports seemed assured, they constituted themselves the most efficient scouts possible. They soon found themselves in possession of an extensive knowledge of the habits of the Germans. It was this knowledge that led to the decision to sweep the North Sea up to Heligoland and cut off as many of the enemy’s light craft, destroyers, and submarines as possible.
The expedition included almost every form of fast ship at the Commander-in-Chief’s disposal. First the submarines were told off to certain stations, presumably to be in a position to attack any reinforcements which might be sent out from Wilhelmshaven or Cuxhaven. Then, in the very earliest hours of the morning, the two light cruisers Arethusa and Fearless led a couple of flotillas of destroyers into the field of operations. The Arethusa flew the broad pennant of Commodore Tyrwhitt. The Fearless was commanded by Captain Blount. The two flotillas, with their cruiser leaders, swept round towards Heligoland in233 an attempt to cut off the German cruisers and destroyers and drive them, if possible, to the westward. Some miles out to the west, Rear-Admiral Christian had the squadron of six cruisers of the Euryalus and Bacchante classes ready to intercept the chase. Commodore Goodenough, with a squadron of light cruisers, attended Vice-Admiral Beatty, with the battle-cruisers, at a prearranged rendezvous, ready to cut in to the rescue if there was any chance of Arethusa and Fearless being overpowered.
The expedition obviously involved very great risks. It took place within a very few miles of bases in which the whole German Fleet of battleships and battle-cruisers was lying. It was plainly possible that the attempt to cut the German light cruisers off might end in luring out the whole Fleet, and one of the conditions contemplated was that Admiral Beatty, instead of administering the quietus to such German cruisers as survived the attentions of the two Commodores, might find himself condemned to a rearguard action with a squadron of German battleships. That he took this risk cheerfully, well understanding the kind of criticism that would meet him, if in the course of such an action he lost any of his ships, was the first indication we got of the fine fighting temper of this Admiral.
Arethusa, Fearless, and the destroyers found themselves in action soon after seven o’clock with destroyers and torpedo-boats. Just before eight o’clock two German cruisers were drawn into the affray, and Arethusa had to fight both of them till 8:15, when one of them was drawn off into a separate action by Fearless, which in the ensuing fight became separated from the flagship. By 8:25 Arethusa had wrecked the forebridge of one opponent with a 6-inch projectile, and Fearless had driven off the other. Both were in full flight for Heligoland, which was now in234 sight. Commodore Tyrwhitt drew off his flotillas westward. He had suffered heavily in the fight. Of his whole battery only one 6-inch gun remained in action, while all the torpedo tubes were temporarily disabled. Lieutenant Westmacott, a gallant and distinguished young officer, had been killed at the Commodore’s side. The ship had caught fire, and injuries had been received in the engines. Fearless seems now to have rejoined, and reported that the German destroyer Commodore’s flagship had been sunk. By ten o’clock Commodore Roger Keyes, in the Lurcher, had got into action with the German light cruisers and signalled to the Arethusa for help. Both British cruisers then went to his assistance, but did not succeed in finding him. All Arethusa’s guns except two had meantime been got back to working order.
At eleven o’clock Arethusa and Fearless engaged their third enemy, this time a four-funnelled cruiser. Arethusa, it must be remembered, still had two guns out of action. The Commodore therefore ordered a torpedo attack, whereupon the enemy at once retreated, but ten minutes later he reappeared, when he was engaged once more with guns and torpedoes, but no torpedo hit. The Commodore notes an interesting feature of this cruiser’s fire: “We received a very severe and most accurate fire from this cruiser. Salvo after salvo was falling between twenty and thirty yards short, but not a single shell struck.” We shall find this happened several times in the different engagements. The Commodore continues: “Two torpedoes were also fired at us, being well directed but short.”
The action off Heligoland up to the intervention of Commodore Goodenough’s Light Cruiser Squadron
At this point the position was reported to Admiral Beatty. This cruiser was finally driven off by Fearless and Arethusa, and retreated badly damaged to Heligoland. Four minutes after, the Mainz was encountered. Arethusa,235 Fearless, and the destroyers engaged her for five-and-twenty minutes, and when she was in a sinking condition Commodore Goodenough’s squadron came on the scene and finished her off. Arethusa then got into action with a large four-funnelled cruiser at long range, but received no hits herself, and was not able to see that she made any.
It was now 12:15. Fearless and the first flotilla had already been ordered home by the Commodore. The intervention of the battle-cruisers was very rapid and decisive. The four-funnelled cruiser that had been the last to engage Arethusa was soon cut off and attacked, and within twenty minutes a second cruiser crossed the Lion’s path. She was going full speed, probably twenty-five knots, and at right angles to Lion, who was steaming twenty-eight. But both Lion’s salvoes took effect, a piece of shooting which the Vice-Admiral very rightly calls most creditable to the gunnery of his ship. The change of range must have been 900 yards a minute. I know of no parallel to this feat, though it must be remembered that the range was short. Lion’s course was now taking her towards known mine-fields, and the Vice-Admiral very properly judged that the time had come to withdraw. He proceeded to dispose of the cruiser he first attacked—which turned out to be K?ln—before doing so.
The expedition had been a complete success. Three German cruisers had been sunk and one destroyer. Three other cruisers had been gravely damaged, and many of the German destroyers had been hit also. Our losses in men were small, and we lost no ships at all. Arethusa had perhaps suffered most, though some of the destroyers had been pretty roughly handled. But all got safely home, and237 none were so injured but that in a very few days or weeks they were fit again for service.
The affair was in every respect well conceived and brilliantly carried out. The two essential matters were to begin by employing a force sufficiently weak to tempt the enemy to come out, and yet not so small nor so slow a force as to risk being overwhelmed. If something like a general action amongst the small craft could be brought about, the plan was to creep up with a more powerful squadron in readiness to rescue the van, if rescue were necessary, at any rate to secure the final and immediate destruction of as many of the enemy’s ships as possible. But there was no squadron fighting at all. Goodenough’s light cruisers, and Beatty’s battle-cruisers did, no doubt, keep in formation, but they found no formed enemy. There were no obvious tactical lessons.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the business is to be found not in what did happen, but in what did not. The German Commander-in-Chief must have known long before eight o’clock in the morning that fighting was going forward within five-and-twenty or thirty miles of him. He could have got to the scene with his whole force before ten o’clock. But beyond sending in a few more light cruisers and U-boats, he appears to have done nothing either to rescue his own ships or to attempt to cut off and sink ours. It is more than probable that he suspected the trap that was indeed laid for him. But the opportunity had been given of appearing in the North Sea in force, and the opportunity was not taken. It seemed very clear to most observers after this that the German Fleet would not willingly seek a general action, or even risk a partial action in the North Sea, except under conditions entirely of their own choosing. It seemed obvious238 that if such action was not sought in the early days of the war, it certainly would not be sought later, when the balance of naval power would be turning increasingly against them.
The battle-cruisers in this action had some exciting adventures with submarines. They had, for instance, to wait for some hours before the moment came for their intervention, and wh............