ORDER OF BATTLE // September 22, 1914
Action of 22 September 1914
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
1 sides catalogued · combined 2,296 estimated
Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande
2,296
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Action of 22 September 1914 demonstrated the vulnerability of surface warships to submarine attack in a single, concentrated engagement. Three obsolete Royal Navy cruisers of the 7th Cruiser Squadron, manned largely by Royal Naval Reserve part-timers and sometimes called the Live Bait Squadron, were sunk by the German U-boat U-9 while patrolling the southern North Sea. Of the 2,296 British personnel involved, 1,459 were lost. The engagement underscored the danger of deploying obsolete cruisers in waters accessible to enemy submarines, and forced a reassessment of patrol doctrine and surface vessel exposure in the North Sea during the early phase of the war.
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