Months of quiet had encouraged the removal of Dover Patrol destroyers when two fresh German flotillas arrived and attacked in October 1916. HMS Flirt and then HMS Nubian misidentified approaching torpedo boats in the darkness; Flirt was overwhelmed, while Nubian lost her bow after trying to ram. Admiral Bacon's six Tribal-class destroyers were split into loose groups, allowing the fast Nubian to reach the fighting without close support. The transport Queen was caught returning from the French coast near Goodwin Sands, but British restrictions on night merchant traffic had already removed most valuable targets. The episode therefore shows both the cost of divided reaction groups and ambiguous identification and the strategic value of keeping merchant shipping away from a threatened night route.
Chapter · 52:29-59:48
The 1916 Battle of Dover Strait exposes a thinned patrol
Twenty-three German torpedo boats struck a quiet, depleted barrage, sank HMS Flirt, and blew off HMS Nubian's bow before British destroyers drove them away.