Action off Lerwick 1917
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 17 October 1917 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1917 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Europe) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | World War I | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | German Empire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 60.0167, 1.1000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The action off Lerwick (, "Lerrick") was a naval engagement on 17 October 1917 fought in the North Sea during the First World War. The German light, minelaying cruisers SMS Brummer and Bremse attacked a westbound convoy of twelve colliers and other merchant ships and their escorts, part of the regular Scandinavian convoy. The two escorting destroyers and nine neutral Scandinavian ships were sunk off Shetland, Scotland.
Admiralty code breakers had uncovered the call signs of Bremse and Brummer and by direction finding knew that they had sailed from Wilhelmshaven to Lister Tief (Lister Deep) north of Sylt but an operation as far north as the Scandinavian convoy collier route was not anticipated by the British naval commanders because the Admiralty failed promptly to pass on the information.
Both of the British destroyer commanders were commended for their bravery, though some members of the Admiralty felt that by leaving the convoy to engage a superior enemy force, they had left the merchant ships open to attack. Other British ships did not receive reports of the attack until late afternoon, were not in a position to intercept and the German cruisers returned safely to port. The British called the attack on neutral vessels, giving no time for the crews to abandon ship, an outrage.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Action off Lerwick (revision 1370104156), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Ronas Voe 1674 · 151 km
- Sinking of U-864 1945 · 211 km
- Battle of Alvøen 1808 · 228 km
- Battle of Vågen 1665 · 237 km
- Battle of Fitjar 961 · 238 km
- Battle of Summerdale 1529 · 266 km
Other battles of the World War I
- Battle of Verdun 1916
- Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft 1916
- Gas attacks at Hulluch 1916
- Night action at the Battle of Jutland 1916
- Trebizond Campaign 1916
- Action of 10 March 1917 1917
- Action of 11–12 December 1917 1917
- Action of 16 March 1917 1917
- Action of 17 November 1917 1917
- Action of 4 May 1917 1917
All 138 battles of the World War I →
Browse more: battles at sea · Europe · World War I era battles