Battle off Noordhinder Bank

HMS Leonidas, one of the British destroyers that fought off Noordhinder Bank

Date	1 May 1915
Location	off Noordhinder Bank, the Netherlands, North Sea 56°N 03°E / 56°N 3°E / 56; 3 (North Sea)Coordinates: 56°N 03°E / 56°N 3°E / 56; 3 (North Sea)
Result	British victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

German Empire

Commanders and leaders

Sir James Domville

Hermann Schoemann †

Strength

4 naval trawlers,
4 destroyers

2 torpedo boats

Casualties and losses

1 naval trawler sunk
1 naval trawler damaged
16 dead

2 torpedo boats sunk
13 dead
46 captured

The Battle off Noordhinder Bank on 1 May 1915 was a naval action between a squadron of four British naval trawlers supported by a flotilla of four destroyers and a pair of German torpedo boats from the Flanders Flotilla. The battle began when the two torpedo boats were sent on a search and rescue mission and ran into a British patrol. The Germans fought with the patrolling trawlers until a heavier force of British destroyers from Harwich Force came to their aid and sank the German vessels.

The battle greatly demoralized the German flotilla at Flanders, as the boats that were sunk had just been launched shortly before the battle. The action off Noordhinder Bank helped bring to the attention of the German high command that the Flanders Flotilla was inadequately armed to protect the coast it was assigned to defend, let alone harass British shipping in the English Channel. Eventually, after similar defeats, the small torpedo boats such as those used off Noordhinder Bank were relegated to coastal patrol and heavier units were transferred to even the balance of power in the channel.

After the 7th Torpedo Boat Half Flotilla was lost during the Battle off Texel, German naval authorities were reluctant to commit any further forces for offensive operations off the coast of Flanders. Despite this, the commander of Marine Corps Flanders—Admiral Ludwig von Schröder—kept pressure on the German naval command for a transfer of a force of submarines and torpedo boats to his command. After several months, the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) relented and decided to send him a force of light torpedo boats and submarines. Although these forces were greatly inferior in armament and displacement to those he had requested, Admiral Schroeder put his new ships to use as soon as he received them. He formed the Flanders Torpedo Boat Flotilla made up of 15 "A"-class torpedo boats under the command of Korvettenkapitän Hermann Schoemann.

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Wikipedia