Battle of Heligoland Bight (1914) 1914
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 28 August 1914 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1914 | 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 | 54.1900, 7.5100 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Heligoland Bight was the first Anglo-German naval battle of the First World War, fought on 28 August 1914, between ships of the United Kingdom and Germany. The battle took place in the south-eastern North Sea, when the British attacked German patrols off the north-west German coast. The German High Seas Fleet was in harbour on the north German coast while the British Grand Fleet was out in the northern North Sea. Both sides engaged in long-distance sorties with cruisers and battlecruisers, with close reconnaissance of the area of sea near the German coast—the Heligoland Bight—by destroyer.
The British devised a plan to ambush German destroyers on their daily patrols. A British flotilla of 31 destroyers and two cruisers under Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt, with submarines commanded by Commodore Roger Keyes, was dispatched. They were supported at longer range by an additional six light cruisers commanded by William Goodenough and five battlecruisers commanded by Vice Admiral David Beatty.
Surprised, outnumbered and outgunned, the German fleet suffered 712 sailors killed, 530 injured and 336 taken prisoner; three German light cruisers (SMS Ariadne, Cöln and Mainz) and one torpedo boat (SMS V187) were sunk; three more light cruisers (SMS Strassburg, Stettin and Frauenlob)…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Heligoland Bight (1914) (revision 1370265524), 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 Heligoland (1864) 1864 · 27 km
- Second Battle of Heligoland Bight 1917 · 36 km
- Siege of Tönning 1714 · 95 km
- Battle of Hemmingstedt 1500 · 102 km
- Battle of Jemmingen 1568 · 105 km
- Battle of Listerdyb 1644 · 115 km
Other battles of the World War I
- Action of 22 September 1914 1914
- Affair of Néry 1914
- Battle of Antivari 1914
- Battle of Arras (1914) 1914
- Battle of Cocos 1914
- Battle of Coronel 1914
- Battle of Dornach (1914) 1914
- Battle of Galicia 1914
- Battle of Kolubara 1914
- Battle of Kraków (1914) 1914
All 138 battles of the World War I →
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