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Battle off Texel
The Battle off Texel, also known as the Action off Texel or the Action of 17 October 1914, was a naval battle off the coast of the Dutch island of Texel during the First World War where a British squadron consisting of one light cruiser and four destroyers on a routine patrol encountered the remnants of the German 7th Half Flotilla of torpedo boats,〔Note: Some sources state that the German vessels were destroyers, however all destroyer like vessels were officially termed torpedo boats by the German Navy during World War I.〕 which was ''en route'' to the British coast on a mission to lay minefields.〔Scheer, 60〕 The British forces attacked and sank the entire German flotilla of four torpedo boats. Heavily outgunned, the German force attempted to flee and then fought a desperate and ineffective action against the British force.
The battle resulted in the loss of an entire German torpedo boat squadron, and prevented the mining of heavily trafficked shipping lanes, such as the mouth of the Thames River. The British in exchange took only light casualties and little damage to their vessels. The outcome of the battle also greatly influenced the tactics and deployments of the remaining German torpedo boat flotillas in the North Sea area, as the loss greatly shook the faith of the commanders in the effectiveness of the force.
==Background==
After the opening naval Battle of Heligoland Bight the German High Seas Fleet was ordered to avoid confrontations with larger opposing forces in an effort to avoid costly and demoralizing reverses. Thus outside of occasional German raids, the North Sea became dominated by the Royal Navy which regularly patrolled the area. Despite the lack of action by German capital ships, light forces still operated regularly in North Sea.〔Osborne, 90〕 At 13:50 on 17 October 1914, one such routine patrol by the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla Harwich Force consisting of the light cruiser under Captain Cecil Fox and four ''Laforey''-class destroyers, , , , and , was cruising off the coast of the island of Texel when they encountered a waiting German squadron of torpedo boats consisting of the remaining vessels of the 7th Half Flotilla under Georg Thiele: , , , and .〔''S116'' had also been a member of the 7th Half Flotilla, but was sunk by a British submarine some time before the Battle off Texel.〕 ''S119'' was the lead ship of the torpedo boat flotilla and was personally commanded by ''Korvettenkapitän'' Thiele himself. The German ships made no attempt to challenge or threaten the approaching British ships nor did they at first attempt to flee the scene, and it was assumed by the British that they were waiting for more German vessels to arrive and had mistaken the British ships for friendly vessels. In reality, the German flotilla had been sent out of Ems on a mission to mine the southern coast of Britain including the mouth of the Thames and had been intercepted before reaching its targeted area of operations.
The British squadron heavily outgunned the German 7th Half Flotilla. The British Commander, Captain Cecil Fox's vessel ''Undaunted'' —an ''Arethusa''-class light cruiser—was armed with two BL 6 inch Mk XII naval guns and seven QF 4 inch Mk V naval guns, all in single mounts and nearly all without gun shields. ''Undaunted'' at the time of the engagement was also experimentally armed with an additional pair of 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns, something most of her class lacked. In addition to her guns, the cruiser was also armed with eight torpedo tubes and at best speed could make . The four British ''Laforey''-class destroyers were much less powerful vessels in comparison to the cruiser being only armed with two torpedo tubes, three 4-inch guns and a singe 2-pounder gun. The destroyers were slightly faster than the cruiser and could make about at full power.〔Jane's Fighting Ships of World War One (1919), Jane's Publishing Company〕 The German vessels were entirely inferior to the British in many areas. Not only was the 7th Half Flotilla outnumbered and antiquated, but it was also lightly armed. The four boats were of the aging ''Großes Torpedoboot 1898'' class and had been completed in 1904. In terms of speed, the German boats were nearly equal to the British at . Each of the German vessels was armed with three guns, significantly fewer than the British destroyers. These weapons were also of shorter range and throwing weight than the British guns. The biggest danger to the British squadron was the torpedo tubes carried by the German boats, as each boat carried three torpedo tubes with five torpedoes per boat.〔
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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