 In the first days of the war, the 5th Battle Squadron covered the crossing of the British Expeditionary Force to France.On 31 December, the squadron was conducting training exercises in the English Channel, and despite the risk of German submarines, was without anti-submarine protection; the German stalked the ships during the day and in the early hours of 1 January 1915, torpedoed "Formidable" twice, sinking her with very heavy loss of life.The design for the "Formidable" class was prepared in 1897; it was an incremental improvement over the preceding and es.