Cuxhaven Raid

The Cuxhaven Raid (German: Weihnachtsangriff; i.e. Christmas Raid) was a British ship-based air-raid on the German naval forces at Cuxhaven mounted on Christmas Day, 1914.

Aircraft of the Royal Naval Air Service were carried to within striking distance by seaplane tenders of the Royal Navy, supported by both surface ships and submarines. The aircraft flew over the Cuxhaven area and dropped their bombs, causing damage to shore installations.

It was described at the time as an "air reconnaissance of the Heligoland Bight, including Cuxhaven, Heligoland and Wilhelmshaven ... by naval seaplanes" during which "the opportunity was taken of attacking with bombs points of military importance" in northern Imperial Germany.

The Zeppelin sheds at the Nordholz Airbase near Cuxhaven were out of range of UK-based aircraft, so a plan was developed for three seaplane tenders (HMS Engadine, (Squadron-commander C. L'E. Malone, who was also air commander for the raid) Riviera (Lieutenant E. D. M. Robertson) and Empress (Lieutenant Frederick Bowhill), supported by the Harwich Force, a group of cruisers, destroyers and submarines commanded by Commodore Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt, to launch three seaplanes each from their station near Helgoland in the German Bight. The objective was to reconnoitre military installations in the area and, if possible, bomb the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven. Lieutenant Erskine Childers RNVR, the yachtsman and author of Riddle of the Sands, who had sailed the area before the war, provided the navigational briefing and accompanied Flight Commander Cecil Francis Kilner as navigator and observer.

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