Battle of Dogger Bank (1915)

Battle of Dogger Bank
Part of the First World War
Map of the North Sea, showing shallows and banks
Date 24 January 1915 Location Dogger Bank, North Sea Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
David Beatty	Franz Hipper
Strength
5 battlecruisers 7 light cruisers 35 destroyers	3 battlecruisers 1 armoured cruiser 4 light cruisers 18 destroyers 1 Zeppelin
Casualties and losses
1 battlecruiser out of action 1 destroyer out of action 15 killed 32 wounded	1 armoured cruiser sunk 1 battlecruiser heavily damaged 954 killed 80 wounded 189 captured

The Battle of Dogger Bank was a naval engagement on 24 January 1915, near the Dogger Bank in the North Sea, during the First World War, between squadrons of the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet.

The British had intercepted and decoded German wireless transmissions, gaining advance knowledge that a German raiding squadron was heading for Dogger Bank and ships of the Grand Fleet sailed to intercept the raiders. The British surprised the smaller and slower German squadron, which fled for home. During a stern chase lasting several hours, the British caught up with the Germans and engaged them with long-range gunfire. The British disabled Blücher, the rearmost German ship and the Germans put the British flagship HMS Lion out of action. Due to inadequate signalling, the remaining British ships stopped the pursuit to sink Blücher and when the ship had been sunk, the rest of the German squadron had escaped. The squadron returned to harbour, with some ships so badly damaged as to require extensive repairs.

Lion made it back to port but was also out of action for several months. The British had lost no ships and suffered few casualties, the Germans had lost Blücher and most of its crew and the action was considered a British victory. Both navies replaced commanders who were thought to have shown poor judgement and made changes to equipment and procedures, to remedy failings observed during the battle.

Before 1914, international communication was conducted via undersea cables, most under British control, laid along shipping lanes. Hours after the British ultimatum to Germany in August 1914, The British cut German cables and messages could only be passed by wireless, using ciphers to disguise their content. The Signalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine (SKM) was captured from the German Light cruiser SMS Magdeburg, after it ran aground in the Baltic on 26 August 1914. The German-Australian steamer Hobart was seized near Melbourne, Australia on 11 August and the ship's Handelsverkehrsbuch (HVB) codebook, used by the German navy to communicate with merchant ships and within the High Seas Fleet, was captured; a copy of the book was sent to England by the fastest steamer, arriving at the end of October. During the Battle off Texel (17 October), the commander of the German destroyer SMS S119 threw overboard all secret papers in a lead lined chest as the ship was sinking. On 30 November, a British trawler dragged up the chest, which was passed on to Room 40, a copy of the Verkehrsbuch (VB) codebook, normally used by Flag officers of the Kaiserliche Marine being found inside.

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