The German intention was to destroy the Russian forces and occupy the West Estonian Archipelago, and achieved both objectives.

The Germans captured the archipelago, with its main islands of Saaremaa (Ösel), Hiiumaa (Dagö), and Muhu (Moon) during Operation Albion in September 1917.

This left a Russian squadron consisting of the old Russo-Japanese War-era pre-dreadnought battleships Grazhdanin (formally Tsesarevich), and Slava, together with cruisers and destroyers, stranded in the Gulf of Riga.

Following the battle, the squadron escaped on 17 October 1917 by way of the Suur Strait separating the island of Muhu from the Estonian mainland.

It was thought in the West at the time that the Russian naval force could have been stronger if newer and larger ships had been sent from Petrograd and that indiscipline in the navy had prevented this.

The slandered and maligned fleet will do its duty...but not at the command of a miserable Russian Bonaparte, ruling by the long-suffering patience of the revolution...not in the name of the treaties of our rulers with the Allies, binding in chains the hands of Russian freedom...In the hour when the waves of the Baltic are stained with the blood of our brothers...we raise our voice:...Oppressed people of the whole world!

In the afternoon of 16 October, Gruppe Behncke travelled to the south exit of the Suur Strait and dropped anchor around 8:30 pm.

The Germans made significant progress onshore on 16 October, taking 120 officers and 400 men prisoner and capturing 49 guns.

By the end of the day, German forces were prepared to capture the West Estonian Archipelago and the navy was ready to attack in the Matsalu Bay and the Suur Strait.

At this point, the dreadnoughts König and Kronprinz proceeded east by the 3rd M.S.H.F, both under the command of Georg von der Marwitz.

[5] The Russians were determined to make the channel impossible to pass through so they laid out more mines and used damaged ships to their advantage.

[5] Around 1:35 pm, the light cruiser Kolberg attacked Võilaid for approximately ten minutes but met no reply.

At 3:45 pm, Admiral Hopman's flagleutnant Obltz Keln led a landing party to take over Woi.

By 3:00 pm, Kommodore Heinrich took V100 toward the channel that would lead them to the Suur Strait but was immediately under fire from gunboats under the control of Admiral Makarov.

By the evening of the 18th, Kuressaare had been made a supply base, the southern part of Hiiumaa under control of the Second Cyclist Battalion and the S-Flotilla landing section, Saaremaa and Muhu were now firmly in German hands.

[5] On 19 October, the forces of the Gulf of Riga and numerous transport steamers and auxiliaries left the northern Suur Strait under the protection of minesweepers and destroyers.

[5][6] According to Leon Trotsky, the loss of the Moon Sound archipelago was used by the provisional government as a pretext to begin preparations to move the capital from Petrograd to Moscow.

The Bolsheviks accused the provisional government of refusing to defend the revolutionary capital and attempting to abandon it to Imperialist forces.

[7] The Russian losses were minor, the destroyer Grom was sunk and Slava scuttled as a blockship at the archipelago entrance, with most of the crews rescued.