Raid on Yarmouth

North Sea

Date	3 November 1914
Location	Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England.
Result	Inconclusive

Belligerents

United Kingdom

German Empire

Commanders and leaders

David Beatty

Franz von Hipper

Strength

1 minesweeper
4 destroyers
3 submarines

3 battlecruisers
1 armoured cruiser
4 light cruisers

Casualties and losses

21 killed,
3 wounded
1 submarine sunk

235 killed
1 armoured cruiser sunk

Three British fishing trawlers were sunk during the raid

The Raid on Yarmouth, which took place on 3 November 1914, was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British North Sea port and town of Great Yarmouth. Little damage was done to the town since shells only landed on the beach, after German ships laying mines offshore were interrupted by British destroyers. HMS D5, a submarine, was sunk by a German mine as it attempted to leave harbour and attack the German ships. A German armoured cruiser was sunk after striking two German mines outside its home port.

In October 1914, the Imperial German Navy sought ways to attack the British fleet. The Royal Navy had more ships than Germany, so it was felt inadvisable to enter into a fleet to fleet engagement. Instead, the Germans looked to attack British ships individually or in small groups. The Kaiser had given orders that no major fleet action was to take place but small groups of ships might still take part in raids.

The raids had several objectives. One was to lay mines to sink passing British ships. Another was to pick off any small ships encountered or to entice larger groups into giving chase and lead them back to where the German High Seas Fleet would be waiting in ambush, in relatively safe waters near Germany. A further consideration was that raiding British coastal towns might force the British to alter the disposition of its ships to protect them. The British kept the greater part of the Grand Fleet together, so it would always have superiority whenever it engaged the Germans. The German navy hoped to encourage the British to split more ships from the main fleet for coastal defence, giving Germany more chances to catch isolated ships.

The Yarmouth raid was carried out by the German battlecruiser squadron (Admiral Franz von Hipper) with the battlecruisers SMS Seydlitz, Von der Tann and Moltke, the slightly smaller armoured cruiser SMS Blücher and the light cruisers SMS Strassburg, Graudenz, Kolberg and Stralsund. On this occasion, mines were to be laid off the coast of Yarmouth and Lowestoft and the ships were to shell Yarmouth.

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Wikipedia