Events
August 28, 1914Battle of the Bight
September–OctoberSeveral British cruisers are sunk by German U-boats
October 29–30Goeben and Breslau attack
Russian ports on Black Sea
November 1Battle of CoronelRussia declares war on Ottoman Empire
November 4–5France and Britain declare war on Ottoman Empire
December 8Battle of the Falkland Islands
Key People
Sir Christopher Cradock - British admiral defeated by Spee’s forces at the
Battle of Coronel
Wilhelm Souchon - German admiral whose joint operations with Turkey
embroiled that nation in the war
Maximilian von Spee - Commander of the German East Asia Squadron; won at
Coronel but was defeated at the Falkland Islands
The Battle of the Bight
The war on land quickly spread to the sea, with the first
major battle on the water occurring on August 28, 1914,
in a corner of the North Sea known as Helgoland Bight.
The bight, a partly enclosed patch of water on the north coast of
Germany, sheltered several German naval bases and offered a good
position from which Germany could strike out at Britain. However,
the cautious German High Seas Fleet rarely sailed far from port.
Eager for a fight, two British commodores, Reginald
Tyrwhitt and Roger Keyes, conceived a plan to
bait the Germans into the open sea, where they would be vulnerable.
Under the plan, a small group of British ships would venture into
the bight until spotted by German patrols and would then turn and
flee out to sea, where a larger British force would be waiting.
In spite of some minor mishaps, the plan succeeded. For
the first couple of hours, German ships slipped in and out of a
thick fog bank to fire on the British ships. In time, however, the
Germans were lured into open water. After a battle that lasted nearly
eight hours, Germany lost three cruisers and 1,200 men,
while Britain lost only thirty-five sailors and not a single ship.
This early defeat intimidated Kaiser Wilhelm II, who
insisted that the German navy, of which he was very proud, be kept
off the open seas and used primarily as a defensive weapon.
Early German Submarine Exploits
The German submarine fleet, however,
was used aggressively. Submarines armed with torpedoes were
a new type of weapon at the time, and while many military leaders
viewed them with skepticism and even disdain, they proved quite
effective. Although the Germans had been developing a fleet of large
warships in recent years, they recognized that it was still far
inferior to that of Britain. It was almost by accident that they
realized the edge that their experimental fleet of submarines gave
them.
During September and October 1914,
German U-boats sank four British armored cruisers and
warships, killing more than 2,000 sailors.
British naval commanders quickly became wary of this threat and
therefore kept their fleet well clear of the waters of the North
Sea. Though Britain did have a submarine fleet of its own, British
naval leaders generally considered submarines to be “cowardly weapons”
and discouraged their use.
Mining the North Sea
Another “cowardly weapon” played a major role in the war
at sea—mines. Under a treaty signed at the Hague in 1907,
sea mining was limited to areas within three miles of an enemy’s
coastline, so as not to endanger neutral ships. However, both Britain
and Germany quickly came to ignore this agreement, and the North
Sea became a place of great danger to all ships that dared enter
it. This situation was especially problematic for the neutral countries
of Norway and Sweden, which depended heavily on the North Sea for
commerce.
