Key Naval battles of WWI

This article cover surface-fleet engagements in the North Sea. While these did involve some submarine activity, the main submarine war was the Battle of the Atlantic

1 The first naval battle of the First World War between the United Kingdom and Germany was the First Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28th August 1914.

It took place off the north German coast. Sea. Both sides had engaged in long-distance sorties with cruisers and battlecruisers, and close reconnaissance of the area of sea near the German coast—the Heligoland Bight—by destroyer.

A British fleet of 31 destroyers and two cruisers under Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt and submarines commanded by Commodore Roger Keyes intercepted a German patrol. They were supported at longer range by an additional six light cruisers commanded by William Goodenough, and five battlecruisers commanded by Vice Admiral David Beatty.

Three German light cruisers and one destroyer were sunk. Three more light cruisers were damaged, 712 sailors killed, 530 injured and 336 taken prisoner. The British suffered the loss of one light cruiser and had three destroyers damaged, 35 killed and 40 wounded.

The effect upon the German government and in particular the Kaiser was to restrict the freedom of action of the German fleet, instructing it to remain in port and avoid any contact with superior forces for several months thereafter.

However there were valuable lessons to be learned on both sides in this first encounter between the High Seas Fleet and the Grand Fleet.

Some of the German ships sank after their turrets were hit. Explosions flashed from the turret to the ship’s magazine with catastrophic consequences. The Germans improved their flash-proof doors and instituted rigorous controls.

The Royal Navy did not discover this problem until several British ships sank from this same cause at the Battle of Jutland.

On the British side, it was discovered that our armour-piercing shells broke up on impact, rather than penetrating. Unfortunately this defect was not remedied until after the Battle of Jutland.


2. The Action of 22 September 1914 was a German U-boat attack in which three obsolete Royal Navy cruisers, manned mainly by reservists as part of the Southern Force assigned patrol duties in the North Sea were sunk by a German submarine while on patrol.

Approximately 1,450 sailors were killed and there was a public outcry in Britain at the losses.

The sinkings eroded confidence in the British government and damaged the reputation of the Royal Navy, at a time when many countries were still considering which side they might support in the war.

3. The Action off Texel on 17 October 1914, took place off the coast of the Dutch island of Texel.

A British squadron, comprising one light cruiser and four destroyers on a routine patrol, encountered the German 7th Half Flotilla of torpedo boats which was en route to the British coast to lay mines.

The British forces attacked and sank all four German boats.

The battle influenced the tactics and deployments of the remaining German torpedo boat flotillas in the North Sea area, as the loss shook the faith of their commanders in the effectiveness of the force.

4. The Raid on Yarmouth, on 3 November 1914, was an attack by the German Navy on the British North Sea port and town of Great Yarmouth.

The objectives were to lay mines, pick off any small ships encountered, and most importantly to entice larger groups into giving chase and lead them back to where the German High Seas Fleet would be waiting in ambush, in relatively safe waters near Germany.

Little damage was done to the town since shells only landed on the beach, after German ships laying mines offshore were interrupted by British destroyers.

HMS D5, a submarine, was sunk by a German mine as it attempted to leave harbour and attack the German ships. A German armoured cruiser was sunk after striking two German mines outside its home port.

Although the results were not spectacular, German commanders were heartened by the ease with which Hipper had arrived and departed and were encouraged to try again.

5. Encouraged by the result of the raid on Yarmouth, the German Navy tried again the next month.

This time the targets were Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby 16 December 1914.

The attack resulted in 592 casualties, many of them civilians, of whom 137 died. This caused public outrage towards the German Navy for an attack against civilians and against the Royal Navy for its failure to prevent the raid.

British code breakers had alerted the Royal Navy to the impending attack, but did not realize that the entire High Seas Fleet was involved.
Admiral Jellicoe dispatched battleships from Scapa Flow, cruisers from Cromarty submarines and destroyers from Harwich (but not all of the Grand Fleet) to form up off Dogger Bank, to ambush the German raiders as they headed for home.

When an advance guard of the German fleet spotted the British ships, the German Admiral Ingenohl immediately headed home as he had exceeded the strict limit of his standing orders from the Kaiser

A few skirmishes took place, but fortunately not a major battle as the force dispatched by Jellicoe would have been overwhelmed by the entire High Seas Fleet – exactly the result envisaged by Tirpitz when he created the High Seas Fleet.

The raid had an enormous effect upon British public opinion, as a rallying cry against Germany for an attack upon civilians and in generating criticism of the Royal Navy for being unable to prevent it. The attack became part of a British propaganda campaign. ‘Remember Scarborough’ was used on army recruitment posters and editorials in neutral America condemned it; “This is not warfare, this is murder.”

Beatty’s cruisers were moved from Cromarty to Rosyth, to be closer to any future raids.

6. The Christmas Day 1914 Raid on Cuxhaven was a British ship-based air-raid on the German naval forces at Cuxhaven, the first such raid in history.

Nine aircraft of the Royal Naval Air Service were carried to within striking distance by seaplane tenders of the Royal Navy, supported by both surface ships and submarines. Two planes could not be started in the freezing conditions, but seven flew over the Cuxhaven area and dropped their bombs, causing damage to shore installations.

Fog, low cloud and anti-aircraft fire prevented the raid from being a complete success, although several sites were attacked. Nevertheless, the raid demonstrated the feasibility of attack by ship-borne aircraft and showed the strategic importance of this new weapon.

The raid had forced the German Admiralty to remove the greater part of the High Seas Fleet from Cuxhaven to various places on the Kiel Canal.
The crews of all seven aircraft survived the raid.

7. First Battle of Dogger Bank 24 January 1915.
The British had intercepted and decoded German wireless transmissions, gaining advance knowledge that a German raiding squadron was heading for Dogger Bank and ships of the Grand Fleet sailed to intercept the raiders.

The British surprised the smaller and slower German squadron, which fled for home. During a stern chase lasting several hours, the British caught up with the Germans and engaged them with long-range gunfire. The British disabled Blücher, the rearmost German ship and the Germans put the British flagship HMS Lion out of action.

Due to inadequate signalling, the remaining British ships stopped the pursuit to sink Blücher; by the time the ship had been sunk, the rest of the German squadron had escaped. The German squadron returned to harbour, with some ships so badly damaged as to require extensive repairs.

Signalling problems continued to be a problem in future encounters. 

8. The Battle off Noordhinder Bank on 1 May 1915 was a naval action between a squadron of four British naval trawlers supported by a flotilla of four destroyers and a pair of German torpedo boats from the Flanders Flotilla. The battle began when the two torpedo boats were sent on a search and rescue mission and ran into a British patrol. The Germans fought with the patrolling trawlers until a heavier force of British destroyers from Harwich Force came to their aid and sank the German vessels.

The battle greatly demoralized the German flotilla at Flanders, as the boats that were sunk had just been launched shortly before the battle. The action helped bring to the attention of the German high command that the Flanders Flotilla was inadequately armed to protect the coast it was assigned to defend, let alone harass British shipping in the English Channel.

Eventually, after similar defeats, the small torpedo boats such as those used off Noordhinder Bank were relegated to coastal patrol and heavier units were transferred to even the balance of power in the channel.

9. Second Battle of Dogger Bank 10 February 1916
Three German torpedo boat flotillas sortied into the North Sea and encountered the British 10th Mine-sweeping Flotilla near Dogger Bank. The German vessels eventually engaged the British vessels, after mistaking them for cruisers instead of minesweeping sloops.

Knowing they were out-gunned, the British attempted to flee and in the chase, the sloop HMS Arabis was sunk, before the British squadron escaped. As the cruisers of the Harwich Force returned to port, the light cruiser HMS Arethusa struck a mine, ran aground and broke in two.

Although the Germans were victorious, they inflated the victory by reporting that they had sunk two cruisers.

10 In the Action of 29 February 1916 SMS Greif a German commerce raider, broke out into the North Sea and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe dispatched Royal Navy warships to intercept the raider.

Four British vessels made contact with the Greif and in the ensuing encounter, the commerce raider and the armed merchant cruiser HMS Alcantara were sunk.
The swift end to the voyage of the Greif led to the German Admiralty suspending commerce raiding and renewed emphasis on submarine warfare.]

11. Bombardment of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft 24 April 1916
In February 1916, Admiral Reinhard Scheer became commander-in-chief of the German High Seas Fleet and commenced a new campaign against the Royal Navy. A principal part of his strategy was to make raids into British waters to lure British forces into battle, in conditions advantageous to the Germans.

On 24th April 1916 he sent a battlecruiser squadron with accompanying cruisers and destroyers, to bombard the coastal ports of Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The aim was to entice defending ships into action. These could then be picked off, either by the battlecruiser squadron or by the full High Seas Fleet, which was stationed at sea ready to intervene.

The result was inconclusive: nearby British forces were too small to challenge the German force and largely kept clear of the German battlecruisers, the German ships withdrew before the British fast response battlecruiser squadron or the Grand Fleet could arrive.

The raid infuriated the British and it damaged German prestige in world public opinion, as the operation brought back memories of the ‘baby killer’ raids earlier in the war.

British casualties were 21 British servicemen, who were killed at sea. A serviceman and three civilians were killed and 19 were wounded at Lowestoft.

12. The Battle of Jutland 31 May to 1 June 1916 was conceived to lure the cruisers of the Grand Fleet into an engagement with the full force of the High Seas Fleet. It was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships of the war

On 29th May, Vice-Admiral Hipper’s five modern battlecruisers put to sea having previously stationed U-boat across the likely routes of the British ships. However, the British learned from signal intercepts that a major fleet operation was likely, so on 30 May Jellicoe sailed with the battleships Grand Fleet to rendezvous with Beatty’s cruisers, passing over the locations of the German U-boats while they were unprepared.

On the afternoon of 31 May, Beatty encountered Hipper’s battlecruiser force long before the Germans had expected. In a running battle, Hipper successfully drew the British cruisers into the path of the High Seas Fleet. In turn Beatty withdrew north and drew the High Seas Fleet towards Jellicoe’s approaching battle-ships . Between 18:30, and nightfall at about 20:30, the two fleets – totalling 250 ships between them – directly engaged twice.

Fourteen British and eleven German ships sank, with great loss of life. After sunset, and throughout the night, Jellicoe manoeuvred to cut the Germans off from their base, hoping to continue the battle the next morning, but under the cover of darkness Scheer broke through the British light forces forming the rearguard of the Grand Fleet and returned to port.

The British lost 3 battlecruisers, 3 armoured cruisers and 8 destroyers. 6,094 men were killed, 674 wounded, and 177 captured
The Germans lost 1 battlecruiser, 1 battleship, 4 light cruisers and 5 torpedo-boats. 2,551 men were killed and 507 wounded

Both sides claimed victory. However although the British suffered higher losses, the Grand Fleet was able to resume action immediately, while the repairs to the High Seas Fleet put it out of commission for several months, and it remained effectively bottled up in port for the remainder of the war.

Nick Jellicoe – grandson of Admiral Jellicoe – has written a book about the battle, and has created an excellent website about The Battle of Jutland. This includes a video animation which explains the complex series of events.

On 7th December 1917 the US Navy sent five battleships to join the Grand Fleet as the 6th Battle Squadron, replacing the battle ships lost at Jutland.

13. Action of 19 August 1916
Although Jutland had been officially hailed as a German success, the German commander Admiral Reinhard Scheer felt it important that another raid should be mounted as quickly as possible, to maintain morale in his severely battered fleet. In this battle, unlike Jutland, submarines played a major role.

It was decided that the raid should follow the pattern of previous ones, with the battlecruisers carrying out a dawn artillery bombardment of an English town, in this case Sunderland.

The remainder of the High Seas Fleet, comprising 16 dreadnought battleships, was to carry out close support 20 miles behind. The fleet set sail at 9:00 p.m. on 18 August.

The lesson of Jutland for Germany had been the vital need for reconnaissance, to avoid the unexpected arrival of the British Grand Fleet during a raid. On this occasion four Zeppelins were deployed to scout the North Sea between Scotland and Norway for signs of British ships and four more scouted immediately ahead of German ships

Information about the upcoming raid was obtained by British Intelligence in Room 40 through intercepted and decoded radio messages. The Grand Fleet battle ships and cruisers put to sea on 18th August. The Harwich Force of 20 destroyers and 5 light cruisers commanded by Commodore Tyrwhitt was ordered out, as were 25 British submarines which were stationed in likely areas to intercept German ships. The battlecruisers were stationed 30 miles ahead of the main fleet to scout for the enemy.

The assembled fleet now moved south seeking the German fleet, but suffered the loss of one of the light cruisers screening the battlecruiser group, HMS Nottingham, which was hit by three torpedoes from submarine U-52 at 6:00 a.m. and sank.

A second cruiser attached to the battlecruiser squadron, HMS Falmouth, was hit by two torpedoes from U-66 at 4:52 p.m. and sank the following day.
The British submarine HMS E23 managed to hit the German battleship SMS Westfalen north of Terschelling but the ship was able to return home.

The presence of submarines caused both fleets to maintain a healthy distance from each other, and eventually Scheer, unimpressed with the use of Zeppelins for reconnaissance abandoned the operation and Jellicoe also headed home.

This was the last occasion on which the German fleet sailed so far west into the North Sea. On 6 October, a decision was made in Germany to resume attacks against merchant vessels by submarine, which meant the submarine fleet was no longer available for combined attacks against surface vessels.

14. The Battle of Dover Strait on 26–27 October 1916 took place when two and a half flotillas of German torpedo boats from the Flanders Flotilla launched to disrupt the Dover Barrage (minefields and submarine nets strung across the English Channel) and destroy whatever Allied shipping could be found.

Upon approaching the barrage, the German torpedo boats were challenged by the British destroyer HMS Flirt and an engagement broke out.

The Germans were able to destroy Flirt and successfully assault the barrage′s drifters, but were once more engaged when a flotilla of British destroyers was sent to repel them. The Germans were able to fight off the additional British units before successfully withdrawing. By the end of the night, the British had lost one destroyer, a transport, and several drifters while the Germans themselves suffered only minor damage to a single torpedo boat.

The success of the raid encouraged the Germans to plan more sorties into the English Channel and the raids continued until the 3rd and 9th Torpedo Boat Flotillas were redeployed to the High Seas Fleet in November 1916.

15. The Action of 16 March 1917 was a naval engagement in which the British armed boarding steamer Dundee and the Warrior-class armoured cruiser HMS Achilles fought and sank the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Leopard, which sank with all 319 hands and the six men of a British boarding party.

In March 1917, SMS Leopard disguised as a Norwegian freighter set out to disrupt Allied commerce in the Atlantic. It was stopped by HMS Achilles about midway between Iceland and Norway in what became the action of 16 March 1917,

A launch from the boarding vessel Dundee was sent to inspect the supposed freighter. Leopard’s Captain Laffert realized that he would be discovered so detained the inspection party and fired two torpedoes at Dundee. Dundee manoeuvred out of the way and opened fire on Leopard. HMS Achilles arrived within a few minutes and joined the attack.

Leopard sank with all 319 hands, the British casualties were the six members of the boarding party members on Leopard when it sank.

16. In the Second Battle of Dover Strait 20–21 April 1917, two groups of torpedo boats of the German Navy launched another raid on the Dover Barrage

Two flotilla leaders of the Royal Navy, HMS Broke and HMS Swift were on patrol nearby and engaged the torpedo boats. In a confusing battle two torpedo boats were sunk, with the loss of 71 men. Swift and Broke were both damaged, and lost 22 men. The other 10 German torpedo boats made it back to port without loss.

17. Action of 4 May 1917
While on patrol in the North Sea on 4 May 1917 a small force led by the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney dispatched a destroyer to investigate a vessel they had spotted.

On its way, it came under attack from two German submarines, and then a Zeppelin.

After several hours of attack and counter attack the action ended when both sides ran out of ammunition.
The action was commemorated in an oil painting by Australian war artist Charles Bryant.


18. The British regularly shipped coal from Norway in 1917. These convoys were lightly defended so were a potential target for the German Navy. After submarine attacks failed, the German Admiral Reinhard Scheer ordered a surface attack.

The two light cruisers Brummer and Bremse were adapted to appear as British vessels.

They attacked a coal convoy and their escort off the coast of Shetland. This was the Action off Lerwick on 17 October 1917.

They were able to sink nine neutral Scandinavian ships, and the two escorting destroyers, before making their escape unscathed.

The event was regarded as an outrage by the Allies who protested that the attack on neutral ships was illegal and that the Germans gave the crews of the merchant vessels no time to evacuate, thus resulting in a large loss of civilian lives

19. In retaliation for the sinking of the convoy off Lerwick, Beatty sent a strong force of cruisers under Vice Admiral Trevylyan Napier to attack German minesweepers, which were clearing a channel through British minefields in the Heligoland Bight.

The encounter is known as the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight, 17th November 1917

When the attack began, the mine-sweepers withdrew immediately and a battle ensued between their escort of four light cruisers and eight destroyers. This became a chase which ended at the known edge of the minefield in German home waters.

One minesweeper was sunk, and there was substantial damage to cruisers on both sides.

20. The Zeebrugge Raid on 23 April 1918, was an attempt by the Royal Navy to block the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. The port was used by the German Navy as a base for U-boats, which were a threat to the English Channel and southern North Sea

The British intended to sink obsolete ships in the canal entrance, to prevent German vessels from leaving port. The raid was heavily dependent on a smoke screen to conceal the action, and things went wrong when the wind suddenly changed direction. The blocking ships did not make it to their intended destinations, and HMS Vindictive which was carrying 200 marines to knock out German artillery positions was forced to land in the wrong location.

The British suffered 583 casualties and the Germans 24.

Within a few days the Germans were able to partially bypass the block-ships to allow submarines to access the canal at high tide. This reduced the submarine activity from Zeebrugge.

A simultaneous blocking raid was carried out on Ostend. 

21. The First Ostend Raid 23–24 April 1918 was the first of two attacks on the German-held port of Ostend during the late spring of 1918, to block the vital strategic port of Bruges.

Bruges was a vital part of the German plans in their war on Allied commerce because it gave quicker access to the Western Approaches for the U-boat fleet than their bases in Germany.

The plan was for the British raiding force to sink two obsolete cruisers in the canal mouth at Ostend. While the attack at Zeebrugge had limited success, the assault on Ostend was a complete failure.

The German commander of Ostend had recognized that the port’s navigation buoy was an essential marker in any night attack on Ostend, to avoid the surrounding sandbanks. Rather than simply removing the buoy he had it moved to act as a decoy.

The two blockship fell into the trap and had to be abandoned, stuck fast on the sand.

Three weeks later a second attack was launched which proved more successful in sinking a blockship at the entrance to the canal but ultimately did not close off Bruges completely.

22. The Second Ostend Raid 9 May 1918 (officially known as Operation VS) also failed, due to heavy German resistance and British navigational difficulties in poor weather.

In anticipation of a raid, the Germans had removed the navigation buoys and without them the British had difficulty finding the narrow channel into the harbour in poor weather.

When they did discover the entrance, German resistance proved too strong for the operation to be completed as originally planned: the obsolete cruiser HMS Vindictive was sunk, but only partially blocked the channel.

23. The Bombardment of Zeebrugge, 12 May 1917 was conducted from a range of 13 miles (to stay out of range of the defensive battery) bombardment with the 15-inch guns of the monitors HMS Erebus, HMS Terror and HMS Marshal Soult directed reconnaissance aircraft,

Firing commenced just after 5:00 a.m. and at first fell short; many of the shells failed to explode, which left the aircraft unable to signal the fall of shot. The bombardment became very accurate soon after and Marshal Soult hit the target with its twelfth shell and Erebus with its twenty-sixth. Terror was most hampered by the loss of one of the aircraft and by dud shells.

Initially the German response was limited to anti-aircraft fire and attempts to jam the wireless of the artillery-observation aircraft. German Albatros fighters then arrived and a dogfight ensued.

At 6:00 a.m. the ships weighed anchor, just as the shore battery opened fire.

The basin north of the locks had been hit and some damage caused to the docks but Zeebrugge remained open to German destroyers and U-boats.

Bacon then made preparations to bombard Ostend harbour.

24 Bombardment of Ostend, 5 June 1917

Once again HMS Erebus and HMS Terror launched a long-range bombardment. Ostend was a larger target than Zeebrugge and could be seen from the sea, which made accurate shooting easier.

The dockyard was hit by twenty out of 115 shells and intelligence reports noted the sinking of a lighter, a U-boat, damage to three destroyers and that the German command had been made anxious about the security of the coast.

Had Bacon been able to repeat the bombardments at short intervals, German naval operations from the Flanders coast would have been severely restricted.

More bombardments were planned but these were all postponed because essential conditions of tide and weather were not met.

Further plans to attack Ostend came to nothing during the summer of 1918, and the threat from Bruges would not be finally stopped until the last days of the war, when the town was liberated by Allied land forces.
  
25. The Tondern raid 19 July 1918 officially designated Operation F.7, was the first attack in history made by aircraft flying from a carrier flight deck.

Seven Sopwith Camels took off from the converted battlecruiser Furious.on a bombing raid against the German Navy’s airship base at Tonder in Denmark (then a part of Germany.)

For the loss of one man, the British destroyed two German Zeppelins, and a captive balloon.

On 17th July 1918 HMS Furious put to sea from Rosyth, escorted by “Force B”, including a division of the First Battle Squadron (all the new Revenge-class battleships), the Seventh Light Cruiser Squadron and a destroyer screen.

The raid was delayed for twenty four hours by a thunder storm, but commenced around 3.00 am on 19th July. One plane was forced to turn back shortly after take-off, but six pressed on in two waves.

The first three aircraft arrived over Tondern at 04:35, taking the base by surprise. They focussed on one of the airship sheds; three bombs hit the shed and detonated the gas bags of two Zeppelins inside destroying them by fire. Another bomb from the first wave hit a second shed and damaged the balloon. The second wave destroyed the captive balloon and scored a number of near misses on a wagon loaded with hydrogen cylinders. Despite the loss of the two airships the Germans suffered only four men injured.

After the attack, three planes headed for Denmark and landed there. Dickson, Yuelett and Smart flew to sea to find the British ships. Dickson ditched at 05:55 and Smart, having suffered engine trouble, at 06:30. Yuelett was not heard from again and presumed drowned. His body was later recovered from the sea.

Although the hangar was quickly repaired, Tondern was abandoned as an active base, and ordered to be used only as an emergency landing site.

The British conducted no other carrier raids during the war but other raids were being planned.

From 1917 onwards a raid on the German High Seas Fleet was being mooted using the new torpedo-carrying Sopwith Cuckoo. The plane was not available in sufficient numbers until early 1919 and the project was still-born.

26. The Naval Order of 24 October 1918, was a plan to provoke a decisive battle between the German High Seas Fleet and the British Grand Fleet in the southern North Sea.

The leaders of the German Army had informed the Kaiser that the military situation facing Germany was hopeless, and that Germany should seek a negotiated peace with the Allies, on the basis of the “Fourteen Points” that had been publicized by President Wilson.

One of Wilson’s preconditions to beginning negotiation was the immediate cessation of Germany’s submarine warfare. Despite the objections of Admiral Scheer, the German Government made this concession on 20 October, and the U-boats at sea were recalled on 21 October

In response, Scheer on 22 October Scheer ordered Admiral Hipper, to prepare for an attack on the British fleet, utilizing the entire High Seas Fleet, and the newly available U-boats. Hipper’s order was released on 24 October, approved by Scheer on 27 October 1918, and the High Seas Fleet assembled off Wilhelmshaven on 29th October.

The evening of 29 October was marked by unrest and serious acts of indiscipline in the German Fleet, as the men became convinced their commanders were intent on sacrificing them, to sabotage the Armistice negotiations. Many stokers failed to return from shore leave, and mass insubordination occurred on most of the large ships in the fleet.

Admiral Hipper cancelled the operation on 30 October and ordered the fleet to disperse, in the hope of quelling the insurrection. However the mutiny gradually spread through the entire navy.

Although Hipper’s plan was sound, we can only speculate on what the outcome of a battle would have been. The Grand Fleet maintained superiority in terms of numbers; and lessons had been learned from the Battle of Jutland – armour-piercing shells no longer broke up on impact, and the use of Intelligence gathered by Admiralty listening stations was much improved. In all probability this would have been the end of the High Seas Fleet.

The peace negotiations resumed, and the Armistice was signed on 11th November 1918.

The High Seas Fleet and submarines were Surrendered in November 1918



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