War at Sea

1914 World - reserve

1914 Aug. 3 - British ship SS San Wilfrido sunk by German mine in North Sea, the first merchant ship lost.

Aug. 4 - Jellicoe appointed commnader of Grand Fleet, left Scapa Flow on first patrol of North Sea.

Aug. 5 - British cableship Telconia cut five German undersea cables.

Aug. 6 - German cruiser Konigsberg sank SS City of Winchester in Indian Ocean. The Koenigsberg would sink the British cruiser Pegasus off Zanzibar Sep. 20. In Caribbean, British cruisers fire on German cruiser Karlsruhe. In the Mediterranean, German cruisers Goeben and Breslau head for Dardanelles. In South Atlantic, German cruiser Dresden attacked British merchant ships off Pernambuco, Brazil. On Aug. 13, German Admiral von Spee sent the cruiser Emden to the Indian Ocean on a raid that would sink 23 ships and would be pursued by 14 Allied warships until driven ashore Nov. 9 on Direction Island. On Aug. 26, British sunk German raider Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse off West Africa. On Aug. 29, German cruiser Karlsruhe sank SS Strathroy off Brazil.

Aug. 11 - British created the Harwich Force

Aug. 18 - German cruisers Strassburg and Stralsund started to enter the North Sea, but turned back by British cruiser Fearless.

Aug. 27 - Anglo-Japanese blockade of Kiaochow Bay began

Aug. 27 - Battle of Heligoland Bight began, 3 German cruisers sunk.

Sep. 5 - U-21 sank British cruiser Pathfinder in North Sea, first warship sunk by submarine.

Oct. 1 - British began laying mines in open sea around Great Britain, 7154 over next 5 months but over half were defective.

Oct. 6 - German cruiser Karlsruhe sank 8 British merchant ships in the Atlantic during October, and would sink a total of 15 British ships by Nov. 4 when it was destroyed off Trinidad by an internal explosion of cordite.

Oct. 12 - German cruisers Dresden and Leipzig with von Spee to Easter island in South Pacific.

Oct. 27 - British battleship Audacious sunk by mines off Ireland. British Admiralty tried to censor any news of the sinking but photos by passengers on the liner Olympic were published.

Oct. 29 - German cruisers Goeben and Breslau raid against the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.

Oct. 30 - First Sea Lord Fisher appointed despite his age at 74, ordered on Nov. 3 a massive naval building program of 600 ships, and on Dec. 19 proposed building new fast battlecruisers with 15-in. guns, with Renown and Repulse first completed in 19195.

Nov. 1 - Battle of Coronel won the German cruisers of von Spee. British ships sunk included flagship Good Hope and cruiser Monmouth, cruiser Glasgow damaged, 1400 dead, the worst British naval defeat since Lake Champlain in 1814.

Nov. 8 - British Admiralty created Room 40 to decode signals, under new DNI Capt. William "Blinker" Hall.

Dec. 1 - U. S. Bethlehem Steel Company provided 14-inch guns for new Abercrombie-class monitors built in Britain.

Dec. 2 - German cruiser Leipzig captured Scottish coal ship east of Cape Horn in South Atlantic as von Spee prepared to attack the Falkland Islands

Dec. 8 - Battle of the Falkland Islands began with surprise British attack on von Spee's cruisers as they approached Port Stanley, the first long-range battle by director-controlled 12-inch naval guns. Germans lost 4 cruisers.

Dec. 25 - Cuxhaven Raid by British seaplane carriers on North Sea coast, Short seaplane damaged German battlecruiser Von der Tann

1915 Jan. 24 - Battle of Dogger Bank began with signal intercepts that revealed German fleet in North Sea, British Admiral Beatty and 5 battleships sank German cruiser Blucher

Jan. 28 - U. S. Coast Guard founded. German raider Prinz Eitel Friedrich sank American wheat ship William P. Frye in South Atlantic.

Feb. 4 - Germany proclaimed unrestricted submarine warfare, and war zone around Great Britain

Feb. 25 - In Dardanelles, new British battleship Queen Elizabeth fired her eight 15-in. guns for the first time in the war against Turkish forts. On March 5, the battleship fired 21,000 over the Gallipoli penisula against the Narrows forts.

March 1 - French physicist Paul Langevin developed echo-ranging sonar device ??

March 14 - German cruiser Dresden trapped off Juan Fernandez in Southeast Pacific by three British cruisers, scuttle by explosives, crew imprisoned in Chile but Lt. Canaris escaped to Berlin.

Apr. 8 - German raiders Prinz Eitel Friedrich and Kronprinnz Wilhelm were interned at Newport News, VA.

May 7 - Lusitania sunk.

May 15 - Lord Fisher resigned as First Sea Lord due to Gallipoli disaster, replaced by Adm. H. Jackson. Winsotn Churchill resigned May 27 as First Lord of the Admiralty, replaced by Balfour.

June 1 - Canadian-built H class submarines cross Atlantic to join British Navy, built with steel from U. S. Bethlehem Steel Company.

July 1 - British began testing of depth charges and by Jan. 1916 ready to use them in the fleet but only 2 per ship until more produced by 1917. The battleship Henderson was equipped with the Henderson stabilizing gun director.

Aug. 19 - Baralong Incident when British Q-ship Baralong sunk U27, then machine-gunned survivors in water

Oct. 23 - British sub E8 sank German cruiser Prinz Adalbert in the Baltic.

Dec. 26 - German raider Mowe began North Sea patrol, sank 14 ships in next 2 months before returning to Bremen.

1916 Jan. 24 - Adm. Reinhard Scheer appointed commander of German Fleet, replaced Adm. Pohl who died of cancer. Scheer advocated a battlecruiser offensive to pull out the British fleet into the open sea where it could be destroyed by torpedo boats and submarines.

Feb. 10 - German destroyer raid at Dogger Bank sank British minesweeper Arabis.

Mar. 1 - British sub B3 equipped with hydrophones.

Mar. 5 - Scheer led German High Fleet into the North Sea off Trexel, but recalled due to bad weather.

Mar. 12 - Adm. Tirpitz resigned. Kaiser did not approved unrestricted submarine warefare.

Mar. 22 - British Q-ship Farnborough first to sink a German sub, the U68, with depth charge.

Mar. 25 - Scheer led German High Fleet on another sortie, but again stopped by bad weather.

Apr. 25 - German battlecruisers shell Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

May 30 - British Room 40 warned German High Fleet was about to start a sortie led by Adm. Hipper and the German battlecruisers and that 16 German submarines were in the North Sea. Jellicoe led the Grand Fleet out from Scapa, and Beatty led the Battlecruiser Force out from Rosyth.

May 31 - Battle of Jutland began when Beatty opened fire on Hipper's German battlecruisers. By the end of the battle June 1, British had lost 3 battleships and 3 cruisers and 8 destroyers. Scheer and the German fleet had escaped with losses of 1 battleship and 4 cruisers and 5 destroyers.

July 1 - German subs began to use 4.1-in. deck gun at 8000 yards, replacing 3.5-in gun.

Aug. 18 - Scheer led German High Fleet on another attempt to draw out the British fleet into a trap laid by 5 lines of 24 submarines. Room 40 alerted Jellicoe, and the British Grand Fleet sailed out, losing 2 cruisers to sub torpedoes, but Scheer retreated.

Oct. 18 - German High Fleet attempted sortie, but British E38 sank German cruiser Munchen and Scheer retreated.

Oct. 26 - Capt. Michelson led 11 German destroyers from Zeebrugge on raid of Dover Straits.

Nov. 10 - German 10th Flotilla of 11 destroyers attempt raid on Russian shipping in Gulf of Finland, but 7 sunk by mines.

Nov. 21 - British hospital ship Britannic, sister ship of Titanic, sunk in Aegean by mine, but no wounded were aboard.

Nov. 30 - German raider Wolf began 15-month patrol that sank 15 ships.

Dec. 5 - Jellicoe became First Sea Lord, appointed Adm Duff to lead new Anti-Submarine Division.

1917 Jan. 1 - British announced plan to mine Heligoland Bight with 80,000 mines.

Jan. 10 - British began convoys of coal ships across channel to France. During next 3 months, only 5 of 2600 ships lost.

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revised 10/1/06 by Schoenherr | WWI Timeline | Links | Topics | Maps | Reserve