Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict= Bombardmentof Yarmouth and Lowestoft
partof= World War I


caption=
date= 24 April, 1916
place= Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, England.
casus=
territory=
result= inconclusive
combatant1= flagicon|United KingdomBritish Empire
combatant2= flag|German Empire
commander1= Com. Reginald Tyrwhitt
Vice Admiral David Beatty
Admiral John Jellicoe
commander2= Rear-Admiral Bödicker

Admiral Reinhard Scheer
strength1=
strength2=
casualties1= 25 fatalities
19 casualties
2 light cruisers damaged
1 submarine sunk
200 houses shelled
casualties2= 11 fatalities
Battle Cruiser damaged
1 submarines sunk
1 submarine captured
casualties3=
notes=The Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft was a naval battle fought during World War I between the German Empire and the British Empire in the North Sea.

The German fleet sent a battlecruiser squadron with accompanying cruisers and destroyers commanded by Rear Admiral Friedrich Bödicker to bombard the coastal ports of Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Although the ports had some military importance, the main aim of the raid was to entice out defending ships which could then be picked off either by the battlecruiser squadron or by the full High Seas Fleet, which was stationed at sea ready to intervene if an opportunity presented. The result was inconclusive: Nearby British forces were too small to intervene so largely kept clear of the German battlecruisers, and the German ships withdrew before first the British fast response battlecruiser squadron or the Grand Fleet could arrive.

Prelude

In February 1916, Admiral Reinhard Scheer became commander in chief of the German High Seas Fleet and commenced a new campaign against the Royal Navy. A principle part of his strategy was to institute raids into British waters and then lure British forces into battle in conditions advantageous to the Germans. [Marder p.420] A proposal was made to bombard towns on the east coast of England at daybreak on 25 April, which along with air raids by zeppelins the night before would prompt British units to intervene. The raid was timed to coincide with the expected Easter Rebellion by Irish Nationalists, who had requested German assistance.

Immediately before the raid, the German navy believed that the British had a strong force in the North Sea, off Norway, and another at Hoofden and off the southeast coast of England. The Germans would sneak out between the two forces to bombard the English coast, and then the bombardment force would attack whichever British force showed first. With a little luck, the German battlecruisers could engage the southeast force, and after defeating it would run back to the northwest, meeting the northern group in the area around Terschelling Bank. Here the battlecruisers would attack the second British group from the south, and the main body of the High Seas Fleet would attack from the north. If successful, the High Seas Fleet would be able to destroy significant elements of the British fleet before the main body of the Grand Fleet could assist, reducing or eliminating the Royal Navy's numerical superiority. If the British did not take the bait, then merchant ships could be captured and British units off the coast of Belgium destroyed.

The forces sighted by Germany in the north sea had been part of a raid launched on 22 April in an attempt to draw out the German fleet, but this did not go to plan. The battlecruisers HMS "Australia" and HMS "New Zealand" had collided off Denmark in fog, causing serious damage to both ships. Later the dreadnought HMS "Neptune" collided with a merchant steamer and three destroyers were also damaged in collisions. The mission had been abandoned and the ships returned north to port, so that on 24 April the main body of the Grand Fleet was, as usual, near its home bases, at Rosyth for the battlecruiser squadron and Scapa Flow for the remainder of the Grand Fleet. [ 'Castles' p. 557]
Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth were selected as the targets of the bombardment. Lowestoft was a base of operations for mine laying and sweeping, while Gt. Yarmouth was a base for the submarines that disrupted German movements in the Heligoland Bight. The destruction of the harbours and other military establishments of both these coastal towns would assist the German war effort even if the raid failed to bait the British heavy units. Eight zeppelins would, after dropping their bombs, provide reconnaissance for the battlecruisers, which would in turn provide rescue operations should an airship be lost over the water. Two U-boats were sent out ahead of time to Lowestoft, while others were stationed off, or strew mines in, the Firth of Forth, Scotland Scheer ch.9 ]

The 1st scouting group, consisting of the battlecruisers "Seydlitz", "Lützow", "Derfflinger", "Moltke" and "Von der Tann", commanded by Rear-Admiral Bödicker, would be supported by the four light cruisers of the 2nd Scouting Group, and two fast torpedo-boat flotillas (VI and IX) together with their two command light cruisers. Marder II p. 424] The Main Fleet, consisting of Squadrons I, II and III, Scouting Division IV, and the remainder of the torpedo flotillas was to accompany the battle-cruisers to the Hoofden until the bombardment was over, in order, if necessary, to protect them against superior enemy forces.

Raid

At noon on the 24th German forces were in place and the operation began. The route led around British minefields to the English coast, and was intended to put the bombardment group off Lowestoft and Yarmouth at daybreak, where they would bombard the towns for 30 minutes. But at 4 P.M. the battlecruiser "Seydlitz", in the van of the reconnaissance force, struck a mine just north-west of Nordeney, in an area swept the night before. She was forced to turn back with a flooded torpedo compartment from a 50 ft hole on the starboard side, being only able to make 15 knots with 1,400 tons of water on board and 11 men killed. 'Castles' p.558] While the rest of the squadron was stopped for Bödicker to transfer to "Lützow" and for "Seydlitz" to extract herself from the minefield, the German ships sighted, and avoided, torpedoes from one or more British submarines. "Seydlitz" returned to the river Jade accompanied by two destroyers and the Zeppelin L-7. To avoid more possible mines and submarines, the battlecruiser force altered course to a route along the coast of East Friesland. This had previously been avoided because the clear weather risked the ships being sighted from the islands of Rottum and Schiermonnikoog and their movements being reported to the British. It was assumed that the British would now be alerted to the movements of the German ships.

The British had already been aware that the German fleet had sailed at midday. More information arrived at 8.15pm, when an intercepted wireless message gave the information that they were headed for Yarmouth. At 3:50 p.m. the British fleet had been placed on two hours notice of action and at 7:05 p.m. were ordered to sail south from Scapa Flow. Around midnight the Harwich squadron of three light cruisers and eighteen destroyers was ordered to move north.

Around 8 P.M., German ships received a message from the Naval Staff confirming that a large British fleet was operating off the Belgian coast and that another large force had been sighted off Norway on the 23rd. This suggested that the British Fleet was still divided into two sections, giving rise to optimism that the operation would go off as planned despite the mining of "Seydlitz". At 9.30 P.M. another message indicated that British patrol boats off the Belgian coast were heading back to harbour, which was interpreted as confirmation that the British submarine(s) had reported the German movements. In fact, by 24 April the northern British ships had returned to Harbour for coaling. ['Castles' p.557] The ships at Flanders included twelve additional destroyers from the Harwich Force, which had been sent to assist with a barrage of the coast.

The German airships, after dropping their bombs, reported back to the bombardment force: visibility over land was poor, the winds were unfavourable, and the towns were better defended than previously thought: the zeppelins bombing Norwich, Lincoln, Harwich and Ipswich had been under fire by British ships, but none had been damaged.

At about 3.50 A.M., at dawn, the light cruiser "Rostock", one of Bödicker's screen ships, sighted British ships in a west-southwest direction. Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt commanding the Harwich ships similarly saw the German vessels and reported the sighting of four battlecruisers and six cruisers to the Grand Fleet. He turned away south, attempting to draw the German ships after him away from Lowestoft, but they declined to follow. The four battlecruisers opened fire upon Lowestoft at 4.10 a.m. for ten minutes, destroying 200 houses and two defensive gun batteries, injuring twelve people and killing three. They then moved off to Yarmouth, but fog meant it was difficult to see the target. Only a few shells were fired before reports arrived that a British force had engaged the remainder of the German ships, and the battlecruisers broke off to rejoin them. ['Castles' p. 559, Marder II p.425] Tyrwhitt, when he found he could not draw the German ships away had returned to them. Initially he engaged the six light cruisers and escorts, but broke off the action when seriously outgunned after the battlecruisers returned.Marder II p.425] "Rostock" and the light cruiser "Elbing" had tried to lead the British ships into the waiting guns of the battlecruisers. But upon sighting the German capital ships, the British cruisers turned south. The German battlecruisers opened fire, causing severe damage to the cruiser HMS "Conquest" and the destroyer HMS "Laertes" and slightly damaging one other light cruiser. "Conquest" was hit by a shell which reduced her speed and produced forty casualties. Bödicker failed to follow the retreating ships, assuming they were faster and probably concerned whether other, larger vessels might be about. The Germans then ceased fire and turned northwest towards the rendezvous point off Terschelling Bank, hoping the British cruisers would follow, which they did not.

During the bombardment of the two coastal towns, the light cruiser "Frankfurt" sank an armed patrol steamer, while the leader of Torpedo-boat Flotilla VI, "G41", sank a second. The crews were rescued and taken prisoner. Around 7.30 A.M. the German Naval Staff passed on reports from Flanders of intercepted wireless transmissions instructing British ships to coal and then proceed to Dunkirk.

Tyrwhitt attempted to follow the German squadron at a distance. At 8.30 A.M. he had located smoke from the ships, but was ordered to abandon the chase and return home. The Grand fleet had been fighting heavy seas and making slow progress coming south, also being forced to leave its destroyers behind because of the weather. At 11 a.m. the admiralty ordered the chase to be abandoned, at which point the main part of the fleet was 150 miles behind the British battlecruiser squadron, which started out from further south. The two battlecruiser squadrons came within 50 miles of each other, but did not meet. [Marder II p.426]

Aftermath

As the German ships headed for home, they dodged submarine attacks, encountering only two neutral steamers and some fishing vessels. The operation had been almost a complete failure, netting only two patrol craft sunk, one cruiser and one destroyer damaged, in exchange for serious damage to a battlecruiser, while the actual damage done to the naval establishments at Yarmouth and Lowestoft was light. The German battlecruiser squadron had failed to take advantage of its superior numbers to engage the British light cruisers and destroyers present at Lowestoft.

The German U-boats sent out to intercept British ships leaving harbour had not found any targets. Nor had six British submarines stationed off Yarmouth and six more off Harwich. One German submarine was destroyed and another captured when it became beached at Harwich. One British submarine was sunk, torpedoed by a German submarine. [Marder p.427]

The raid infuriated the British, and cost the Germans heavily in the court of world opinion, as the operation brought back memories of the 'baby killer' raids earlier in the war. British casualties were 21 servicemen killed on warships, and 4 civilians killed and 19 wounded on land.

The British felt obliged to take steps to react more quickly to future raids. The 3rd battle squadron consisting of seven "King Edward" class battleships was moved from Rosyth to the Thames, together with HMS "Dreadnought"'Castles' p.559] The presence of these ships on the Thames was given later as one reason the Harwich destroyers were not permitted to join the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland: they were held back to escort the battleships should they be called upon to take part. [Marder III p.45]

References

*cite book |last=Marder |first=Arthur J. |authorlink=Arthur Marder |coauthors= |editor= |others= |title=Volume II: The War Years to the eve of Jutland: 1914-1916 |series=From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1965
*cite book |last=Massie |first=Robert K. |authorlink=Robert Massie |title= |year=2003 |publisher=Random House |isbn=0-345-40878-0
*cite book |last=Scheer |first=Reinhard |authorlink=Reinhard Scheer |title=Germany's High Sea fleet in the War |Location= New York |publisher=Peter Smith |year=1934 (translation from 1920 German edition available online at [http://www.richthofen.com/scheer/ Richtofen.com]
* [http://www.bobhenneman.info/yar1916.htm Bob Henneman website] online description of the events