Produced by Mark C. Orton, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE HARWICH NAVAL FORCES THE HARWICH NAVAL FORCES _Their Part in the Great War_ BY E.F. KNIGHT AUTHOR OF "WHERE THREE EMPIRES MEET," "THE CRUISE OF THE 'FALCON,'" "THE 'FALCON' ON THE BALTIC," ETC. HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO MCMXIX PREFACE Recent visits that were made to Harwich for the purpose of writing a series of articles on the Harwich Naval Forces for the _Morning Post_ suggested to me the amplification of these articles and their reproduction in the form of a little book. This does not profess to be anything more than a summary of the gallant doings of the Harwich Forces in the course of the war. The full history, no doubt, will be written some day. But this, I hope, may serve as a record that will enable many to realise better what Britain owes to the Navy, and what a great work was done by the light cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and auxiliary vessels that had Harwich as their base throughout the war. For the purposes of this book I have referred to no official records. Conversations with those who were eye-witnesses of and participators in the events that I have here described have served as my sole source of information. My thanks are due to the naval officers who so readily assisted me in my quest while I was in Harwich, and to the _Morning Post_ for the kind permission which I have received to publish in book form my articles that appeared in that paper. E.F.K. CONTENTS _Part I_ THE HARWICH FORCE CHAPTER I PAGE THE OPENING OF THE WAR 5 The light cruisers and destroyers--Harwich in war time--The Harwich Force goes out--The first shots of the naval war--Sinking of the _Koenigin Luise_--Loss of the _Amphion_. CHAPTER II THE HELIGOLAND BIGHT ACTION 23 The plan--The sweep by the Harwich Force--The destroyers in action--_Arethusa's_ duel with the _Frauenlob_--Off Heligoland again--Action with German light cruisers--The _Mainz_ sunk--End of the _Arethusa_. CHAPTER III OTHER ACTIONS 45 The battle of the Dogger Bank--The sinking of the _Bluecher_--The Lowestoft raid--The action off Texel. CHAPTER IV THE CONVOYS 55 The Beef Trip--Escorting mine-layers--Encounters with enemy mine-sweepers--Sinking of the _Meteor_--The _Centaur_ mined. CHAPTER V ESCORTING SEAPLANES 73