SMS Goeben
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| Image:German battlecruiser Goeben.jpg | |
| Career | Image:Germany-Jack-1903.svg |
|---|---|
| Shipyard: | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg |
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | August 1909 |
| Launched: | 28 March 1911 |
| Commissioned: | 2 July 1912 |
| Decommissioned: | 1950 |
| Fate: | Transferred to Ottoman Navy 16 August 1914. Scrapped 1973 |
| Struck: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 25,000 tons |
| Length: | 186.6 m |
| Beam: | 30 m |
| Draught: | 9.2 m |
| Propulsion: | 4 screws, Parsons turbines, 52,000 hp (39 MW) |
| Speed: | 28 knots (52 km/h) |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | 1,053 |
| Armament: | 10-11.2 in (284 mm) 50-calibre guns (5x2) 12-5.9 in (150 mm) guns 12-3.45 in (88 mm) guns |
| Aircraft: | None |
SMS Goeben was a Moltke-class battlecruiser of the Kaiserliche Marine (German Navy), launched in 1911 and named after the Franco-Prussian War general August von Goeben. In August 1914 Goeben was transferred to the Ottoman Empire, renamed TCG Yavuz Sultan Selim (after Sultan Selim I), and made the flagship of the Ottoman Navy. In 1936 she was renamed TCG Yavuz and remained the flagship of the Turkish Navy until 1950. The ship was scrapped in 1973 -- the last remaining ship of the Imperial German Navy -- when the German government refused an offer to buy it back and maintain it as a memorial.
Contents |
The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau
In 1912 the German navy's Mittelmeerdivision (Mediterranean Division) comprised Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau, under the command of Rear Admiral Wilhelm Souchon. When war broke out between Austria-Hungary and Serbia on July 28, 1914, Goeben and Breslau were in the Adriatic. To avoid being trapped there, Souchon moved out into the Mediterranean. When Germany declared war on France on 3 August, Souchon was in position off the North African coast and bombarded the French ports of Bône and Philippeville in Algeria.
The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau began on 1 August when the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, ordered the British Mediterranean Fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir Berkley Milne, to shadow the German ships and prevent them from disrupting the transport of French troops from Algeria to France. Souchon managed to slip away from his pursuers when returning to Messina. Unclear orders to Milne that he was to avoid engagement with a superior force (intended to refer to the Austrian fleet) inhibited him from attempting to interfere with Souchon's squadron.
Souchon was intent on taking his ships to Constantinople, a course the British did not anticipate, and when he emerged from the Straits of Messina heading east, only the light cruiser HMS Gloucester was in a position to pursue. On 7 August, Gloucester engaged Breslau and Goeben, despite being outgunned, in an attempt to delay their escape. The engagement ended without any hits being scored and Gloucester resumed tailing the German ships until ordered to disengage.
Souchon had a trouble-free passage through the Aegean Sea, replenishing coal on 9 August, and anchored at the Dardanelles on 10 August. After several days of diplomatic negotiations, Goeben and Breslau passed through the mine barriers guarding the straits and were conducted to Constantinople where on 16 August they became ships of the Turkish navy in a diplomatic manoeuvre that assisted in bringing the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers. Goeben became Yavuz Sultan Selim, Breslau became Midilli. As Turkish ships, both continued to be operated by their German crews, although they now wore the fez as official headgear.
Black Sea operations
Despite having signed a treaty with Germany, the Ottoman Empire was not yet at war with the Entente. However, on 28 October 1914 Goeben led a sortie into the Black Sea, shelling the Crimean ports of Sebastopol and Odessa and destroying the Russian minesweeper Prut. On November 2, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
Goeben played no active role in countering the Allied naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign, but continued to operate in the Black Sea until 1918. On 18 November 1914 Goeben encountered several Russian pre-Dreadnought battleships and suffered a hit from a 12-inch (305 mm) shell that killed 13 and wounded 3 of her crew. On 26 December Goeben struck two mines at the entrance to the Bosphorus and took on about 2000 tons of water, putting her out of action for several months.
In April 1915, Goeben sank two Russian merchant ships. On 10 May, in another encounter with Russian pre-Dreadnoughts, Goeben received three 12-inch (305 mm) hits without inflicting any damage herself. On 14 November the Russian submarine Morz made an unsuccessful attack on Goeben.
In late 1915 the Russian Black Sea Fleet commissioned two Dreadnought battleships of the Imperatritsa Mariya class, superior to Goeben in terms of artillery (12 x 305 mm guns vs. Goeben's 10 x 280 mm guns), but with inferior speed (21 knots vs. about 24 knots of Goeben, less than its theoretical 28 knots due to lack of facilities in Turkey to refit the ship). Goeben had two inconclusive encounters with these ships during 1916. In the first, on 7 January 1916, Goeben fought with Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya for 11 minutes, with Goeben using her superior speed to escape. In early July 1916, during another attempt to bombard Russian ports, she again encountered a superior Russian force which included Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya, but due to mistakes of the Russian commanders was again able to escape. The appearance of superior Russian battleships heavily curtailed further operations of Goeben in the Black Sea.
Imbros
After the Dardanelles Campaign, Britain had maintained a flotilla in the Aegean, waiting for Goeben and Breslau to make a sortie. On 10 January 1918 the two ships emerged from the Dardanelles and encountered British ships near the island of Imbros. Unfortunately for the British, the two ships capable of countering Goeben - pre-Dreadnought battleships HMS Agamemnon and HMS Lord Nelson - were absent and the remainder of the force, consisting of destroyers and monitors, were outgunned. In the ensuing battle the monitors M28 and HMS Raglan were sunk. However, the Turkish ships ran into a minefield; Breslau sank immediately, but Goeben, which struck three mines and was badly holed, managed to struggle back to the Dardanelles where she was beached at the Narrows. The British made repeated attempts to bomb her, but Goeben survived and, after being refloated on 26 January, returned to Constantinople.
Significance of Goeben's Activities
The activities of Goeben and Breslau helped to bring Turkey into the war on the side of the Central Powers. Turkey's direct military contribution was of some value, but most important was the loss of the easiest route (via the Dardanelles) for Britain and France to ship aid to their Russian allies, and for Russia to ship out its grain, one of the main sources of its foreign exchange. Combined with the German blockade of the Baltic, this to a large extent cut off Russia from the outside world, if one excepts the difficult and underdeveloped routes through Archangelsk and Vladivostok. This in turn led to great difficulties in supplying the Russian army, substantially weakening Russia as a military partner for the Allies.de:SMS Goeben (1911) el:Γκαίμπεν pl:SMS Goeben