23rd January 1915 On this day:  On the Move  2nd Queens inspected Battle of Dogger Bank (1915)   Dogger Bank is an area off the North Sea lying around 62 miles off Britain's East cost. The area used to be inhabited by early man and woolly mammoths, 1000s years later when the sea rose it became an important fishing ground and remains important to this day. Fishing continued during the Great War and the German navy believed that the British fishing fleet was being used to spy on German naval movements. Admiral Franz Hipper decided to put an end to this, unfortunately for him telecommunications relating to his proposed attack has been intercepted and decoded by room 40 of British naval intelligence. Vice Admiral Beatty's battle cruiser squadrons would be lying in wait. On 23rd January 1915, a force of German battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Hipper sortied to clear Dogger Bank of any British fishing boats or small craft that might be there to collect intelligence on German movements. Alerted by decoded German transmissions, a larger force of British battlecruisers, including HMS New Zealand, sailed under the command of Admiral Beatty to intercept. Contact was initiated at 0720 on the 24th, when Arethusa spotted the German light cruiser SMS Kolberg. By 0735, the Germans had spotted Beatty's force and Hipper ordered a turn south at 20 knots, believing that this speed would outdistance any British battleships to the north-west. He planned to increase speed to the armoured cruiser SMS Blücher's maximum of 23 knots if necessary to outrun any battlecruisers. Beatty ordered his battlecruisers to make all practical speed to catch the Germans before they could escape. HMS New Zealand and HMS Indomitable were the slowest of Beatty's ships and gradually fell behind the newer battlecruisers. Despite this, New Zealand was able to open fire on Blücher by 0935 and continued to engage the armoured cruiser after the other British battlecruisers had switched targets to the German battlecruisers. After about an hour, New Zealand had knocked out Blücher's forward turret, and Indomitable began to fire on her as well at 1031. Two 12-inch shells pierced the German ship's armoured deck and exploded in an ammunition room four minutes later. This started a fire amidships that destroyed her two port 8.3 inch turrets, while the concussion damaged her engines so that her speed dropped to 17 knots and jammed her steering gear. At 1048, Beatty ordered Indomitable to attack her, but the combination of a signalling error by Beatty's flag lieutenant and heavy damage to Beatty's flagship Lion, which had knocked out her radio and caused enough smoke to obscure her signal halyards, caused the rest of the British battlecruisers, temporarily under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Gordon Moore in New Zealand, to think that that signal applied to them. In response, they turned away from Hipper's main body and engaged Blücher. New Zealand fired 147 shells at Blücher before the German ship capsized and sank at 1207 after being torpedoed by Arethusa. Captain Halsey had again worn the piupiu over his uniform during the battle, and the lack of damage to New Zealand was once more attributed to its good luck properties.  Submarine Bombed  Truce Controversy  Trenches Flooded  Bathing  Reliefs  Surgerical Centre  Heavy Shelling  In Reserve  Interior Economy  Routine  In Reserve  On the March  Training  Relief Complete  In Reserve  Quiet Day  Training  Relief  General French visited Scherenberg windmill  In Billets  Scotsman Wounded  Illness  In Reserve  In Brigade Reserve in S. Maroc. Can you add to this factual information? Do you know the whereabouts of a unit on a particular day? Do you have a copy of an official war diary entry? Details of an an incident? The loss of a ship? A letter, postcard, photo or any other interesting snipts? If your information relates only to an individual, eg. enlistment, award of a medal or death, please use this form: Add a story.

Killed, Wounded, Missing, Prisoner and Patient Reports published this day. This section is under construction.

Want to know more about 23rd of January 1915? There are:26 items tagged 23rd of January 1915 available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.

Remembering those who died this day, 23rd of January 1915. Pte. P. A.A. Rossouw. Springbok Commando Mounted Commandos Read their Story. Cpl. Charles David Sherman. 2nd Btn. East Lancashire Regiment Pte. Edward Petrus Johannes Visser. Springbok Commando Mounted Commandos Read their Story. Add a name to this list.

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