After the
German invasion of Belgium, the State Secretary of the
German Imperial Naval Office von Tirpitz raised on 29 August 1914 a Naval
Division. The division was assigned with securing the Belgian and Channel coasts in order to prevent the British using the harbors along these coasts to send reinforcements to the
Western Front. On 15 December 1914, a second Naval Division was raised and the two naval divisions were joined in the newly established Naval Corps. The 1st Naval Division defended the coastline in
Flanders and the 2nd Naval Division held the land front. The coast defence was reinforced considerably on the orders of Tirpitz, by transferring the idle coastal batteries defending the rivers
Elbe,
Weser,
Jade and the
Baltic Sea to Flanders. In June 1917 a third Naval Division was attached to the Naval Corps. The
Flanders U-boat flotilla was constituted on 29 March 1915 in
Bruges as part of the Naval Corps. The boats used
Zeebrugge and
Ostend as exit ports. Commanded by Karl Bartenbach, the force comprised nine Type UB I U-boats at the end of April 1915. On 26 May 1915, the first Type UC I minelayer arrived at Zeebrugge and nine more joined that same year. After the loss of four torpedo boats in the
Battle off Texel on 17 October 1914, the German Navy was reluctant to send large torpedo boats to Flanders. But these boats were much needed for the defence of the captured Belgian coast. As a compromise, on 21 May 1915, the
Flanders Torpedoboat Flotilla was established as part of the Naval Corps. The flotilla was based in Bruges and equipped with eleven small coastal
A-I-class torpedo boats, which were transported in sections by rail to Hoboken and re-assembled there. == Order of battle ==