 SMSGoeben | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | Goeben |
| Namesake | August Karl von Goeben |
| Ordered | 8 April 1909 |
| Builder | Blohm & Voss,Hamburg |
| Laid down | 12 August 1909 |
| Launched | 28 March 1911 |
| Commissioned | 2 July 1912 |
| Fate | Transferred to theOttoman Empire 16 August 1914 |
| History | |
  Ottoman Empire/Turkey | |
| Name | Yavuz Sultan Selim |
| Namesake | Selim I |
| Acquired | 16 August 1914 |
| Commissioned | 16 August 1914 |
| Decommissioned | 20 December 1950 |
| Renamed | Yavuz in 1936 |
| Stricken | 14 November 1954 |
| Fate | Scrapped in 1973–1976 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Moltke-classbattlecruiser |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 186.6 m (612 ft 2 in) |
| Beam | 29.4 m (96 ft 5 in) |
| Draft | 9.19 m (30 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | Design: 25.5knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph) |
| Range | 4,120 nmi (7,630 km; 4,740 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament | |
| Armor |
|
SMSGoeben[a] was the second of twoMoltke-classbattlecruisers of theImperial German Navy, launched in 1911 and named after the GermanFranco-Prussian War veteran GeneralAugust Karl von Goeben. Along with hersister ship,Goeben was similar to the previous German battlecruiser design,Von der Tann, but larger, with increased armor protection and two more main guns in an additionalturret.Goeben andMoltke were significantly larger and better armored than the comparable BritishIndefatigable class.[b]
Several months after her commissioning in 1912,Goeben, with thelight cruiserBreslau, formed the GermanMediterranean Division and patrolled there during theBalkan Wars. After the outbreak ofWorld War I on 28 July 1914,Goeben andBreslau bombarded French positions in North Africa and then evaded British naval forces in the Mediterranean and reachedConstantinople. The two ships were transferred to theOttoman Empire on 16 August 1914, andGoeben became the flagship of theOttoman Navy asYavuz Sultan Selim, usually shortened toYavuz. By bombarding Russian facilities in the Black Sea, she brought Turkey into World War I on the German side. The ship operated primarily against Russian forces in theBlack Sea during the war, including several inconclusive engagements with Russianbattleships. She made a sortie into theAegean in January 1918 that resulted in theBattle of Imbros, whereYavuz sank a pair of Britishmonitors but was herself badly damaged bymines.
In 1936 she was officially renamedTCGYavuz ("Ship of the Turkish RepublicYavuz"); she carried the remains ofMustafa Kemal Atatürk fromIstanbul toİzmit in 1938.Yavuz remained the flagship of theTurkish Navy until she was decommissioned in 1950. She was scrapped in 1973, after theWest German government declined an invitation to buy her back from Turkey. She was the last surviving ship built by the Imperial German Navy, and the longest-servingdreadnought-type ship in any navy.
As the GermanKaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) continued in itsarms race with the BritishRoyal Navy in 1907, theReichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office) considered plans for the battlecruiser that was to be built for the following year. An increase in the budget raised the possibility of increasing the caliber of themain battery from the 28 cm (11 in) guns used in the previous battlecruiser,SMS Von der Tann, to 30.5 cm (12 in), but AdmiralAlfred von Tirpitz, the State Secretary of the Navy, opposed the increase, preferring to add a pair of 28 cm guns instead. The Construction Department supported the change, and ultimately two ships were authorized for the 1908 and 1909 building years;Moltke was the first, followed byGoeben.[2]
Goeben was 186.6 meters (612 ft 2 in)long overall, with abeam of 29.4 m (96 ft) and adraft of 9.19 m (30 ft 2 in) fully loaded. The shipdisplaced 22,979 t (22,616 long tons) normally, and 25,400 t (25,000 long tons) atfull load. She had a longforecastle deck that extended for most of the ship, stepping down to themain deck at the rearmost 27 cmgun turrets. The ship'ssuperstructure consisted of a pair ofconning towers, a larger one forward as the primary position, and a smaller, secondary position aft. She was fitted with a pair of polemasts for signaling and spotting purposes. Her crew consisted of 43 officers and 1,010 enlisted men.[3]
Goeben was powered by fourParsonssteam turbines that drove four screwpropellers, with steam provided by twenty-four coal-firedSchulz-Thornycroftwater-tube boilers. The boilers were vented through a pair of widely spacedfunnels. The propulsion system was rated at 51,289shaft horsepower (38,246 kW) and a top speed of 25.5knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph), though she exceeded this speed significantly on her trials. At 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph), the ship had a range of 4,120nautical miles (7,630 km; 4,740 mi).[3]
The ship was armed with a main battery of ten28 cm (11 in) SK L/50 guns mounted in five twin-gun turrets; of these, one was placed forward, two wereen echelonamidships, and the other two were in asuperfiring pair aft. Hersecondary armament consisted of twelve15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns placed in individualcasemates in the central portion of the ship. For defense againsttorpedo boats, she carried twelve8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 guns, also in individual mounts in the bow, the stern, and around the forward conning tower. She was also equipped with four 50 cm (20 in) submergedtorpedo tubes, one in the bow, one in the stern, and one on eachbroadside.[4]
The ship's armor consisted ofKrupp cemented steel. Thebelt was 280 mm (11 in) thick in thecitadel where it covered the ship's ammunitionmagazines and propulsion machinery spaces. The belt tapered down to 76 mm (3 in) on either end. Thedeck was 25 to 76 mm (1 to 3 in) thick, sloping downward at the side to connect to the bottom edge of the belt. The main battery gun turrets had 230 mm (9.1 in) faces, and they sat atopbarbettes that were equally thick.[5]
The Imperial Navy orderedGoeben, the third German battlecruiser, on 8 April 1909 under the provisional name "H" from theBlohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, under construction number 201.[c] Herkeel waslaid on 12 August; the hull was completed and the ship waslaunched on 28 March 1911. At the launching ceremony, the ship was christenedGoeben afterAugust Karl von Goeben, who had commandedVIII Corps during theFranco-Prussian War; the current commander of VIII Corps, GeneralPaul von Ploetz, performed the christening.Fitting-out work followed, and she was ready to begin acceptancetrials in June 1912. These were completed by the end of the month, andGoeben wascommissioned into active service on 2 July under the command ofKapitän zur See (KzS—Captain at Sea)Otto Philipp. She thereafter began sea trials, but these were interrupted on 29 August by the start of the annual fleet training exercises, during whichGoeben was assigned to the temporarily createdII Scouting Group. On 24 September,Goeben returned to trials.[4][7]
When theFirst Balkan War broke out between theBalkan League and theOttoman Empire in October 1912, theGerman General Staff determined that a naval Mediterranean Division (Mittelmeer-Division) was needed to project German power in the Mediterranean, and thus dispatchedGoeben and the light cruiserBreslau toConstantinople. The two ships leftKiel on 4 November and arrived on 15 November 1912; the unit also included theunprotected cruiserGeier, the old station shipLoreley, and thetraining cruisersHertha andVineta.Goeben served as theflagship of the unit, commanded byKonteradmiral (KAdm—Rear Admiral)Konrad Trummler. At the time, the major European powers—German, Britain, France, Russia, andAustria-Hungary—all had interests in the region; they pressured the warring states to agree to anarmistice in December, but fighting quickly resumed in February 1913. Greece capturedSalonika from the Ottomans in March, and during a visit there, the Greek king,George I was assassinated.Goeben led an international fleet that escorted the Greek stateyachtAmphitrite, which carried the body back toPiraeus.[8][9]
Trummler detachedHertha andVineta to return home in February 1913. Beginning in April 1913,Goeben visited many Mediterranean ports including Venice,Pola, andNaples, while Trummler sentBreslauGeier to the Albanian coast during theSiege of Scutari. The European powers had decided at the London Conference that Scutari would be awarded to the newly createdPrincipality of Albania, but Montenegro and Serbia both claimed it for themselves and had laid siege to the city. An international fleet was assembled there to pressure Montenegro and Serbia to abandon the siege.Goeben joined the fleet off Scutari on 6 August, by which time the Mediterranean Division had been reinforced in the meantime by the cruisersDresden andStrassburg. Following this trip,Goeben returned to Pola and remained there from 21 August to 16 October for maintenance. Soon thereafter, the First Balkan War came to an end on 3 December.[8][10]
On 23 June 1913, Trummler met with AdmiralAnton Haus, the commander of theAustro-Hungarian Navy, to sign an agreement for coordinated war plans in the event of a conflict with theTriple Entente (which comprised Britain, France, and Russia). The plan called for the Mediterranean Division to operate with Austro-Hungarian and Italian light forces to intercept French troopconvoys bringing soldiers fromFrench North Africa. On 29 June, theSecond Balkan War broke out and the Mediterranean Division was retained in the area, though another armistice was soon signed on 30 August. The war was formally ended on 10 September with the signing of theTreaty of Bucharest, though the European powers assumed the peace was temporary. Nevertheless,Strassburg andDresden were sent home, though the squadron was not seriously weakened, as by that time the training cruisersHansa andVictoria Louise had arrived in the Mediterranean, and could be employed if the fighting resumed. On 23 October 1913,Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral)Wilhelm Souchon assumed command of the squadron. In December, the ship sailed to Italy for Souchon to meet with Italian naval leadership to ratify their agreements to the plans Trummler had concluded with Haus.Goeben then sailed back to Greek waters, cruising primarily in theAegean Sea.Goeben ended the year anchored atSmyrna in the Ottoman Empire.[8][11]
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The ship embarked on a tour of Italy on 2 January 1914, and during this time, Souchon to traveled to Rome to meet with thenaval minister. Part of the purpose of the trip was to familiarize the Germans with the main Italian ports in the event of a war with the Triple Entente. In March,Goeben made another stop in Pola for a conference between Souchon and Haus. Later that month, on the 27th, the ship rendezvoused with the imperial yachtHohenzollern duringKaiser Wilhelm II's visit to the island ofCorfu. In April, KzSRichard Ackermann arrived to take command of the ship. The two ships then sailed north toGenoa, Italy, on 4 May. Five days later,Goeben met the cruiserKönigsberg in Naples, which was passing through the Mediterranean. The battlecruiser then sailed to Constantinople to deliver a message to the sultan, where on 24 May, a contingent of 300 men fromGoeben went ashore to help suppress a major fire in the city. Three crewmen were killed in the effort.Goeben departed on 5 June to sail toAlexandria, Egypt, in company withBreslau.[12]
The navy made plans to replaceGoeben with hersisterMoltke so that the former could be returned for a major overhaul in mid-1914. Theassassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on 28 June 1914 and the subsequent rise in tensions between the Great Powers made the transfer impossible. After the assassination, Souchon assessed that war was imminent between theCentral Powers and the Triple Entente, and ordered his ships to make for Pola for repairs. By that time, the two training cruisers had returned home, leaving justGoeben,Breslau, andLoreley in the region.Goeben arrived in Pola on 10 July, and work on her boilers began immediately. Engineers came from Germany to work on the ship.Goeben had 4,460 boiler tubes replaced, among other repairs. Upon completion of the work, the ship departed for Messina; she metBreslau offBrindisi on 1 August. While underway on the night of 2 August, both vessels received theirmobilization orders.[13][14]
Wilhelm II had ordered that in the event of war,Goeben andBreslau should either conduct raids in the western Mediterranean to prevent the return of French troops from North Africa to Europe, or break out into the Atlantic and attempt to return to German waters, on the squadron commander's discretion. On the evening of 2 August, Souchon received word that war had begun with Russia; he was told to expect hostilities with France in the immediate future. In the absence of specific instructions from the naval command, Souchon decided to attack French North Africa in accordance with pre-war plans.Goeben andBreslau sailed from Messina at 01:00 on 3 August, bound for French North Africa. While they were en route toFrench Algeria, Souchon received confirmation of the declaration of war against France. At 02:35 the next morning, Souchon received orders from Tirpitz and AdmiralHugo von Pohl directing him to sail to Constantinople, in direct contravention of the Kaiser's instructions and without his knowledge. Souchon nevertheless decided to continue on and bombard the North African coast. At around 06:00 that morning,Goeben arrived offPhilippeville, Algeria, and bombarded the port facilities for about 10 minutes whileBreslau shelled nearbyBône. The attack prompted the French naval command to concentrate the fleet offAlgiers andOran, as they assumedGoeben would continue westward. The French also prohibited troopships from sailing independently.[15][16]
SinceGoeben could not reach Constantinople without coaling, Souchon headed for Messina. The Germans encountered the British battlecruisersHMS Indefatigable andIndomitable, but Germany was not yet at war with Britain and neither side opened fire. The British turned to followGoeben andBreslau, but the German ships were able to outrun the British, and arrived in Messina by 5 August. Refueling in Messina was complicated by the declaration of Italian neutrality on 2 August. Under international law, combatant ships were permitted only 24 hours in a neutral port.[17][18] Sympathetic Italian naval authorities in the port allowedGoeben andBreslau to remain in port for around 36 hours while the ships coaled from a Germancollier.[19] While the Germans were in Messina, Souchon evaluated his options; he decided that attempting to break into theAdriatic Sea was hopeless, and allowing his ships to be interned by neutral Italy was unacceptable. Britain's declaration of war precluded any attempt to return to Germany, so he decided the Ottoman Empire was the best option. Souchon contacted Haus to request the support of the Austro-Hungarian fleet at the southern end of the Adriatic, but received an unclear reply. Haus was reluctant to support the Germans in the hopes that Austria-Hungary could avoid a direct conflict with Britain. He nevertheless ordered the fleet south on 7 August to cover the Germans should they decide to enter the Adriatic.[20]
In the meantime,Goeben andBreslau sailed from Messina at 17:00 on 6 August.[20] Despite the additional time to coal in Messina,Goeben's fuel stocks were not sufficient to permit the voyage to Constantinople, so Souchon arranged to rendezvous with another collier in the Aegean Sea. The French fleet remained in the western Mediterranean, since the French naval commander in the Mediterranean, AdmiralAugustin Boué de Lapeyrère, was convinced the Germans would either attempt to escape to the Atlantic or join the Austrians in Pola.[21] The two British battlecruisers were 100 miles away, while a third,Inflexible, was coaling inBizerta, Tunisia. The only British naval force in Souchon's way was the 1st Cruiser Squadron,[22] which consisted of the fourarmored cruisersDefence,Black Prince,Duke of Edinburgh andWarrior under the command of Rear AdmiralErnest Troubridge.[23] The Germans headed initially towards the Adriatic in afeint; the move misled Troubridge, who sailed to intercept them in the mouth of the Adriatic. After realizing his mistake, Troubridge reversed course and ordered the light cruiserDublin and two destroyers to launch a torpedo attack on the Germans.Breslau's lookouts spotted the ships, and in the darkness, she andGoeben evaded their pursuers undetected. Troubridge broke off the chase early on 7 August, convinced that any attack by his four older armored cruisers againstGoeben—armed with her larger 28 cm guns—would be suicidal.[24] Souchon's journey to Constantinople was now clear.[25]
Goeben refilled her coal bunkers off the island of Donoussa nearNaxos.[25] During the afternoon of 10 August, the two ships entered theDardanelles. They were met by an Ottomanpicket boat, which guided them through to theSea of Marmara.[26] To circumvent neutrality requirements, theOttoman government proposed that the ships be transferred to its ownership "by means of a fictitious sale."[27] Before the Germans could approve this, the Ottomans announced on 11 August that they had purchased the ships for 80 millionMarks. In a formal ceremony the two ships were commissioned in theOttoman Navy on 16 August. On 23 September, Souchon accepted an offer to command the Turkish fleet.Goeben was renamedYavuz Sultan Selim andBreslau was renamedMidilli; their German crews donned Ottoman uniforms andfezzes, and some Ottoman sailors came aboard to complete the "transfer".[28][29]
Enver Pasha, the OttomanMinister of War, ordered offensive operations to begin on 22 October, though the two countries were not at war.[30] On 29 OctoberYavuz bombardedSevastopol in her first operation againstImperial Russia, though the Ottoman Empire was not yet at war with the Entente;Souchon conducted the operation under Enver's direction. A 25.4 cm (10 in) shell struck the ship in theafter funnel, but it failed to detonate and did negligible damage.[31] Two other hits inflicted minor damage. The ship and her escorts passed through an inactive Russian minefield during the bombardment.[32] As she returned to Turkish waters,Yavuz came across the Russian minelayerPrut which scuttled herself with 700 mines on board.[33] During the engagement the escorting Russian destroyerLieutenant Pushkin was damaged by two ofYavuz's secondary battery 15 cm (5.9 in) shells. In response to the bombardment, Russia declared war on 1 November, thus forcing the Ottomans into the wider world war.[31] From this engagement, the Russians drew the conclusion that the entireBlack Sea Fleet would have to remain consolidated so it could not bedefeated in detail (one ship at a time) byYavuz.[34]
France and Great Britain bombarded the Turkish fortresses guarding the Dardanelles on 3 November and formally declared war two days later.[31] During the bombardment,Yavuz andMidilli stood guard, ready to intervene if the British attempted to pass through the straits.Yavuz thereafter returned to the Black Sea. On 6 November,Yavuz and thetorpedo cruiserBerk-i Satvet, operated off Sevastopol to distract the Russian fleet from troop transports moving along the Ottoman Black Sea coast.[30]
Yavuz, escorted byMidilli, intercepted the Russian Black Sea Fleet in theBattle of Cape Sarych on 18 November, some 17 nautical miles (31 km; 20 mi) off theCrimean coastline as the Russians returned from a bombardment ofTrebizond. Despite the noon hour the conditions were foggy and none of the capital ships were spotted initially. The Black Sea Fleet had experimented with concentrating fire from several ships under the control of one "master" ship before the war, andEvstafi held her fire untilIoann Zlatoust, the master ship, could seeYavuz. When the gunnery commands were finally received they showed a range over 4,000 yards (3,700 m) in excess ofEvstafi's own estimate of 7,700 yards (7,000 m), soEvstafi opened fire using her own data beforeYavuz turned to fire her broadside.[35] She scored a hit with her first salvo as a 12-inch shell partially penetrated the armor casemate protecting one ofYavuz's 15-centimeter (5.9 in) secondary guns. It detonated some of the ready-use ammunition, starting a fire that filled the casemate and killed the entire gun crew.[36] A total of thirteen men were killed and three were wounded.[31]Yavuz returned fire and hitEvstafi in the middle funnel; the shell detonated after it passed through the funnel and destroyed the antennae for the fire-control radio, so thatEvstafi could not correctIoann Zlatoust's inaccurate range data. The other Russian ships either usedIoann Zlatoust's incorrect data or never sawYavuz and failed to register any hits.Yavuz hitEvstafi four more times, although one shell failed to detonate,[36] before Souchon decided to break contact after 14 minutes of combat.[37] The four hits out of nineteen 28 cm (11 in) shells fired killed 34 men and wounded 24.[38]
The following month, on 5–6 December,Yavuz andMidilli provided protection for troop transports, and on 10 December,Yavuz bombardedBatum.[31] On 23 December,Yavuz and theprotected cruiserHamidiye escorted three transports to Trebizond. While returning from another transport escort operation on 26 December,Yavuz struck a mine that exploded beneath the conning tower, on the starboard side, about one nautical mile outside theBosphorus.[39] The explosion tore a 50-square-meter (540 sq ft) hole in the ship's hull, but the torpedo bulkhead held. Two minutes later,Yavuz struck a second mine on the port side, just forward of the main battery wing barbette; this tore open a 64-square-meter (690 sq ft) hole. The bulkhead bowed in 30 cm (12 in) but retained watertight protection of the ship's interior. However, some 600 tons of water flooded the ship.[31] There was no dock in the Ottoman Empire large enough to serviceYavuz, so temporary repairs were effected inside steelcofferdams, which were pumped out to create a dry work area around the damaged hull. The holes were patched with concrete, which held for several years before more permanent work was necessary.[39]
Still damaged,Yavuz sortied from the Bosphorus on 28 January and again on 7 February 1915 to helpMidilli escape the Russian fleet; she also covered the return ofHamidiye.Yavuz then underwent repair work to the mine damage until May.[39] On 1 April, with repairs incomplete,Yavuz left the Bosphorus in company withMidilli to cover the withdrawal ofHamidiye and the protected cruiserMecidiye, which had been sent to bombard Odessa. Strong currents, however, forced the cruisers 15 miles (24 km) east to the approaches of the Dnieper-BugLiman (bay) that led toNikolayev. As they sailed west after a course correction,Mecidiye struck a mine and sank, so this attack had to be aborted.[40] AfterYavuz andMidilli appeared off Sevastopol and sank two cargo steamers, the Russian fleet chased them all day, and detached several destroyers after dusk to attempt a torpedo attack. Only one destroyer,Gnevny, was able to close the distance and launch an attack, which missed.Yavuz andMidilli returned to the Bosphorus unharmed.[41]
On 25 April, the same day the Allieslanded at Gallipoli, Russian naval forces arrived off the Bosphorus and bombarded the forts guarding the strait. Two days laterYavuz Sultan Selim headed south to the Dardanelles to bombard Allied troops at Gallipoli, accompanied by thepre-dreadnought battleshipTurgut Reis. They were spotted at dawn from akite balloon as they were getting into position. When the first 15-inch (380 mm) round from thedreadnoughtQueen Elizabeth landed close by,Yavuz moved out of firing position, close to the cliffs, whereQueen Elizabeth could not engage her.[42] On 30 AprilYavuz tried again, but was spotted from the pre-dreadnoughtLord Nelson which had moved into the Dardanelles to bombard the Turkish headquarters atÇanakkale. The British ship only managed to fire five rounds beforeYavuz moved out of her line of sight.[43]
On 1 May,Yavuz sailed to the Bay of Beikos in the Bosphorus after the Russian fleet bombarded the fortifications at the mouth of the Bosphorus. Around 7 May,Yavuz sortied from the Bosphorus in search of Russian ships as far as Sevastopol, but found none. Running short on main gun ammunition, she did not bombard Sevastopol. While returning on the morning of 10 May,Yavuz's lookouts spotted two Russian pre-dreadnoughts,Tri Sviatitelia andPanteleimon, and sheopened fire. Within the first ten minutes she had been hit twice, although she was not seriously damaged. Souchon disengaged and headed for the Bosphorus, pursued by Russian light forces.[44] Later that month two of the ship's 15 cm guns were taken ashore for use there,[4] and the four 8.8 cm guns in the aft superstructure were removed at the same time.[45] Four 8.8 cmanti-aircraft were installed on the aft superstructure by the end of 1915.[46]
On 18 July,Midilli struck a mine; the ship took on some 600 long tons (610 t) of water and was no longer able to escort coal convoys fromZonguldak to the Bosphorus.Yavuz was assigned to the task, and on 10 August she escorted a convoy of five coal transports, along withHamidiye and three torpedo boats. During transit, the convoy was attacked by the Russian submarineTyulen, which sank one of the colliers. The following day,Tyulen and another submarine tried to attackYavuz as well, though they were unable to reach a firing position.[47] Two Russian destroyers,Bystry andPronzitelni, attacked a Turkish convoy escorted byHamidiye and two torpedo boats on 5 September.Hamidiye's 15 cm (5.9 in) guns broke down during combat, and the Turks summonedYavuz, but she arrived too late: the Turkish colliers had already been beached to avoid capture by the Russian destroyers.[47]
On 21 September,Yavuz Sultan Selim was again sent out of the Bosphorus to drive off three Russian destroyers which had been attacking Turkish coal ships. Escort missions continued until 14 November, when the submarineMorzh nearly hitYavuz with two torpedoes just outside the Bosphorus. Admiral Souchon decided the risk to the battlecruiser was too great, and suspended the convoy system. In its stead, only those ships fast enough to make the journey from Zonguldak to Constantinople in a single night were permitted; outside the Bosphorus they would be met by torpedo boats to defend them against the lurking submarines.[48] By the end of the summer, the completion of two new Russian dreadnought battleships,Imperatritsa Mariya andImperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya, further curtailedYavuz's activities.[49]
Souchon sentYavuz to Zonguldak on 8 January to protect an approaching empty collier from Russian destroyers in the area, but the Russians sank the transport ship beforeYavuz arrived. On the return trip to the Bosphorus,Yavuz encounteredImperatritsa Ekaterina. The two shipsengaged in a brief artillery duel, beginning at a range of 18,500 meters.Yavuz turned to the southwest, and in the first four minutes of the engagement, fired five salvos from her main guns. Neither ship scored any hits, though shell splinters from near misses struckYavuz.[50] This was the only battle between dreadnoughts on the Black Sea to ever occur.[51] Though nominally much faster thanImperatritsa Ekaterina, the Turkish battlecruiser's bottom was badly fouled and her propeller shafts were in poor condition. This made it difficult forYavuz to escape from the powerful Russian battleship, which was reported to have reached 23.5 kn (44 km/h; 27 mph).[52][d]
Russian forces were making significant gains into Ottoman territory during theCaucasus Campaign. In an attempt to prevent further advances by the Russian army,Yavuz rushed 429 officers and men, a mountain artillery battery, machine gun and aviation units, 1,000 rifles, and 300 cases of munitions to Trebizond on 4 February.[53] On 4 March, the Russian navy landed a detachment of some 2,100 men, along with mountain guns and horses, on either side of the port ofAtina. The Turks were caught by surprise and forced to evacuate.[54] Another landing took place at Kavata Bay, some 5 miles east of Trebizond, in June.[55] In late June, the Turks counterattacked and penetrated around 20 miles into the Russian lines.Yavuz andMidilli conducted a series of coastal operations to support the Turkish attacks. On 4 July,Yavuz shelled the port ofTuapse, where she sank a steamer and a motorschooner.[56] The Turkish ships sailed northward to circle back behind the Russians before the two Russian dreadnoughts left Sevastopol to try to attack them. They then returned to the Bosphorus,[57] whereYavuz was docked for repairs to herpropeller shafts until September.[58]
Over the course of the year, the Russian Navy embarked on a campaign of offensive minelaying off the Bosporus, which hampered Ottoman operations in the Black Sea.[59] In addition, the coal shortage continued to worsen until Souchon was forced to suspend operations byYavuz andMidilli through 1917.[60] Early on 10 July 1917, a Royal Naval Air ServiceHandley Page Type O bomber, flying fromMoudros, Greece, tried to bombYavuz from 800 ft (240 m) with eight 112 lb (51 kg) bombs. It missed but instead sank the destroyerYadigar-i Millet, the largest ship sunk by air during the First World War.[61] An armistice between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was signed in December 1917 following theBolshevik revolution. The agreement, which ended fighting in the Black Sea, was formalized in theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, coal started to arrive again from eastern Turkey.[30][62]
In January 1918, KzSAlbert Stoelzel relieved Ackermann as the ship's commander.[63] On 20 January,Yavuz andMidilli left the Dardanelles under the command of Vice AdmiralHubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz, who had replaced Souchon the previous September. Rebeur-Paschwitz's intention was to draw Allied naval forces away from Palestine in support of Turkish forces there.[62] Outside the straits, in the course of what became known as theBattle of Imbros,Yavuz surprised and sank themonitorsRaglan andM28 which were at anchor and unsupported by the pre-dreadnoughts that should have been guarding them. Rebeur-Paschwitz then decided to proceed to the port ofMudros; there the British pre-dreadnought battleshipAgamemnon was raising steam to attack the Turkish ships.[64] While en route,Midilli struck several mines and sank;[62]Yavuz hit three mines as well.[65] Retreating to the Dardanelles and pursued by the British destroyersHMS Lizard andTigress,[66] she was intentionally beached nearNagara Point just outside the Dardanelles.[62] The British attackedYavuz with bombers from No. 2 Wing of theRoyal Naval Air Service while she was grounded and hit her twice, but the bombs from the light aircraft were not heavy enough to do any serious damage. The monitorM17 attempted to shellYavuz on the evening of 24 January, but only managed to fire ten rounds before withdrawing to escape the Turkish artillery fire.[67] The submarineE14 was sent to destroy the damaged ship, but was too late;[68] the old ex-German pre-dreadnoughtTurgut Reis had towedYavuz off and returned her to the safety of Constantinople.[69]Yavuz was crippled by the extensive damage; cofferdams were again built around the hull,[70] and repairs lasted from 7 August to 19 October.[69]
Before the repair work was carried out,Yavuz escorted the members of the Ottoman Armistice Commission toOdessa on 30 March 1918, after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. After returning to Constantinople she sailed in May to Sevastopol where she had her hull cleaned and some leaks repaired.Yavuz and several destroyers sailed forNovorossiysk on 28 June to intern the remaining Soviet warships, but they had already been scuttled when the Turkish ships arrived. The destroyers remained, butYavuz returned to Sevastopol.[71] During the return trip, she carried Field MarshalHermann von Eichhorn back to Sevastopol. The ship got underway again on 6 July and arrived back in Constantinople on 12 July; at that time, she was commanded byKorvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain)Heinrich Lampe, who had been theexecutive officer under Stoelzel.[72] Two days later, the ship waslaid up for the rest of the war.[71] While in Sevastopol, dockyard workers scraped fouling from the ship's bottom.Yavuz subsequently returned to Constantinople, where from 7 August to 19 October a concrete cofferdam was installed to repair one of the three areas damaged by mines.[52]
On 1 November, theArmistice of Mudros went into effect, ending the war for the Ottoman Empire.[59] The German navy formally transferred ownership of the vessel to the Turkish government the next day.[73] According to the terms of theTreaty of Sèvres between the Ottoman Empire and the Western Allies,Yavuz was to have been handed over to the Royal Navy as war reparations, but this was not done due to theTurkish War of Independence, which broke out immediately after World War I ended, as Greece attempted to seize territory from the crumbling Ottoman Empire. After modern Turkey emerged from the war victorious, the Treaty of Sèvres was discarded and theTreaty of Lausanne was signed in its place in 1923. Under this treaty, the new Turkish republic retained possession of much of its fleet, includingYavuz.[74]
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During the 1920s, a commitment to refurbishYavuz as the centerpiece of the new country's fleet was the only constant element of the various naval policies which were put forward.[75] The battlecruiser remained inİzmit until 1926, in a neglected state:[76] only two of her boilers worked, she could not steer or steam, and she still had two unrepaired scars from the mine damage in 1918. Enough money was raised to allow the purchase of a new 26,000-metric-ton (26,000-long-ton)floating dock from Germany, asYavuz could not be towed anywhere without risk of her sinking in rough seas.[77] The French company Atelier et Chantiers de St. Nazaire-Penhöet was contracted in December 1926 to oversee the subsequent refit, which was carried out by theGölcük Naval Shipyard.[78] Work proceeded from 1927 to 1930; it was delayed when several compartments of the dock collapsed while being pumped out.Yavuz was slightly damaged before she could be refloated and the dock had to be repaired before the repair work could begin. The Minister of Marine, Ihsan Bey (İhsan Eryavuz), was convicted of embezzlement in the resulting investigation.[77]
Other delays were caused by fraud charges which resulted in the abolition of the Ministry of Marine. The Turkish Military's Chief of Staff,Marshal Fevzi, opposed naval construction and slowed down all naval building programs following the fraud charges. Intensive work on the battlecruiser only began after the Greek Navy conducted a large-scale naval exercise off Turkey in September 1928 and the Turkish government perceived a need to counter Greece's naval superiority.[79] The Turks also ordered four destroyers and two submarines from Italian shipyards.[80] The Greek government proposed a 10-year "holiday" from naval building modeled on theWashington Treaty when it learned thatYavuz was to be brought back into service, though it reserved the right to build two new cruisers. The Turkish government rejected this proposal, and claimed that the ship was intended to counter the growing strength of theSoviet Navy in the Black Sea.[81]
Over the course of the refit, the mine damage was repaired,[65] her displacement was increased to 23,100 t (22,700 long tons), and the hull was slightly reworked. She was reduced in length by a half meter but her beam increased by 10 cm (4 in).Yavuz was equipped with new boilers and a French fire control system for her main battery guns. Two of the 15 cm guns were removed from their casemate positions.[82] Her armor protection was not upgraded to take the lessons of theBattle of Jutland into account, and she had only 2 inches (5.1 cm) of armor above her magazines.[83]Yavuz was recommissioned in 1930, resuming her role as flagship of the Turkish Navy,[84] and performed better than expected in her speed trials, reaching a speed of 27.1 knots (50.2 km/h; 31.2 mph). Her subsequent gunnery and fire control trials were also successful. The four destroyers, which were needed to protect the battlecruiser, entered service between 1931 and 1932; their performance never met the design specifications.[76][85] In response toYavuz's return to service, the Soviet Union transferred the battleshipParizhskaya Kommuna and light cruiserProfintern from the Baltic in late 1929 to ensure that the Black Sea Fleet retained parity with the Turkish Navy.[80] The Greek government also responded by ordering two destroyers.[86]
In 1933, she tookPrime Ministerİsmet İnönü fromVarna toIstanbul and carried theShah of Iran from Trebizond toSamsun the following year.[84]Yavuz Sultan Selim had her name officially shortened toYavuz Sultan in 1930 and then toYavuz in 1936.[87] Another short refit was conducted in 1938, and in November that year she carried the remains ofMustafa Kemal Atatürk from Istanbul to İzmit.[78][82] She and the other ships of the navy were considered outdated by the British Naval Attache by 1937, partly due to their substandard anti-aircraft armament, but in 1938 the Turkish government began planning to expand the force.[88] Under these plans the surface fleet was to comprise two 10,000-ton cruisers and twelve destroyers.Yavuz would be retained until the second cruiser was commissioned in 1945, and the navy expected to build a 23,000-ton ship between 1950 and 1960. The naval building program did not come about, as the foreign shipyards which were to build the ships concentrated on the needs of their own nations leading up toWorld War II.[89]
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Yavuz remained in service throughout World War II, but Turkey remained neutral during the conflict.Yavuz was kept at Gölcük, defended by torpedo nets and reinforced anti-aircraft units. The ship had her main mast removed to make it more difficult to determine her course and to improvefields of fire for her anti-aircraft guns.[76][90] In November 1939 she andParizhskaya Kommuna were the only capital ships in the Black Sea region, andLife magazine reported thatYavuz was superior to the Soviet ship because the latter was in poor condition.[91] In 1941, her anti-aircraft battery was strengthened to four 88 mm (3.5 in) guns, ten 40 mm (1.6 in) guns, and four 20 mm (0.79 in) guns. These were later increased to twenty-two 40 mm guns and twenty-four 20 mm guns.[82]Degaussing equipment was installed aboard the ship (and several other Turkish warships) in 1943 to protect them against magnetic mines.[92]
On 5 April 1946, the American battleshipUSS Missouri, light cruiserProvidence, and destroyerPower arrived in Istanbul to return the remains of Turkish ambassadorMünir Ertegün.[93]Yavuz greeted the ships in the Bosphorus, where she andMissouri exchanged 19-gun salutes.[94] After 1948, the ship was stationed in either İzmit[82] orGölcük.[78] The ship continued to participate in the annual fleet maneuvers that were held every September until 1950.[92] She was decommissioned from active service on 20 December 1950 and placed inreserve; another ceremonial decommissioning was performed on 7 June 1954, and she was soonstricken from the Navy register on 14 November.[76] When Turkey joinedNATO in 1952, the ship was assigned thehull number B70.[95] Though the ship had been removed from the naval register, she continued to be used as a stationary headquarters of the Battle Fleet Command and the Mine Fleet Command until 1960.[92]
The Turkish government offered to sell the ship to theWest German government in 1963 as amuseum ship, but the offer was declined due to financial reasons.[76][82] Unable to afford the cost of preserving the ship itself,[92] and with no other buyers available,[76] Turkey sold the ship to M.K.E. Seyman in 1971 forscrapping.[78] She was towed to the breakers on 7 June 1973, and the work was completed in February 1976.[78][82] By the time of her disposal she was the last dreadnought in existence outside the United States.[96] She was the last surviving ship built by the Imperial German Navy, and the longest-serving dreadnought-type ship in any navy.[97] Several parts of the ship have been preserved, including three of her screws (which were sent to the Naval Command and to theIstanbul Naval Museum) and her foremast (which was placed at the naval academy).[92] Some additional artifacts from the ship were sent to Germany, where they were displayed at the Historical Museum at theMürwik Naval School inFlensburg and theDeutsches Museum inMunich. Additionally, a 6 cm (2.4 in)field gun that had been carried aboard the ship for use bylanding parties was removed from the ship in Messina during preparations for war in August 1914 was placed on display at theLa Spezia Naval Base museum.[76]
 Kaiserliche Marine | |
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 Ottoman Navyand Turkish Navy |
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in January 1918 | |
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