| Dover Patrol | |
|---|---|
 Dover Patrol Monument near Dover | |
| Active | 1914–1919 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Royal Navy |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Reginald Bacon |
TheDover Patrol and later known as theDover Patrol Force was aRoyal Navy command of theFirst World War, notable for its involvement in theZeebrugge Raid on 22 April 1918. The Dover Patrol formed a discrete unit of the Royal Navy based atDover andDunkirk for the duration of the First World War. Its primary task was to prevent enemy German shipping—chiefly submarines—from entering theEnglish Channelen route to theAtlantic Ocean, thereby forcing theImperial German Navy to travel via the much longer route aroundScotland which was itself covered by theNorthern Patrol.
In late July 1914, with war looming, 12Tribal-classdestroyers arrived atDover to join the near obsolete destroyers already at anchor in the harbour, most of them built in the late 19th century. These destroyers formed the nucleus of the fledgling Dover Patrol, which, from its early beginnings as a modest and poorly equipped command, became one of the most important Royal Navy commands of the First World War.
The Dover Patrol was established as an independent command on 12 October 1914 after the German capture of Antwerp, Zeebrugge and the impending fall of Ostend.[1] German possession of Belgian Channel ports and rising activity of U-boats led theAdmiralty to consider the Dover Straits vital enough to be distinct from theAdmiral of Patrols. The first actions of the Dover Patrol included bombarding German coastal positions during theBattle of the Yser and defeating a German Navy detachment in theBattle off Texel.
The Dover Patrol assembledcruisers,monitors, destroyers,naval trawlers anddrifters,paddle minesweepers, armedyachts,Motor Launches andCoastal Motor Boats,submarines,seaplanes, aeroplanes and airships. With these resources it performed several duties simultaneously in the SouthernNorth Sea and theDover Straits, carrying out anti-submarine patrols; escorting merchantmen, hospital and troop ships; laying sea-mines and even constructing mine barrages; sweeping up German mines; bombarding German military positions on the Belgian coast and sinkingU-boats. The Dover patrol was often attacked and took many casualties as in theaction of 15 February 1918.
During the war, the Dover Patrol was maintained by theDover Engineering Works, an Iron Foundry which employed and housed hundreds of workers in Dover Town and was managed by Vivian Elkington, nephew ofWalter Emden. The company still exists, operating from a reduced premises at Holmestone Road, under the name of Gatic.[2] In March 1919 the Dover Patrol was renamed Dover Patrol Force.[3]
After the war, a fund was set up to erect a memorial to the Dover Patrol. In July 1921, a memorial at Leathercote Point nearSt Margaret's Bay was unveiled. Similar memorial obelisks stand atCap Blanc Nez on the French channel coast, and atJohn Paul Jones Park nearFort Hamilton, overlooking New York harbour.[4]
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51°9′24.7″N1°23′33.7″E / 51.156861°N 1.392694°E /51.156861; 1.392694