During World War I, Germany laid more than 43,000 mines, which claimed at least 497 Allied merchant vessels. The mines inflicted equally severe losses on Allied naval vessels, with the Royal Navy alone losing 44 warships and 225 naval auxiliaries.
One of the most spectacular losses occurred in the first months of the war. In August/September 1914, the former Norddeutscher Lloyd liner Berlin had been converted into auxiliary minelayer and repainted to resemble a British liner. She sailed from Bremerhaven on 16 October 1914 and mined the shipping lane between Tory Island and Lough Swilly on the northern coast of Ireland. The Germans had no idea that a number of heavy units of the Grand Fleet’s battleships were temporarily based at Lough Swilly at the time, due to an earlier U-boat scare at the Scapa Flow fleet anchorage.
On 27 October, the King George V class ‘super-dreadnought’ HMS Audacious, which had only been commissioned in October the previous year, left Lough Swilly in company with the rest of the 2nd Battle Squadron for gunnery practice off Tory Island. Despite the U-boat scare, no orders were given to close watertight doors and hatches on sailing.
Urbicide: killing the city