By the end of the night, the British had lost one destroyer, a transport, and several drifters while the Germans themselves suffered only minor damage to a single torpedo boat.

Due to the lack of large torpedo boats, the Flanders Flotilla had not sortied against the Dover Patrol in several months and as a result British defences were quite lax in the area.

Although the British had prohibited transports from being in the Channel at night in anticipation of a German raid, the Dover Barrage was not prepared to meet such an attack.

Facing Schröder's 23 boats, the Dover Barrage was guarded by only the old destroyer HMS Flirt, the yacht Ombra, and the naval trawler H. E.

[6] When Admiral Reginald Bacon - the commander of the Dover Patrol - heard about the raid, he sent six Tribal-class destroyers—HMS Amazon, Mohawk, Viking, Tartar, Cossack and Nubian—to engage the Germans.

[7] Another half-flotilla of German boats had caught the empty British transport Queen off Goodwin Sands as it returned from the French coast, boarded it and removed her crew before sinking her.

Surprised with a hail of gunfire, Nubian attempted to ram the last boat in the German line of battle but was struck by a torpedo that blew off her bow and reduced her to a drifting hulk.

The German 18th Half Flotilla was heading back to Zeebrugge when it sailed into Oliphant's group of destroyers, engaging them as they passed.