Action off Noordhinder Bank

The Action off Noordhinder Bank on 1 May 1915 was a naval engagement between four British naval trawlers, supported by a flotilla of four destroyers and a pair of German torpedo boats from the Flanders Flotilla. The two torpedo boats were sent to rescue the crew of a reconnaissance seaplane that had been forced down by engine trouble and to attack the trawlers. Four British destroyers from the Harwich Force were sent to patrol in the southern North sea after a destroyer was torpedoed and sunk by a U-boat.

The Germans engaged the trawlers, sank Columbia with a torpedo and return-fire from the three surviving trawlers damaged one torpedo boat, it temporarily lost steam. The four British destroyers from the Harwich Force appeared and the torpedo boats turned for home. The destroyers engaged the torpedo boats and sank them. The loss of the two new A-class torpedo boats greatly demoralised the German Flanders naval flotilla.

The commanders of the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) realised that the Flanders Flotilla was inadequately armed to protect the coast, let alone harass British shipping in the English Channel. After similar defeats, the A-class torpedo boats were relegated to coastal patrol and heavier V25-class torpedo boats were transferred to the flotilla.