Raid on Cuxhaven
[2] The Zeppelin sheds at the Nordholz Airbase near Cuxhaven were out of range of UK-based aircraft, so a plan was developed for the seaplane tenders HMS Engadine, (Squadron-commander Cecil Malone, who was also air commander for the raid) Riviera (Lieutenant E. D. M. Robertson) and Empress (Lieutenant Frederick Bowhill), supported by the Harwich Force destroyers and the Oversea Submarine Flotilla (Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt) and the attached cruisers, HMS Arethusa, Fearless and Undaunted, to launch three seaplanes each from a point north of Helgoland in the German Bight.
[3][4] On Christmas Day, 1914, the first combined sea and air strike was executed by the Royal Navy, aimed at locating and if possible bombing the dirigible sheds housing German Zeppelins, to forestall attacks by the airships on Britain.
[note 1] Fog, low cloud and anti-aircraft fire prevented the raid from being a complete success, although several sites were attacked.
According to a telegram dated 7 January 1915, the "Admiralty Chief Censor intercepted message from Hartvig, Kjobenhaven to the Daily Mail, reporting that the British aerial raid on Cuxhaven [Germany] had forced the German Admiralty to remove the greater part of the High Seas Fleet from Cuxhaven to various places on the Kiel Canal.
D. A. Oliver) landed off the East Friesian island of Norderney and their crews were taken on board the submarine E11, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Martin Nasmith (the aircraft being scuttled to prevent them from falling into enemy hands);[9] the seventh aircraft, a Short Admiralty Type 135 (RNAS serial no.
Lt. Francis Hewlett, suffered engine problems and was seen to ditch into the sea about 8 nmi (15 km; 9.2 mi) off Helgoland.
Hewlett was posted as missing but he was found by the Dutch trawler Marta van Hattem, which took him on board and returned him to the port of IJmuiden in the Netherlands, where he disembarked on 2 January 1915.
The German Naval Staff thought that these ships were intended to be used as blockships to be sunk in river mouths and estuaries to trap the HSF and expected that the Grand Fleet would accompany the raiders.
The Germans received a tip-off on 24 December that the British operation was due the next day and would be of such magnitude that only the HSF would be sufficient to counter it and that this would contravene the ruling by the Kaiser that the flet was not to be risked.
The crew of Empress attempted to drive the Zeppelin away, initially with rifle fire as their 12-pounder in the stern was blanked by the superstructure.
In 1994, Paul Halpern wrote that the Cuxhaven raid was an imaginative endeavour, showing the willingness amongst naval and military leaders to adopt new technology and foreshadowed the air-sea battles of the future.
[13] The Cuxhaven raid marks the first employment of the seaplanes of the Naval Air Service in an attack on the enemy's harbours from the sea, and, apart altogether from the results achieved, is an occasion of historical moment.
Not only so, but for the first time in history a naval attack has been delivered simultaneously above, on, and from below the surface of the water.For their part in the Cuxhaven Raid, Kilner and Edmonds were awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO); Chief Petty Officer Mechanic James William Bell and Chief Petty Officer Mechanic Gilbert Howard William Budds were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM).
