Bombardment of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the First World War | |||||||
North Sea | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
British Empire | German Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Com. Reginald Tyrwhitt Vice Admiral David Beatty Admiral John Jellicoe |
Rear-Admiral Friedrich Boedicker Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
25 killed 19 wounded 2 light cruisers damaged 1 submarine sunk 200 houses shelled |
11 killed 1 cruiser damaged 1 submarine sunk 1 submarine captured |
The Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, often referred to as the Lowestoft Raid, was a naval battle fought during the First World War between the German Empire and the British Empire in the North Sea.
The German fleet sent a battlecruiser squadron with accompanying cruisers and destroyers, commanded by Rear Admiral Friedrich Boedicker, to bombard the coastal ports of Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Although the ports had some military importance, the main aim of the raid was to entice defending ships to sail, which could then be picked off, either by the battlecruiser squadron or by the full High Seas Fleet, which was stationed at sea ready to intervene. The result was inconclusive: nearby British forces were too small to challenge the German force and largely kept clear of the German battlecruisers, the German ships withdrew before the British fast response battlecruiser squadron or the Grand Fleet could arrive.