The Royal Navy's 10th Minesweeping Flotilla was clearing a channel east of Dogger Bank for fishing boats and trawlers. During this work, it encountered twenty-five destroyer-type vessels from the German 2nd, 6th, and 9th Torpedo-Boat Flotillas on a sweep of their own. The British force consisted of four slow Flower-class sloops of the Arabis class. The Germans did not recognize the unfamiliar ships and initially judged them to be weak cruisers. That mistake later fed claims of victory over British cruisers.
Chapter · 2:20-3:48
The 1916 Dogger Bank clash and its mismatched forces
On 10 February 1916, four British minesweeping sloops encounter twenty-five German torpedo boats east of Dogger Bank.