General Wolfe enters service and protects the net barrage

General Wolfe was the last member of the class to complete, commissioning in November 1915. She first saw action on 24 January 1916 after Marshal Foch requested a monitor demonstration, with Bacon using her as his flagship. She and Prince Eugene then covered the laying of a twenty-mile net barrage about twelve miles off Belgium to restrict German submarine movement. The Tirpitz battery found and straddled Wolfe at roughly 32,000 yards, forcing the monitor to steam out of range. German aircraft attacked without effect and drew shrapnel fire, while Wolfe also protected British destroyers when German torpedo boats tried to press an attack. Continued patrols covered minesweeping and sought to prevent German forces from breaking out or laying additional mines. Wolfe also trained for Operation Hush, a proposed landing on the Belgian coast whose design appears badly conceived. The monitors provided mobile heavy support within a coastal system of nets, destroyers, minesweepers, and drifters.