The Battle of Jutland - On Board HMS Indomitable

Robert Harris, my Great Grandfather in law, had been serving on board HMS Indomitable as a stoker since the outbreak of war and was involved in the pursuit of the Goeben, the shelling of the forts at Dardanelles and the Battle of Dogger Bank.

Robert Harris - HMS Indomitable

On May 22nd The 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron commanded by Admiral Hood, including Indomitable had sailed north to Scapa Flow with Invincible and Inflexible for intensive gunnery practice temporarily assigned to the Grand Fleet.

On the morning of May 30th Indomitable was in Pentland Firth for 12 inch gun practice, the results of which were described as “highly satisfactory” and by 3.45pm was back at anchor at Scapa Flow. The British were expecting another excursion by the German navy from decoded message intercepts. The entire Grand Fleet, along with Admiral Beatty's battle cruisers, was ordered to sea to prepare for an excursion by the German High Seas Fleet and at 6.25pm Admiral Jellicoe told Hood to raise steam for 22 knots. The stokers set to work and at 8.50pm Indomitable was ordered to weigh anchor and ten minutes later moved out to sea accompanied by fellow Battle Cruisers Invincible and Inflexible, two light cruisers Chester and Canterbury and four destroyers.

May 31st - The Battle of Jutland

In order to support Beatty 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron, Admiral Hood took his three battle cruisers around 25 miles ahead of the Grand Fleet and at about 2:30pm Invincible intercepted a radio message from the British light cruiser Galatea, attached to Beatty's Battle cruiser Force, reporting five enemy battle cruisers in sight and later signals reporting that he was engaging the enemy on a south-easterly course. At 4:06pm Hood ordered full speed and a course of south-southeast in an attempt to converge on Beatty. Indomitable and the other Invincibles belched black smoke and dashed away to support Beatty. At 4:56pm, with no British ships in sight, Hood requested Beatty's course, position and speed, but never received a reply.

Hood continued on course until 5:40pm when gunfire was spotted in the direction to which his light cruiser Chester had been dispatched to investigate other gunfire flashes. Chester encountered four light cruisers of Hipper's 2nd Scouting Group, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Pillau and Elbing, and was badly damaged before Hood turned to investigate and was able to drive the German cruisers away from her.

At 5:53pm Invincible opened fire on Wiesbaden, Indomitable and Inflexible followed two minutes later. The German ships turned for the south after fruitlessly firing torpedoes at 6:00pm and attempted to find shelter in the mist. As they turned Invincible hit Wiesbaden in the engine room and knocked out her engines while Inflexible hit Pillau once. 

HMS Indomitable

The 2nd Scouting Group was escorted by the light cruiser Regensburg and 31 destroyers of the 2nd, 9th Flotillas and the 12th Half-Flotilla which attacked the 3rd BCS in succession.

They were driven off by Hood's remaining light cruiser Canterbury and the five destroyers of his escort. In a confused action the Germans only launched 12 torpedoes and disabled the destroyer Shark with gunfire. Having turned due west to close on Beatty's ships, the three Invincibles were broadside to the oncoming torpedoes, Invincible turned north, while Inflexible and Indomitable turned south to present their narrowest profile to the torpedoes. All the torpedoes missed, although one passed underneath Inflexible without detonating. As Invincible turned north, her helm jammed and she had to come to a stop to fix the problem, but this was quickly done and the squadron reformed heading west.

At about 6:19pm, Hood led his three battle cruisers in an 180 degree turn placing him some 4,000 yards ahead of HMS Lion and Admiral Beatty. Hipper moved within range of Hood's 3rd Battle cruiser Squadron, but was still also within range of Beatty's ships. Hipper's battle cruisers were 9,000 yards away and all three Invincibles almost immediately opened fire on Hipper's flagship Lutzow and Derfflinger.

At first, visibility favoured the British: Indomitable hit Derfflinger three times and Seydlitz once, while Lützow quickly took 10 hits from Beatty’s flagship HMS Lion, Inflexible and Invincible, including two below-waterline hits forward by Invincible that would ultimately doom Hipper's flagship.

But at 6:30pm, Invincible abruptly appeared as a clear target before Lützow and Derfflinger. The two German ships then fired three salvos each at Invincible, and sank her in 90 seconds. A 12 inch shell from the third salvo struck Invincible's Q-turret amidships, detonating the magazines below and causing her to blow up and sink. Invincible broke in half, with both halves perpendicular on the sea bed.

There were a few survivors nearby. These men waved as Inflexible and Indomitable swept past. “I have never seen anything more splendid” said an officer in Indomitable “than these few cheering as we raced by them”.

All but six of her crew of 1,032 officers and men, including Rear-Admiral Hood, were killed.

Inflexible and Indomitable remained in company with Beatty for the rest of the battle. They encountered Hipper's battle cruisers only 10,000 yards away as the sun was setting about 8.19pm and opened fire. Seydlitz was hit five times before the German battle cruisers were rescued by the appearance of the pre-dreadnought battleships of Rear Admiral Mauve and the British shifted fire to the new threat. Three of the pre-dreadnoughts were hit before they too were able to turn into the gloom.

Although classes continued into the night and the early hours of the 1st June as the German High Seas fleet broke through the British lines to escape back to port in Germany Indomitable saw no further action during the battle of Jutland.

One can only imagine the experiences of a stoker deep in the bowels of a fast moving battle cruiser. Hard physical work and probably unaware of the strategic naval action and manoeuvres taking place, no knowledge of the fate of Indomitable's sister ships, destroyed in massive explosions with huge loss of life.

A midshipman on Indomitable provided a graphic picture of the effort made in the engine and stoke rooms.

"The furnaces devoured coal as fast as a man could feed them. Black, begrimmed and sweating men working in the ship's side dug the coal out and loaded it into skids which were then dragged along the steel deck and emptied on the floor plates in front of each boiler.... If the ship rolled or pitched there was always a risk that a loaded skid might slide and crush a man. Looking down from the iron catwalk above, the scene had all the appearance of one from Dante's inferno....Watching the pressure gauges for any fall in the steam pressure, the Chief Stoker walked to and fro, encouraging his men. Now and then the telegraph from the engine room would clang and the finger on the dial move round to the section marked "more steam". The Chief would press the reply gong with an oath, "What do the bastards think we're doing? Come on boys, shake it up, get going." and the sweating men would redouble their efforts, throw open the furnace doors and shovel still more coal into the blazing inferno."

(Description of Indomitable stokers recounted following the Battle of Dogger Bank)

The loss of the three battle cruisers at Jutland, Invincible, Queen Mary and Indefatigable "which had prompted Beatty's famous Jutland quote "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today" led to the force being reorganised into two squadrons, with Inflexible and Indomitable in the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron. 

References

Castles of Steel - Robert K Massie

The Battle of Dogger Bank

24^th January 1915  – The Battle of Dogger Bank

The German raid on Scarborough on the 16th December 1914 had resulted in 86 dead and 424 wounded, the public outcry against this attack on civilians was huge and at the inquest the coroner remarked “Where were the Navy?” With young children among the casualties Real Admiral Franz Hipper had earned his new sobriquet “Baby Killer”. The Royal Navy waited for the German High Seas Fleet to reappear.

On the 24^th January 1915, the Navy got its chance!

Naval intelligence reported that the German Battlecrusier Squadron had left its Jade Island base late the previous day. Hipper’s flagship Seydlitz was accompanied by Moltke, Derfflinger and Blucher. The 2^nd Battlecruiser Squadron under the command of Admiral Sir David Beatty on his flagship The Lion, accompanied by Tiger, Princess Royal, New Zealand and HMS Indomitable sailed to intercept.

Serving on board HMS Indomitable was Stoker (2^nd Class) Robert Harris, my Great Grand Father in Law.

Stoker 2nd Class - Robert Harris

Contact was made with the enemy at 7.20am and a deadly pursuit began immediately. As the stern chase started the response of the engine room was magnificent, By 8.30am the British squadron were doing 26 knots, Admiral Beatty called for 27. Yet the Indomitable, commanded by Captain F.W. Kennedy, whose trail speed was just over 25 knots was keeping up. The flagship in admiration signalled “Well steamed, Indomitable” (The Great war at Sea).

At 8.52am The Lion fired at couple of ranging shots and whilst still at 20,000 yards Beatty ordered his other ships to “open fire and engage the enemy”

Like the older Blucher, Beatty’s rearmost ship, the Indomitable, was no longer able to hold the pace and was dropping astern. Moltke, Defflinger and Seydlitz all concentrated their fire on the Lion and between 10.30 and 10.50am the Lion received heavy damage and was hit 15 times. The Seydlitz and Blucher were also badly damaged, which caused the Blucher to slow to 17 knots.

At this point a submarine periscope was spotted and fearing they had been lured into a trap the British turned allowing the Germans to make a run for it, leaving the Blucher to her fate. Beatty wanted the pursuit to continue and Indomitable to finish off the Blucher by herself, but due to a signalling misunderstanding all four remaining ships concentrated their fire on the stricken Blucher.

Although the Blucher fought on valiantly to the end, her fate was sealed and she eventually sank with the loss of 792 men. 234 men were saved by the British ships but efforts to rescue more were ended when a German Seaplane attacked the scene, although no damage was done the British ships were sitting targets for further attacks and withdrew.

SMS Blucher Sinking

By this time, Hipper had escaped and his ships were now too far away for the British to catch them again.

The Indomitable had fired 134 shells, hitting the Blucher 8 times and had received one direct hit, but there were no casualties on board Robert Harris' ship.

But the danger for those on-board the Indomitable was far from over. The badly damaged Lion had to be towed back to port by the Indomitable, at a maximum speed of just 10 knots, the danger of submarine attacks was great and a screen of over fifty ships was assigned to guard the two battlecruisers on their long and dangerous voyage home.

"The War Illustrated" reported on "The Naval Victory in the North Sea - Triumph of British Gunnery and Seamanship" (6th Feb 1915), the truth analysed over the last 100 years perhaps paints a different picture, the accuracy of the German fire was better and their ships were able to withstand greater damage than ours but at that time there was no doubt in the press that the "Baby Killer" had been given a bloody nose and that British Naval honour had been restored

References

The Great War at Sea, Richard Hough

The War Illustrated.

Wikipedia - The Battle of Dogger Bank

Gallipoli - Opening Shots

HMS Indomitable had remained in the Mediterranean after the unsuccessful pursuit of the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau at the outbreak of War. Serving on-board, deep in the engine room, was my Great grandfather in law, Stoker 2nd Class Robert Harris.

HMS Indomitable

On 3 November 1914, 100 years ago today, Churchill ordered the first British attack on the Dardanelles following the declaration hostilities between Turkey and Russia the previous day. The attack was carried out by HMS Indomitable and Indefatigable, as well as the French pre-dreadnought battleships Suffren and Verite. 

The intention of the attack was to test the fortifications and measure the Turkish response. The results were deceptively encouraging. In a twenty minute bombardment, a single shell struck the magazine of the fort at Sedd El Bahr at the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula, displacing (but not destroying) 10 guns and killing 86 Turkish soldiers, Total casualties during the attack were 150, of which forty were German.

The fort at Sedd El Bahr (photo actually taken in 1915 during the Gallipoli landings)

The most significant consequence however was that the attention of the Turks was drawn to strengthening their defences and they set about expanding the mine field in the straights.

The attack actually took place before the formal declaration of war had been made by Britain against the Ottoman Empire which didn't happen until the 5th November.

HMS Indomitable was ordered to return to England in December where she joined the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron. 

References

Wikipedia

Robert Harris Navy Service Record (Personal Collection)

The first days of War - In pursuit of the enemy

As the lights went out across Europe at the Outbreak of World War One, Robert Harris, my Great Grandfather in law was serving on board HMS Indomitable, part of the Mediterranean fleet based in Malta.

Robert Harris - HMS Indomitable

Robert, at 5 foot 3 3/4 inches and with a sallow complexion, joined the Royal Navy on the 1st September 1913 serving on HMS Pembroke as a Stoker (2nd Class) and had transferred to the Indomitable on the 10th February 1914. Born on 22nd June 1895 in Bethnal Green, he was one of eight children of Dock Labourer Samuel Harris. His mother Emily (Nee Emily Spence) had passed away in 1903 aged just 38.

In 1911 the family were living in Newling Street, Bethnal Green with widow Ann Baker and her family, 12 people in all, in just 4 rooms! By 1913, when Robert joined the Navy, he was living in Barnet Grove, Bethnal Green and listed his trade as cabinet maker. His father Samuel married Ann Baker in early 1914

At 09.30 on the morning of the 4th August, HMS Indomitable accompanied by HMS Indefatigable, under the command of Admiral Milne encountered the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau sailing in the opposite direction heading east after a bombardment of the French Algerian port of Philippeville. Unlike France, Britain and Germany were not yet at war (the declaration would not be made until later that day, following the start of the German invasion of neutral Belguim), so Milne turned to shadow the Germans as they headed back to Messina in Italy to re-coal. 

Initially ordered by Churchill to attack, However, a meeting of the British Cabinet decided that hostilities could not start before a declaration of war, and at 14:00 Churchill was obliged to cancel his order. Milne reported the contact and position, but neglected to inform the Admiralty that the German ships were heading east, rather than west and hence threatening French transport ships, which Britain had agreed to protect, Churchill therefore still expected them to threaten the French transports, and he authorised Milne to engage the German ships if they attacked. 

British ships following The Goeben and Breslau

All three battlecruisers had problems with their boilers, and the Goeben could only manage 24kn (her normal speed was 27kn) and this was only achieved by working men and machinery to the limit; four stokers on board the Goeben were killed by scalding steam, but the Goeben and Breslau were able to break contact and reached Messina by the morning of the 5th.

By this time war had been declared, after the German invasion of Belgium, but an Admiralty order to respect Italian neutrality and stay outside a six-mile limit from the Italian coast precluded entrance into the passage of the Strait of Messina, where they could observe the port directly. 

Therefore Milne stationed HMS Inflexible and HMS Indefatigable at the northern exit of the Strait of Messina, still expecting the Germans to break out to the west where they could attack French troop transports, the light cruiser HMS Gloucester at the southern exit and he sent HMS Indomitable to re-coal at Bizerte (in modern day Tunisia) where she was better positioned to react to a German sortie into the Western Mediterranean.

The German ships however, eventually evaded the British fleet and passed through the Dardanelles to reach Constantinople on the 16th August, where they were eventually handed over to the Ottoman Empire. 

In October, The Goeben, renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, was ordered by its German captain to attack Russian positions, in doing so brought the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers.

Writing several years later, Winston Churchill - who at this time was First Lord of the Admiralty - expressed the opinion that by forcing Turkey into the war the Goeben had brought "more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship."

HMS Indomitable and Robert Harris remained in the Mediterranean to blockade the Dardanelles.

Tony

References
1911 Census of England and Wales (via Ancestry.com)
Robert Harris - Royal Navy Service Record (Personal collection)
Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau - (via Wikipedia.org)