Francis Harvey - First World War

First World War

Harvey did not have to wait long to see action, seeing combat for the first time at the Battle of Heligoland Bight just weeks into the war. On 28 August 1914, Lion and her squadron of HMS Queen Mary and HMS Princess Royal, swept into the Heligoland Bight where German and British cruiser forces were already engaged in a bitter struggle. One German cruiser had already been sunk by the time Beatty's force arrived, but the German flagship Cöln and cruiser Ariadne were surprised in the fog and destroyed by heavy calibre shells from Beatty's battlecruisers. German Admiral Leberecht Maass and over 1,000 of his sailors were killed, Harvey's guns scoring several hits on the cruisers.

Six months later, Harvey's guns again caused severe damage to a German force at the Battle of Dogger Bank. Over the previous months, a German battlecruiser squadron under Rear-Admiral Hipper had crossed the North Sea and bombarded British coastal towns on several occasions. On 24 January 1915 another attempt was made, but this time British signals analysts had detected the German movement and using this information the Admiralty dispatched Beatty's force to intercept and destroy them. Beatty and Hipper's squadrons collided at 09:00 and during the engagement that followed, Lion was left exposed by mis-communication between the ships, which led to HMS Tiger engaging the wrong ship, leaving SMS Moltke uncovered and so able to fire more accurately. The British flagship was hard pressed until one of Lion's shots penetrated one of Seydlitz's turrets. A huge explosion destroyed the neighbouring turret as well and killed 160 men, the German flagship only surviving due to the actions of sailor Wilhelm Heidkamp, who wrenched open the water valves to the magazines despite them glowing red hot.

Lion was badly damaged in the action by shells from the passing SMS Derfflinger and with her engines failing, dropped back to engage the already sinking SMS Blücher. Misread signals resulted in the rest of the British fleet returning to support Lion in this task, allowing the rest of the battered German fleet to retire as the British destroyed the hapless Blücher and 792 of her crew. Following the battle, Harvey remained aboard Lion at Rosyth for the whole of 1915 and the first five months of 1916, continuing his gunnery training and preparations for major fleet action. His preparations came to fruition on the last day of May, when the British fleet sailed to engage the main body of the German High Seas Fleet at the Battle of Jutland.

Just after Dogger Bank, Harvey had written to a fellow RMLI officer in HMS Orion describing his experiences: