Action of 11–12 December 1917
The action of 11–12 December 1917 was a German naval operation in the North Sea against convoys sailing on the Scandinavian convoy route from Norway to Lerwick (, "Lerrick") in the Shetland Islands during the First World War. Ships carrying coal from the loading port of Immingham on the Humber estuary were convoyed to Lerwick up the war channel, along the east coast of Northern England and Scotland, for dispatch in convoys to Scandinavian neutrals, along with ships carrying general cargo. The German 2nd Flotilla, equipped with the biggest and most modern destroyers, attacked the British  Scandinavian convoy route in two places, the 3rd Half-Flotilla off the Norwegian coast and the 4th Half-Flotilla along the British east coast route. A convoy of six ships, escorted by two destroyers and four trawlers, was attacked off Norway and destroyed; the attack in the war channel was less successful but one freighter was sunk, another seriously damaged and four trawlers attacked. Background. Neutral shipping. The German U-boat campaign inflicted serious losses on neutral shipping but British countermeasures in the North Sea managed to limit the losses of Scandinavian merchant ships. British losses continued unabated and in  the last three months of 1916 losses of 618,000 gross register tons (GRT) were matched by only 220,000 GRT of new ship construction. From January to March 1917, 912,000 GRT were lost for a replacement of 326,000 GRT. Neutral shipping was an important addition to the British merchant fleet but in the last quarter of 1916, non-British shipping losses, excluding those of the Central Powers were 1,159,000 GRT and in the next three months were 1,619,000 against new building of 587,000 (mostly US construction). British ships were being fitted with defensive armament, often a 4.7-inch gun with a  naval crew. Neutrals were afraid to arm their ships and compromise their status as non-combatant, making them more vulnerable than the British ships. Norway. In February 1917, the British government took soundings with several neutral governments over the purchase of their merchant fleets but the suggestion was spurned. In negotiations with the Norwegian government about the resumption of coal imports from Britain the Norwegians were so desperate for coal that they offered the merchant fleet if the matter could be carried off without German reprisals. The suggestion was all the more compelling to the Norwegians because the British could  requisition their ships with no provision for any supplies to Norway. In June 1917, about 300,000 people protested against rising food prices, 40,000 turning out in the capital, Kristiania (now Oslo). The Norwegian Prime Minister Gunnar Knudson thought that another coal shortage would cause mass unemployment, social unrest and possibly revolution. It was suggested that rather than sell the fleet, the Norwegians should charter it and that armed British ships be substituted on the routes suffering the worst losses from German U-boats. The Norwegian Shipowners' Association () would agree to The Tonnage Agreement in which the transport of coal to  Norway would be assured by British charter or requisition of the ships. The connivance of the Norwegian government in the arrangement would be camouflaged by being made by the and the Ministry of Shipping. The British gained 130 freighters of 200,000 GRT and the Norwegians of coal per month. The Scandinavian convoy. In April 1917, the British began shipping coal north from the Humber Estuary to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands and then across the North Sea to Norway. Since the autumn of 1914 six minesweeping trawlers sailed from each port on the east coast just before dawn and swept  a channel -wide and -long, the sweep being repeated late in the day. The swept channel was extended northwards to Scotland and the Orkney Islands. The monthly quota of required daily convoys from Lerwick, most being neutral Scandinavian ships, usually escorted by two British destroyers from a pool of eight detached from the Grand Fleet, supported by several armed trawlers. To 1 July, 351 ships made the eastbound journey from Lerwick and 385 the voyage westwards from Norway, an average of 368 round trips a month, for the loss of twenty ships. In July, ten ships were sunk by the  attacks of , , , and , from 454, a loss of 2.2 per cent. Seven depth charge attacks were made by escort ships to no effect and was torpedoed while escorting colliers northwards up the British coast to Lerwick. In anticipation of the added difficulty of escorting colliers in the autumn, winter and spring, several cruisers were sent to the Humber. The Scandinavian convoys had been a considerable success but had to sail in waters where they were vulnerable to German surface vessels for most of the journey. The return voyage began in Bergen in Norway, a neutral port where sailings could be  observed by Germans and the use of neutral ships made it impossible for the British to keep convoy procedures and sailings secret. In November, British coal deliveries were less than half of the monthly quota, making the Admiralty reluctant to allow more delays on the Scandinavian convoy run. Action off Lerwick. At about on 17 October, lookouts on spotted two unusual vessels converging on the destroyer. Challenges were signalled to the ships and the third received a faulty reply. The first German shells cut the main steam-pipe, scalding many of the engine-room crew to death; the captain, Edward  Brooke, was wounded, the wireless transmitter destroyed and the ship was left dead in the water. "Mary Rose" sent a wireless signal as it closed with the German ships and another station asked for the signal to be repeated but "Brummer" jammed the transmissions. Four merchantmen were sunk; which was heard on "Mary Rose", whose captain assumed that the convoy was under U-boat attack. The torpedoes and guns could not be used simultaneously, because the range and deflection transmitters were not working but "Mary Rose" attacked the German cruisers at high speed, opening fire from . At , the German ships  hit "Mary Rose", Fox ordered "abandon ship" and eight men got away on a Carley float. The German ships fired on the float and a motor boat with survivors from "Strongbow". Five more merchant ships were sunk, the Germans giving no time for the crews to abandon ship. The Danish "Margrethe" was fired on as the crew took to the boats. "Bremse" and "Brummer" left "Margrethe" on fire and attacked the Swedish "H. Wikander" and the Norwegian "Kristine". The master, Roeneviz, was picked up by a lifeboat from "Habil" and said that after he ordered abandon ship a shell hit  the after lifeboat, killing seven men, at which the crew re-boarded "Kristine" and vainly signalled to the Germans to cease firing. "Margrethe" was finished off by "Bremse" and "Brummer" as they made for home at "P. Fannon", the British SS "City of Cork" and SAS "Ben Cleugh" and the Belgian SS "Londinier" escaped; "Elise" returned later to rescue survivors. Pursuit. The Admiralty postponed the Lerwick to Norway sailing due on 18 October, prompting Beatty to ask why. It transpired that Admiral Sir Henry Oliver, the Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, had received more decoded signals, leading the code  breakers to infer that "Brummer" was not on a mine laying sortie. Oliver kept the information to himself until on 17 October, eighteen hours after he received it. The decodes suggested that the ships were chasing convoys; by that time, "Bremse" and "Brummer" were north of Bergen, running southwards for the (Horns Reef) about off , the westernmost point of Denmark. At about "Elise" encountered two British destroyers which transmitted news of the German attack to the commodore of flotillas. Admiral Sir Frederic Brock, the Admiral Commanding, Orkneys and Shetlands received the signal at and Beatty was informed between and by  when the German ships had reached the vicinity of Stavanger. Beatty sent new orders to the ships on patrol at to sail eastwards and intercept the German cruisers at Horns Reef but the German ships were back in port by the next day. Prelude. plan. The commander of the High Seas Fleet, Admiral Reinhard Scheer, was pleased with the results of the action off Lerwick but decided to mount another operation when it was clear that Scandinavian ships were still sailing the Bergen–Lerwick route. The next attack was to be a more elaborate operation with attacks at two points  on the Scandinavian convoy route. The 2nd (destroyer) Flotilla ( Paul Heinrich) with the biggest and fastest destroyers in the High Seas Fleet, comprised the 3rd Half-Flotilla ( Hans Kolbe) with the s "G-101", "G-103", "G-104"  (four guns and six torpedo tubes each) of  and the SMS "V-100" with four guns, six torpedo tubes and a speed of the 4th Half-Flotilla was similarly equipped. The 4th Half-Flotilla (Heinrich) was to attack shipping in the convoy channel along the British east coast and the 3rd Half-Flotilla (Hans Kolbe), was to attack shipping at the eastern end of the Lerwick  to Bergen route. The 2nd (destroyer) Flotilla was to be escorted by the light cruiser which would wait to the north-east of the Dogger Bank, the point where the half-flotillas separated, to act as a wireless relay station. The raiding force set out early on 11 December at and at the half-flotillas separated, the 3rd continuing north and the 4th towards a point on the English coast north of Newcastle. Scandinavian convoy changes. After the action off Lerwick, a conference at the Admiralty was held on 22 October from which on 5 November Beatty and his staff  made proposals to change the system of Scandinavian convoys. When the original system of convoys had been proposed, the commanders of the East Coast patrol areas had been invited to comment and several noted that the system could not be kept secret for long. One officer predicted that arrangements would be needed to protect the convoys from surface ships as well as U-boats; the success of the convoy system since had lulled the British into complacency. Standing orders made no mention of tactics against surface ship attack and the possibility had never been discussed by destroyer captains The attack  off Lerwick showed that the convoy escorts were not sufficient to defeat an attack by surface ships. A meeting was held at Rosyth which recommended that convoys should sail from Methil Docks, on the north bank of the Firth of Forth, which was better equipped than Lerwick and closer to Swedish and Danish trade routes. Convoys should be run to Methil daily but sailings to Scandinavia be limited to every three days. The southward move would send convoys closer to German bases, against which the convoys should be integrated into the Atlantic convoy system, with cruiser protection. The next Scandinavian  convoy sailed from Norway to Lerwick on 20 October. British sailings, 10–11 December. At on 10 December, a southbound convoy, mainly of colliers, departed from Lerwick for Immingham in the Humber estuary, escorted by the destroyers and . A general southbound convoy also left Lerwick for ports on the east coast, escorted by the destroyers and . On 11 December, the daily eastbound Scandinavian convoy comprising "Bollsta" and "Kong Magnus" (Norwegian) "Torleif" and "Bothnia" (Swedish), "Maracaibo" (Danish) and "Cordova" (British) sailed from Lerwick, due to reach the Marstein Lighthouse () near Bergen, around noon on 12 December. The convoy was escorted by the  destroyers (Lieutenant-Commander J. R. C. Cavendish), (Lieutenant-Commander R. H. Ransome) and the Admiralty trawlers , , and . The Scandinavian convoy was due to make two rendezvous, the first south of Lerwick and the second south-west of Bjørnafjorden, the entrance to Bergen. A covering force of the armoured cruisers and (Captain Vincent Molteno of "Shannon" in command), of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, with four destroyers, sailed from Scapa Flow at on 11 December. The covering force was to follow the route of Scandinavian convoy, rendezvous with the westbound convoy from Norway the following morning (12 December) and then sail eastwards  along the convoy route to protect the eastbound convoy from Lerwick. The 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron (, and , SNO Captain Louis Woollcombe) with four destroyers sailed at to be off Jæren in Norway by on 12 December, for a sweep southwards along the west side of the Skaggerak to (Bovbjerg lighthouse) in Denmark and return during the night. Actions. 3rd Half-Flotilla. The further the 3rd Half-Flotilla sailed northwards, the worse the deterioration in the weather. By there was a heavy swell and a southerly gale blowing and at on 12 December Kolbe had to reduce speed due to a  storm from north-west. Kolbe changed course for Utsira off the Norwegian coast, the better to fix his position and to hunt for a convoy known to have sailed from Drammen in south-east Norway. Utsire was spotted at by when the weather had moderated slightly and Kolbe turned north again, only to be forced by the weather to slow to and then turn south at Kolbe intended to keep out of sight of land until dark and then close in to look for merchant ships. One of the destroyers suffered engine-trouble and limited speed to , rather than send  the destroyer back alone. At the Scandinavian convoy was sighted. At on 12 December, the Scandinavian convoy was near the second rendezvous at approximately , south-west of Bjørnafjorden, the route into Bergen. "Pellew" and "Partridge" were sailing in line astern with the convoy of six merchant ships behind, with armed trawlers in front and to the sides. a strong north westerly wind was blowing and there was heavy swell, limiting the speed of the destroyers. Lookouts on the destroyers saw ships to the north and "Partridge" tried to challenge the ships, delayed by an unserviceable searchlight, which took ten minutes  to get working. The challenge was sent and a warning passed on to "Pellew" that the reply was wrong. The ships were closer to the convoy and were distant when the two destroyers went to action stations and "Pellew" ordered the convoy to scatter. Neither destroyer captain had been told about the covering force; "Pellew" crossed the front of the convoy to reach the threatened northern side, followed by "Partridge" which signalled to Beatty, the commander-in-chief that several German ships were close by. Cavendish hoped to delay a German attack on the convoy by bold action but the  German ships divided, three running parallel to "Pellew" and "Partridge" and one towards the convoy. The British were outnumbered and downwind, the gale from the north-west, driving spray into the faces of the British gun-crews. As the two destroyers descended into wave troughs, the only parts of the German ships visible were the masts and funnel tops. The German gunners were characteristically quick and accurate and before long, "Partridge" received a hit at the front of the engine room, cutting the main steam-pipe, filling the engine-room with super-heated steam, killing the occupants. With "Partridge" at  a standstill in the water, the after gun was hit and knocked out a few minutes later and a torpedo hit was received forward at almost the same time. The ship began to sink and Ransome ordered the ship to be abandoned at the Engineer-Commander P. L. Butt got into the engine-room and opened a condenser to make sure the ship sank as quickly as possible. As the crew of "Partridge" were launching the lifeboats and rafts, lieutenants A. A. D. Grey and L. J. B. Walters saw that the German destroyer V-100 was opposite the torpedo tubes  and fired one, which hit without exploding. The other tubes could not be aimed and soon afterwards, Grey was wounded in the thigh. Both officers were put into a lifeboat, from which they were thrown when it capsized. Grey helped Walters swim to a raft, which had only room for one. Grey, still bleeding, swam towards V-100, the closest German destroyer, whose crew rescued him. Before losing consciousness, Grey saw "Partridge" hit by another torpedo and explode as it sank. Butt had come up on deck and waited with Ransome until only the stern was above water, then jumped in . File:German Imperial Navy Zerstörer Typ G 101 underway c1916.jpg|thumb|left| Category:North Sea operations of World War I Category:Naval battles of World War I involving the United Kingdom Category:Naval battles of World War I involving Germany Category:Conflicts in 1917 Category:1917 in Scotland Category:Lerwick Category:History of Shetland Category:20th century in Shetland Category:Maritime incidents in Scotland Category:October 1917 events