Battle of Dover Strait (1917)

Second Battle of Dover Strait
Part of the First World War
Drawing of HMS Broke ramming SMS G42.
Date 20–21 April 1917 Location Dover Strait 51°01′N1°29′E / 51.017°N 1.483°E / 51.017; 1.483 Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Edward Evans	Theophil Gautier
Strength
HMS Broke HMS Swift	6 torpedo boats
Casualties and losses
21 killed Broke: severe damage Swift: 1 killed, 4 wounded slight damage	71 killed 141 PoW 2 torpedo boats sunk
class=notpageimage| Location of battle

The Second Battle of Dover Strait was a naval battle of the First World War, fought in the Dover Strait in April 1917 (not the Battle of Dover Strait of 1916). Two Royal Navy destroyers defeated a superior force of German Kaiserliche Marine torpedo boats. Two German torpedo boats were sunk and both British destroyers suffered damage.

Prelude

During the evening of 20 April 1917, two groups of torpedo boats of the German Navy left Zeebrugge to raid the Dover Strait, bombarding British and French positions on shore and to engage warships patrolling the Dover Barrage—the field of floating mines that obstructed German ships and U-boats from getting into the English Channel. ^[1] Six torpedo boats of the 6th Torpedo Boat half-Flotilla bombarded Calais and the six of the 5th Torpedo Boat half-Flotilla (Korvettenkapitän Gautier) bombarded Dover just before midnight. ^[2]

Battle

Two flotilla leaders of the Royal Navy — HMS Broke and Swift — were on patrol near Dover and engaged six of the German ships early on 21 April near the Goodwin Sands. ^[3] In a confused action, Swift torpedoed SMS G85. Broke rammed SMS G42 [Kapitänleutnant Bernd von Arnim  ( de )] and the two ships became locked together. For a while, there was close-quarters fighting between the crews, as the German sailors tried to board the British ship, before Broke got free and G42 sank. ^{[4] [5]} Swift was slightly damaged and had to wait until dawn to return to port due to a loss of bearings. A search by Dover destroyers found Broke and it was towed into the eastern arm of the harbour, the drifters in port sounding their sirens and horns. ^[6]

Aftermath

Analysis

Two British destroyers had attacked six German vessels and sunk two of them, both British ships receiving damage. It was a moral-boosting success and the two British captains were promoted and awarded the Distinguished Service Order. The press and propaganda outlets feted them. The Germans did not attack the Dover Strait with ships for ten months. ^[7]

Casualties

Broke suffered 21 crew killed and 36 wounded; Swift suffered the loss of one man killed and four wounded. Swift and other Dover Patrol ships rescued 141 German sailors and 13 dead were buried at St James's Cemetery in Dover. ^[6]

German order of battle

German raiding force ^[8]

Name	Flag	Class	Notes
5th Half Flotilla (Gruppe Gautier)
SMS V71	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat
SMS V73	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat
SMS V81	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat
SMS S53	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat
SMS G85	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat	Torpedoed by HMS Swift
SMS G42	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat	Rammed by HMS Broke, sank
6th (Z) Half Flotilla (Gruppe Albrecht)
SMS V47	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat	Kapitänleutnant Bernd von Arnim  ( de )
SMS G95	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat
SMS V68	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat
SMS G96	Imperial German Navy	1916 Mob.-class torpedo boat
SMS G91	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat
SMS V70	Imperial German Navy	V25-class torpedo boat

Footnotes

1. Liddle 1985, p. 149.
2. Dunn 2017, p. 135.
3. Baldwin 1962, p. 115.
4. Dunn 2017, pp. 137–138.
5. Chatterton 1923, p. 189.
6. Dunn 2017, p. 138.
7. Dunn 2017, pp. 138–139.
8. Newbolt 2003, p. 373; Karau 2014, p. 125.

Bibliography

• Baldwin, H. W. (1962). World War I: An Outline History. New York: Harper and Row. OCLC   468558099.
• Dunn, Steve (2017). Securing the Narrow Sea: The Dover Patrol 1914–1918. Barnsley: Seaforth. ISBN   978-1-84832-249-3.
• Chatterton, E. K. (1923). The Auxiliary Patrol. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. OCLC   14232571.
• Karau, Mark (2014). The Naval Flank of the Western Front: The German MarineKorps Flandern 1914–1918. Barnsley: Seaforth. ISBN   978-1-84832-231-8. (originally published as Karau, Mark (2003). Wielding the Dagger; The MarineKorps Flandern and the German War Effort, 1914−1918. Contributions in Military Studies, No. 226. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN   978-0-31-332475-8.
• Liddle, Peter H. (1985). The Sailor's War, 1914–1918. New York: Stirling. ISBN   978-0-71-371397-8.
• Newbolt, Henry (2003) [1928]. Naval Operations. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. IV (pbk. repr. Imperial War Museum Department of Printed Books and Naval & Military Press, Uckfield ed.). London: Longmans, Green & Co. ISBN   978-1-84-342492-5.

Further reading

• Bacon, Reginald (1919). The Dover Patrol 1915−1917 . Vol. I (online scan ed.). London: Hutchinson. OCLC   609286588 – via Archive Foundation.
• Bacon, Reginald (1919). The Dover Patrol 1915−1917 . Vol. II (online scan ed.). London: Hutchinson. OCLC   609286588 – via Archive Foundation.
• Beesly, P. (1983). Room 40: British Naval Intelligence 1914–18 (2nd ed.). London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN   978-0-15-178634-3.
• Dunn, Steve, ed. (2021). British Naval Trawlers and Drifters in two World Wars (from the John Lambert Collection). Barnsley: Seaforth. ISBN   978-1-5267-9487-1.
• Faulkner, Marcus (2015). The Great War at Sea: A Naval Atlas 1914–1919 (PDF ed.). Barnsley: Seaforth (Pen & Sword Books). ISBN   978-1-84832-363-6.
• Halpern, P. G. (1995) [1994]. A Naval History of World War I (pbk. repr. UCL Press, London ed.). Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN   1-85728-498-4.