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 2nd (destroyer) Flotilla of the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine), 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, the loss 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 GRT against new building of 587,000 GRT (most being 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-combatants, making them more vulnerable than 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 (Norges Rederiforbund) would agree to The Tonnage Agreement in which the transport of coal to Norway would be assured by British charter or requisition of the Rederiforbund ships. The connivance of the Norwegian government in the arrangement would be camouflaged by being made by the Rederiforbund and the Ministry of Shipping. The British gained 130 freighters of 200,000 GRT and the Norwegians 250,000 long tons (250,000 t) 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 the local section of the channel which was 800 yd (730 m)-wide and 200 nmi (370 km; 230 mi)-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 250,000 long tons (250,000 t) of coal 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 return voyage 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 SM U-67, SM U-60, SM U-94, SM U-52 and SM UC-55, from 454, a loss of 2.2 per cent. Seven depth charge attacks were made by escort ships to no effect and HMS Itchen 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 250,000 long tons (250,000 t) quota, making the Admiralty reluctant to allow more delays on the Scandinavian convoy run.
Action off Lerwick
At about 6:00 a.m. on 17 October, lookouts on Strongbow 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 6,000 to 7,000 yd (3.0 to 3.5 nmi; 3.4 to 4.0 mi; 5.5 to 6.4 km).
At 2,000 yd (0.99 nmi; 1.1 mi; 1.8 km), 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 8:20 a.m. 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 2:20 p.m. 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 Rev (Horns Reef) about 9.3 mi (15 km) off Blåvandshuk, the westernmost point of Denmark. At about 3:30 p.m. 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 3:50 p.m. and Beatty was informed between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., by when the German ships had reached the vicinity of Stavanger. Beatty sent new orders to the ships on patrol at 6:15 p.m. to sail eastwards and intercept the German cruisers at Horns Reef but the German ships were back in port by 5:00 a.m. the next day.
Prelude
Hochseeflotte 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 (Kommodore Paul Heinrich) with the biggest and fastest destroyers in the High Seas Fleet, comprised the 3rd Half-Flotilla (Korvettenkapitän Hans Kolbe) with the G101-class torpedo boats G101, G103, G104 [1,116–1,350 long tons (1,134–1,372 t)] (four 105 mm (4.1 in) guns and six torpedo tubes each) of [33 kn (38 mph; 61 km/h)] and the B 97-class destroyer V100 with four 105 mm (4.1 in) guns, six torpedo tubes and a speed of 36 kn (41 mph; 67 km/h) 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 SMS Emden 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 19 kn (22 mph; 35 km/h) and at 4:00 p.m. the half-flotillas separated, the 3rd continuing north and the 4th towards a point on the English coast 25 nmi (29 mi; 46 km) 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 would 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 2:00 p.m. on 10 December, a southbound convoy, mainly of colliers, departed from Lerwick for Immingham in the Humber estuary, escorted by the destroyers HMS Ouse and Garry. A general southbound convoy also left Lerwick for ports on the east coast, escorted by the destroyers HMS Rother and Moy. 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 (Marstein fyrstasjon) near Bergen, around noon on 12 December. The convoy was escorted by the destroyers HMS Pellew (Lieutenant-Commander J. R. C. Cavendish), Partridge (Lieutenant-Commander R. H. Ransome) and the Admiralty trawlers HMT Livingstone, Commander Fullerton, Lord Alverstone and Tokio.