CHAPTER XXXIX

RAIDS ON THE ENGLISH COAST

During the first days of November, 1914, the Germans planned and carried out a general surprise for the British navy. After the battle in the Bight of Helgoland, back in August, the British thought that Germany would continue to keep her navy within the protection of her coast defenses, perhaps forever. But such was not her intention.

On the afternoon of November 2, 1914, there gathered off some part of Germany's northern shore a squadron consisting of the battle cruisers _Von der Tann_, _Seydlitz_, and _Moltke_, the protected cruisers _Kolberg_, _Strassburg_, and _Graudenz_, the armored cruisers _Yorck_ and _Blücher_, together with some destroyers. The slowest of these vessels could make a speed of 25 knots, and the fastest, the _Graudenz_ and _Moltke_, could make 28 knots. The guns of the _Blücher_ were the heaviest in the squadron, those of her primary battery being 12-inch cannon. Ten-inch guns were on the decks of the other ships.

The first that the rest of the world knew of th