Description
Most of the important naval battles of the war occurred in the North Sea, which washes the coasts of both England and Germany. The storms which often sweep the North Sea, its Frenchquent fogs and rains, make it a disagreeable and dangerous body of water even in ordinary times. But during the World War its natural dangers were many times multiplied by the vast mine fields laid by both the British and the Germans, by the submarines prowling beneath its waves, the patrol boats on the surface and the airplanes scanning its wastes of waters from the sky. The three greatest naval engagements of the war in the North Sea were ; the battle of the Bight of Heligoland, Aug. 28th, 1914, the battle of the Dogger Bank, Jan. 24th, 1915, and the battle of Jutland, May 31st, 1916. The Dreadnought battle cruiser "Indomitable" is a vessel of 17,250 tons, carrying eight 12-inch guns and capable of steaming at 27 knots, more than 31 miles, per hour. On Jan. 24th, 1915, she, with other British ships, was cruising in the North Sea when they fell in with a squadron of German battle cruisers which had slipped out under cover of thick weather to raid and shell towns on the English coast. Discovered while still 30 miles from their goal, the Germans turned and fled for home, the British on their heels. The German battle cruiser "Blucher", capable of 25 knots and carrying 12 8.2-inch and 8 6-inch guns, was injured in the running fight, fell behind and was sunk by the "Indomitable." In the battle of Jutland, during the following year, the British fleet won a decisive victory.
