Battle off Texel

Battle off Texel
Part of the First World War
A sketch of the battle by one of the participants.
Date 17 October 1914 Location 50 nautical miles (58 mi; 93 km) off Texel, the Netherlands, North Sea Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Cecil H. Fox	Georg Thiele †
Strength
1 light cruiser, 4 destroyers	4 torpedo boats
Casualties and losses
3 destroyers damaged 5 wounded	4 torpedo boats sunk 218 killed 30 captured

The Battle off Texel, also known as the Action off Texel or the Action of 17 October 1914, was a naval battle off the coast of the Dutch island of Texel during the First World War. A British squadron consisting of one light cruiser and four destroyers on a routine patrol, encountered the remnants of the German 7th Half Flotilla of torpedo boats, which was en route to the British coast, to lay mines. The British forces attacked and sank the German flotilla of four torpedo boats. Outgunned, the German force attempted to flee and then fought a desperate and ineffective action against the British force.

The battle resulted in the loss of the German torpedo boat squadron and prevented the mining of busy shipping lanes, such as the mouth of the River Thames. The British had few casualties and little damage to their vessels. The battle also greatly influenced the tactics and deployments of the remaining German torpedo boat flotillas in the North Sea area, as the loss greatly shook the faith of the commanders in the effectiveness of the force.

After the opening naval Battle of Heligoland Bight, the German High Seas Fleet was ordered to avoid confrontations with larger opposing forces, to avoid costly and demoralizing reverses. Apart from occasional German raids, the North Sea was dominated by the Royal Navy which regularly patrolled the area, although German light forces operated regularly in North Sea. On 16 October 1914, information about activity by German light forces in the Heligoland Bight became more definite and the 1st Division of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla (Harwich Force), consisting of the new light cruiser HMS Undaunted (Captain Cecil Fox) and four Laforey-class destroyers, HMS Lennox, Lance, Loyal and Legion was sent to investigate. At 13:50 on 17 October, while steaming northwards, about 50 nmi (58 mi; 93 km) to the south-west of the island of Texel, the 1st Division encountered a squadron of German torpedo boats, comprising the remaining vessels of the 7th Half Flotilla (Korvettenkapitän Georg Thiele in S119) SMS S115, S117, S118 about 8 nmi (9.2 mi; 15 km) ahead. The German ships were sailing abreast, about 0.5 nmi (0.58 mi; 0.93 km) apart, on a bearing slightly to the east of the 1st Division. The German ships made no hostile move against the British and made no attempt flee; the British assuming that they had mistaken the ships for friendly vessels. The German flotilla was part of the Emden Patrol and had been sent out of the Ems River, to mine the southern coast of Britain including the mouth of the Thames but had been intercepted before reaching its objective.

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