Battle of Dogger Bank

The First Dreadnought Engagement, January 1915

Tobias R. Philbin

Narrated by Claton Butcher

Available from Audible

Book published by Indiana University Press

On January 24, 1915, a German naval force commanded by Admiral Franz von Hipper conducted a raid on British fishing fleets in the area of the Dogger Banks. The force was engaged by a British force, which had been alerted by a decoded radio intercept. The ensuing battle would prove to be the largest and longest surface engagement until the Battle of Jutland the following summer. While the Germans lost an armored cruiser with heavy loss of life and Hipper's flagship was almost sunk, confusion in executing orders allowed the Germans to escape. The British considered the battle a victory; but the Germans had learned important lessons and they would be better prepared for the next encounter with the British fleet at Jutand. Tobias Philbin's Battle of Dogger Bank provides a keen analytical description of the battle and its place in the naval history of World War I.

Tobias R. Philbin is Adjunct Professor of Information Assurance at the University of Maryland and is author of Admiral von Hipper: The Inconvenient Hero and The Lure of Neptune: German-Soviet Naval Collaboration and Ambitions, 1919-1941

REVIEWS:

“Tobias Philbin has written an outstanding account of Dogger Bank. Well-grounded in critically used English and German primary sources, Philbin's book not only contains a strong account of the battle, but also provides unusually deep context on both sides.”

—Patrick J. Kelly, author of Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy