[Sailor Steve]

August 28:

Across the northeastern front the French and British are on the run, in what would later be called "The Great Retreat." The retreat is, however, not a rout. All across northern France desperate rearguard actions are being fought against the seemingly unstoppable Germans, and the Allies are only giving their ground slowly.

American consular secretary Hugh Gibson visits Louvain, and seeing the destruction of about one-fifth of the town, as well as the fire-damaged church, speaks to a German officer. "We shall wipe it out, not one stone will stand upon another! Not one, I tell you. We will teach them to respect Germany. For generations people will come here to see what we have done!"

With the retreat, Allied air bases are also being moved almost daily. At one of them, Lieutenant Louis Strange comes up with the idea of making his own homemade bombs from petrol, or gasoline. He and his observer take up their Farman and drop these on German troops near St. Quentin. "This action sent us home very well pleased with ourselves."


On August 23 Commodore Roger Keyes, commander of British submarine forces, proposed a plan to attack German torpedo boat patrols off Jutland, in the area the British called Heligoland Bight. After being turned down by the Admiralty staff, Keyes took the plan straight to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. Churchill called a meeting, consisting of First Sea Lord Prince Louis of Battenburg, Second Sea Lord Admiral Sir Frederick Hamilton, Chief of the Admiralty Staff Vice Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee and Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt, commander of the Harwich Force, who would lead the attack.

The British main force was made up of two destroyer flotillas, comprising 31 destroyers and their two light cruiser leaders. These would be covered by six old armoured cruisers and five modern battlecruisers, who had with them four destroyers detached from the First Flotilla. Also along were eight submarines.

One person who was not informed until the last minute was the Commander-In-Chief of the Grand Fleet, Admiral John Jellicoe, since the Grand Fleet itself would not be involved. When Jellicoe was told of the plan, he immediately dispatched the First Light Cruiser Squadron, six ships, to help with the operation, but without telling anyone else.

German forces that day involved five light cruisers and nine destroyers on the spot, patrolling the outer area while a number of minesweepers did their job closer to shore. There were two more destroyer groups and six more light cruisers waiting in reserve.

At 0526 the British submarine E-9 spotted the German torpedo boat G-194 and fired a torpedo. It missed, and G-194 attempted to ram E-9. At 0650 G-194 was sighted by four destroyers of the First Flotilla. G-194 signaled for help as she ran from the British, and Rear Admiral Franz Hipper, thinking they had only four destroyers to deal with, sent the light cruisers Stettin and Frauenlob to help. At about this time the 10 ships of the German 5th Destroyer Flotilla showed up to help G-194 hunt submarines. When they saw that they were facing a light cruiser and several destroyers they tried to retreat.

The chase turned into a running battle, with the Germans desperately trying to escape. Nearby shore batteries were unable to help due to the morning fog. Soon the fight overtook the line of minesweepers, who also ran for their lives. At 0757 the two German light cruisers arrived on the scene, and Tyrwhitt had to let the smaller ships escape while he turned to deal with this new foe.

The destroyer Fearless almost immediately hit Stettin, destroying one of the cruiser's 4" guns. Stettin turned away and the destroyer did not give chase. (It should be remembered that the German light cruisers were armed with roughly the same size guns as the British destroyers, only more of them, while the British light cruisers also carried a 6" gun fore and aft.)

Tyrwhitt's flagship Arethusa was getting the worst of her fight with Frauenlob, having two of her 4" guns knocked out almost immediately, as well as the loss of her wireless and flooding in the engine room. Frauenlob was also hit several times, but suffered no critical damage. At 0830 Arethusa turned away, and Frauenlob did not give chase.

Meanwhile a group of British destroyers sank the German V-187. The British submarine E-4 fired a torpedo at Stettin and missed. Commodore Keyes, on board Lurcher, sighted two British cruisers, but in the fog he thought they were German and signalled the Battlecruisers. At 0930 a British submarine fired two torpedoes at the British cruiser Southampton. Fortunately they missed.

The Germans had sent three more cruisers, Ariadne, Cöln, and Strassburg, and these now arrived on the scene. At 1130 Mainz was attacked by Tyrwhitt's cruisers, and after a 20-minute action was sunk. Cöln and Strassburg attacked the British cruisers, but broke off when five of Beatty's battlecruisers, Invincible, Lion, New Zealand, Princess Royal and Queen Mary hove into sight. At this point the Germans beat a hasty retreat. Cöln was caught by the big guns and severely damaged, to be sunk later when the battlecruisers returned. Ariadne was spotted and sunk. Strassburg only escaped because her four-funnel configuration was similar to British cruisers, causing confusion for her attackers. Later three German battlecruisers came out, but by then the battle was long over.

The end result was a loss of four ships and 712 killed, 1,242 wounded and 336 taken prisoner for the Germans, with only severe damage, 35 killed and 40 wounded for the British. Technically a British victory, but marred by confusion and misleading signals. Neither side was happy with the result.



SMS Karlsruhe arrives at Fernando de Noronha and meets the suppy ships Asuncion, Rio Negro and Crefeld. There Captain Köhler finds he's had another lucky escape: less than two days earlier HMS Glasgow had been searching that area for the German raider. Köhler orders the other three ships to Rocas and Karlsruhe and Patagonia head southward.