Just prior to this, at about 0520hrs, the sound of cannon thunder was heard to port. It could only be coming from Bayern, despite the fact that fire was only to be opened on receipt of orders from the flagship. The pioneers had already pushed forward into Tagga Bay and were poised to land. Vizeadmiral Schmidt, therefore, gave the order ‘open fire’ at 0527hrs. At 0544hrs the ships of the IV Battle Squadron, Kaiser, Prinzregent Luitpold and Kaiserin, opened fire on the guns at Hundsort, which were clearly visible. At the same time the Russian battery replied with a salvo, which, however, was aimed at Moltke. The Russian firing was accurate, the first salvo fell just 100 metres short of Moltke, the second was over and the third was 50 metres off the bow. Moltke joined in the firing and she and the IV Battle Squadron continued for some time: by 0617hrs the battleships lay just 8 kilometres from Hundsort. The command and communication post at Cape Hundsort was taken under bombardment but all twenty-five men of the 5th Company of the 426th Povenets Regiment remained resolutely at their posts. The firing continued while the landing took place but by 0745hrs the IV Battle Squadron had anchored.
Meanwhile, the III Battle Squadron, under Vizeadmiral Behncke, took up their positions to bombard Battery No 46 at Ninnast. At 0440hrs Bayern had been detached for her task of silencing Battery No 34 at Toffri. When the order to open fire arrived at 0527hrs, the III Battle Squadron were still unable to make out their allotted target and initially mistook Cape Pank for Cape Ninnast. It was only at 0545hrs that the Russian battery was sighted and taken under fire with the medium calibre guns at a range of 4,600 metres. Vizeadmiral Behncke had decided to conserve the barrels of his heavy artillery. The Russian battery did not reply so that after nine minutes fire was ceased, only to be reopened shortly after 0600hrs when lively activity around the battery was observed. With that the Russian gunners finally abandoned their battery and towards 0752hrs the III Battle Squadron dropped anchor to conserve coal.
Earlier, whilst still en route to their bombardment position, the battleship Grosser Kurfürst had run onto a mine at about 0509hrs. The mine struck to starboard forward and the wing passage, protective and outer bunkers all filled with water, although a total of only 280 tonnes entered the ship. Grosser Kurfürst’s draught increased by a third of a metre but she held her place in line and completed the bombardment. Later in the afternoon she, together with the other ships of the III Battle Squadron, was detached to Putzig Wiek, and from there to Wilhelmshaven, which she reached on October 18th. She was repaired in the Imperial Dockyard and was returned to the Fleet on 1 December.
The landing at Pamerort and the eventual breakthrough into the Soelo Sound were under the direction of the I FdT, Kommodore Heinrich, aboard the cruiser SMS Emden. The battleship Bayern, mounting eight 38cm guns, was to silence Battery Toffri and support the landing, and, as mentioned previously, had detached from the III Battle Squadron at 0440hrs. A short time later, at 0507hrs, a detonation occurred to port forward and a grey-black water column of comparatively small diameter was thrown up 8 to 10 metres. A watch-engineer aboard Bayern, Oberleutnant (I) der Reserve Lorenz, described the situation which followed:
The siren of the engine telegraph howled as the three black indicators hastily jumped into the red part of the scale: ‘Utmost power astern – stop!’ The ship sank perceptibly deeper by the bow to a new trim position. On the bridge they had seen a grey-black water and smoke column…. Announced by shrill whistles, many speaking tubes delivered their reports: ‘Bow torpedo room and forward torpedo broadside room full of water, approximately 1,000 tonnes of water in the ship, the leak is secure!’ Quietly and orderly, just as in battle practice, further reports and confirmations arrived: four large compartments were flooded, their crews, (seven men), gave no answer….
From the damage control centre the First Offizier and Stabsingenieur Laebell undertook the first measures for the security of the ship. The bulkhead door to the flooded compartment, in the large transverse bulkhead near frame 117½, just forward of turret ‘Alsen’, was quickly shored up by carpenters and damage control personnel. However, water was penetrating the rivet and seam joints and the pumpenmeister personnel worked nimbly at their electric leak pump stations to master the flooding.
Meanwhile, on the orders of the Commander, the FT (Wireless) Offizier, Leutnant zur See Lindemann, sent a report about our misfortune to the Chief of the ‘Special Unit’.[1] The propellers renewed their revolutions and slowly the ship steamed with a southerly course, down along the side of the mine barrier, to take up its position for the bombardment off Cape Toffri.
At about 0524hrs, a submarine alarm to port was given. The Bayern turned away to starboard onto a southerly course. Before endangering the element of surprise of the entire operation, the commander, Kapitän zur See Rohardt, asked for confirmation of the submarine attack. The 3rd and 4th Artillerie Offiziers irreproachably confirmed that they had seen a periscope and torpedo track. Under these circumstances Bayern was forced to open fire, the firing observed by Moltke. Of course there were no allied submarines present.
Nevertheless, Bayern was able to continue her allotted task. By around 0600hrs Battery Toffri could be made out clearly and at 0602hrs the heavy calibre guns opened fire, followed briefly by the medium calibre guns. At ranges varying from 10,200 to 9,300 meters the battleship fired twenty-four 38cm shells and seventy 15cm shells. After the third salvo from Bayern the Russian battery replied; however, they took the boats of the S-Flotilla as their targets. As observed from Emden, the battleship’s fire was landing over the battery, but soon a warehouse and barracks were hit and caught fire, burning for several hours. Emden opened fire at 0608hrs at a range of 8,000m, but her first and second salvoes fell short and landed in the water and on the beach. Meanwhile the boats of the S-Flotilla under F. K. von Rosenberg, with men of the cyclist and sturm (assault) companies embarked, manoeuvred in Poka Bay, searching for a favourable landing site. The Russian battery took these vessels under fire and quickly obtained a direct hit aft on the torpedoboot A28 at a range of 25 cables, but the shell failed to detonate. The Emden’s third salvo then landed amongst Battery No34 and destroyed the telephone wires and speaking tubes, and after this the battery could only continue with independent fire. One cannon remained serviceable. The fight continued for ten minutes and the battery fired up to twenty-five shells. When the battery commander, Warrant Officer Lesgaft, gave orders to retire there no longer remained any crews by the cannon. At around 0700hrs the German Landing Corps began going ashore and landed unopposed. There was no Russian battery at Pamerort as had been supposed. Once ashore the cyclist and assault companies immediately began to advance towards the stone dam at Orrisar.