 SMSBreslau in 1912 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | Breslau |
| Namesake | City ofBreslau (Now part of Poland as Wrocław) |
| Builder | A.G. Vulcan |
| Laid down | 1910 |
| Launched | 16 May 1911 |
| Commissioned | 10 May 1912 |
| Fate | Transferred to theOttoman Empire 16 August 1914 |
 Ottoman Empire | |
| Name | Midilli |
| Namesake | Island ofMidilli |
| Acquired | 16 August 1914 |
| Fate | Mined & sunk offImbros, 20 January 1918 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Magdeburg-classcruiser |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 138.7 m (455 ft 1 in) |
| Beam | 13.5 m (44 ft 3 in) |
| Draft | 4.4 m (14 ft 5 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 27.5knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph) |
| Range | 5,820 nmi (10,780 km; 6,700 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
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| Armor |
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SMSBreslau was aMagdeburg-classcruiser of theImperial German Navy, built in the early 1910s and named after theLower Silesian city ofBreslau. Following her commissioning,Breslau and the battlecruiserGoeben were assigned to theMittelmeerdivision (Mediterranean Division) in response to theBalkan Wars. After evading British warships in the Mediterranean to reachConstantinople,Breslau andGoeben were transferred to theOttoman Empire in August 1914, to entice the Ottomans to join the Central Powers inWorld War I. The two ships, along with several other Ottoman vessels, raided Russian ports in October 1914, prompting a Russian declaration of war. The ships were renamedMidilli andYavûz Sultân Selîm, respectively, and saw extensive service with the Ottoman fleet, primarily in the Black Sea against the RussianBlack Sea Fleet.
Midilli was active in layingminefields off the Russian coast, bombarding Russian ports and installations and, because of a shortage of Ottoman merchant ships, transporting troops and supplies to the Black Sea ports supplying Ottoman troops fighting in theCaucasus Campaign. She was lightly damaged several times by Russian ships, but the most serious damage was inflicted by amine in 1915, which kept her out of service for half of a year. The ship was sunk by mines in January 1918 during theBattle of Imbros, with the loss of the vast majority of her crew.
TheMagdeburg-class cruisers were designed in response to the development of the BritishInvincible-classbattlecruisers, which were faster than all existing German light cruisers. As a result, speed of the new ships must be increased. To accomplish this, more powerful engines were fitted and theirhulls were lengthened to improve their hydrodynamic efficiency. These changes increased top speed from 25.5 to 27knots (47.2 to 50.0 km/h; 29.3 to 31.1 mph) over the precedingKolberg-class cruisers. To save weight,longitudinal framing was adopted for the first time in a major German warship design. In addition, theMagdeburgs were the first cruisers to carrybelt armor, which was necessitated by the adoption of more powerful 6-inch (150 mm) guns in the latest British cruisers.[1]
Breslau was 138.7 meters (455 ft 1 in)long overall and had abeam of 13.5 m (44 ft 3 in) and adraft of 4.4 m (14 ft 5 in) forward. Shedisplaced 4,564 t (4,492long tons) normally and up to 5,281 t (5,198 long tons) atfull load. The ship had a shortforecastle deck and a minimalsuperstructure that consisted primarily of aconning tower located on the forecastle. She was fitted with two polemasts with platforms forsearchlights.Breslau had a crew of 18 officers and 336 enlisted men.[2]
Her propulsion system consisted of two sets ofAEG-Vulcansteam turbines driving four 2.47-meter (8 ft 1 in) propellers. They were designed to give 25,000shaft horsepower (19,000 kW), but reached 33,482 shp (24,968 kW) in service. These were powered by sixteen coal-fired Marine-typewater-tube boilers, although they were later altered to usefuel oil that was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. The boilers were vented through fourfunnels locatedamidships. These gave the ship a top speed of 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph).Breslau carried 1,200 t (1,181 long tons) of coal, and an additional 106 t (104 long tons) of oil that gave her a range of approximately 5,820nautical miles (10,780 km; 6,700 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).[2][a]
The ship was armed with amain battery of twelve10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/45 guns in single pedestal mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle, eight were located on thebroadside, four on either side, and two were side by side aft. The guns had a maximum elevation of 30 degrees, which allowed them to engage targets out to 12,700 m (13,900 yd).[6] They were supplied with 1,800 rounds of ammunition, for 150 shells per gun. By 1917, the 10.5 cm guns were replaced with eight15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns, one fore and aft and three on each broadside. She was also equipped with a pair of 50 cm (19.7 in)torpedo tubes with fivetorpedoes; the tubes were submerged in the hull on the broadside. She could also carry 120mines.[7]
Breslau was protected by a waterlinearmor belt and a curved armor deck. The deck was flat across most of the hull, but angled downward at the sides and connected to the bottom edge of the belt. The belt and deck were both 60 mm (2.4 in) thick. The conning tower had 100 mm (3.9 in) thick sides.[7][5]
Breslau was ordered under the contract name "ErsatzFalke" and waslaid down at theAG Vulcan shipyard inStettin in early 1910. At herlaunching ceremony on 16 May 1911, she was christened by the mayor ofBreslau, the ship's namesake. After her launching,fitting-out work commenced and lasted until mid-1912. On 10 May, she wascommissioned to beginsea trials, which were interrupted to escortHohenzollern—Kaiser Wilhelm II'syacht—first to theKiel Week sailingregatta and then for the Kaiser's annual summer cruise to Norwegian waters. The ship's first commander wasFregattenkapitän (FK—Frigate Captain)Lebrecht von Klitzing. Only on 23 August couldBreslau return to her initial testing, which were interrupted again by the annual autumn maneuvers of theHigh Seas Fleet, held from 12 to 20 September, during whichBreslau escorted Wilhlem II again. On 26 September,Breslau was assigned to the Scouting Unit.[7][8][b]
The ship's stint in the main fleet's reconnaissance force was to be short-lived; already on 3 November, she was ordered to join the battlecruiserGoeben to form theMittelmeerdivision (Mediterranean Division), under the command ofKonteradmiral (Rear Admiral)Wilhelm Souchon. The German Navy decided it needed a permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean in the aftermath of theBalkan Wars that began in 1912.Breslau sailed fromWilhelmshaven on 5 November, steaming at top speed for the eastern Mediterranean. After arriving inAlexandria inOttoman Egypt,Breslau met with theunprotected cruiserGeier and theprotected cruiserHertha.Breslau then sailed on to visit a series of ports in Greece and theOttoman Empire, ultimately arriving in the Ottoman capital atConstantinople. By 25 March 1913, the ship had sailed west toBrindisi, Italy, whereErnst August, the Kaiser's son-in-law, came aboard. From there, the ship sailed toCorfu, where she embarkedPrince Heinrich, the Kaiser's brother. She then carried both men toPiraeus, Greece, for the funeral of KingGeorge I of Greece, who had been assassinated on 18 March.[3][10]
In April, theGreat Powers decided to implement ablockade of Montenegro to force the government to end theSiege of Scutari and allow the city to fall under the control ofAlbania.Breslau joined an international naval force in theAdriatic Sea that included warships from Britain, France,Austria-Hungary,Italy, andRussia. After the Montenegrin government withdrew from the city, the international force sent landing parties ashore at the mouth of theBojana and then move overland to Scutari. The landing parties were to take temporary control with a provisional international government.Breslau contributed 100 men to the occupation force. The Powers agreed to place Klitzing in the role of civil commissioner over the interim government. The crew aboardBreslau was having difficulty keeping the ship operational with their reduced number, and so Germany sent the so-called Scutari Detachment toPola, Austria-Hungary, whichBreslau embarked on 30 June. She took them to the mouth of the Bojana and exchanged the soldiers for her landing party on 6 July. The ship remained in theGulf of Drin until 6 August, when she departed to return to Constantinople, arriving there four days later.[3]
Breslau remained in Constantinople from mid-August until 27 October. During this period of rest, her crew and that of the German station shipLoreley helped to suppress a major fire in the French embassy in the city, and then assist with cleanup of the flood damage. After getting underway again in late October,Breslau initially cruised in the eastern Mediterranean, and then in early January 1914, she returned to the mouth of the Bojana. From there, she steamed north toTrieste, Austria-Hungary, where she underwent an overhaul that lasted until 18 March. She thereafter joinedGoeben to escortHohenzollern on the Kaiser's Mediterranean cruise; the three vessels steamed together fromVenice, Italy, to Corfu.Breslau then departed to return to her patrol area off theLevant. The ship returned to the Adriatic and anchored atDurazzo, Albania, on 20 June in response to domestic unrest in the country.Breslau was to protect the Albanian king,Prince Wilhelm. After the situation calmed, the Germans left behind a detachment of ten men to guard the German embassy. From there,Breslau steamed to Corfu, where she rendezvoused withGoeben on 8 July. Souchon gave instructions to both vessels' crews in the event that the tensions created over theassassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand led to war in Europe. On 1 August, as theJuly Crisis spiraled out of control,Breslau returned to Durazzo to pick up the ten men who had been left at the embassy. She then rejoinedGoeben; the two ships received themobilization order on the night of 2 August.[11]
At the outbreak ofWorld War I,Breslau andGoeben were to interdict French transports transferring troops fromAlgeria to France. On 3 August 1914, Souchon's two ships were steaming off Algeria; shortly after 06:00,Breslau bombarded the embarkation port ofBône whileGoeben attackedPhilippeville. The attacks caused minimal damage, however, and Souchon quickly broke off and returned toMessina to replenish his coal stocks. Although the British were not yet at war with Germany, the two British battlecruisersHMS Indomitable andIndefatigable shadowed the German ships while en route to Messina. After partially replenishingGoeben's coal on the 5th, Souchon arranged to meet acollier in the Aegean.[12]Goeben andBreslau left port the following morning bound forConstantinople,pursued by the BritishMediterranean Fleet.[13] That evening, the1st Cruiser Squadron, commanded by Rear AdmiralErnest Troubridge, intercepted the Germans;Breslau briefly exchanged fire with the light cruiserGloucester before Troubridge broke off the attack, fearingGoeben's powerful 28 cm (11 in) guns.[14]
On 8 August,Goeben andBreslau met the collier off the island ofDonoussa nearNaxos, and two days later they entered theDardanelles, under escort of an Ottoman torpedo boat. To circumvent neutrality requirements, Germany transferred the two ships to theOttoman Navy on 16 August, and officially the Ottomans purchased the two ships as replacement for the battleshipsReşadiye andSultan Osman I, which had been confiscated by the BritishRoyal Navy shortly before they were completed at British shipyards. The supposed sale was simply a ruse, as only a small number of Ottoman naval personnel came aboard the ships, and on 23 September, Souchon accepted an offer to command the Ottoman fleet.Breslau was renamedMidilli after the Ottoman name forLesbos, whileGoeben was renamedYavûz Sultân Selîm; their German crews remained with the ships and donned Ottoman uniforms andfezzes. The British did not accept the sale of the ships to the Ottoman Empire and stationed a blockading force outside the Dardanelles with orders to attack the ships if they appeared, regardless of the flag they flew.[15][16]
Over the following month, the German and Ottoman governments negotiated the terms of the agreement that would bring the Ottomans into the war on the side of theCentral Powers. By 22 October, the situation was resolved, and the Ottoman war minister,Enver Pasha, ordered the fleet to mobilize and prepare for offensive operations against Russia. There would be no declaration of war first, however.[15]
On the evening of 27 October 1914,Midilli and the rest of the Ottoman fleet left theBosporus and steamed into theBlack Sea, ostensibly to conduct maneuvers. Instead, the fleet split into four groups to attack Russian bases on the other side of the Black Sea;Midilli and another cruiser were tasked with mining theStrait of Kerch and then attacking the port ofNovorossisk.[17]Midilli laid sixty mines in the Strait,[18] which later claimed two Russian merchant ships,[19] and then joined the other ship in bombarding Novorossisk. They set the port's oil tanks on fire, damaged seven merchant ships, and sankNikolai of 1,085 gross register tons (GRT).[18] Although the damage inflicted on the Russians was relatively light, it forced the Russians to declare war on the Ottoman Empire, bringing the country into the war on the side of Germany.[20]
In early November 1914, whileMidilli was operating in the eastern Black Sea and covering Ottoman transports, she was detached to shell the Russian port ofPoti in retaliation for Russian attacks on Ottoman shipping.[21] On 17 November, she sortied withYavûz Sultân Selîm, under the command of Souchon, in an attempt to intercept theBlack Sea Fleet as it returned from bombardingTrebizond.Midilli discovered the Russian ships offCape Sarych, the southern tip of theCrimea in poor visibility at short range. In theresulting engagement on 18 November, Souchon orderedMidilli to assume a safer position toYavûz's rear, but she was engaged by the pre-dreadnoughtsTri Sviatitelia andRostislav without effect before Souchon ordered the Ottoman ships to disengage shortly afterward.[22] The cruiser spent the rest of the month escorting shipping to Trebizond. On 5 December, she escorted a small raiding party toAkkerman,Bessarabia, that was intended to attack railroad installations. On the return voyage,Midilli bombardedSevastopol, damaging someminesweepers at anchor.[23]
A month later, on 23 December,Midilli sortied to rendezvous withYavûz Sultân Selîm offSinope, and in the darkness the following morning she encountered the Russian transportOleg, which was intended to be sunk as a blockship inZonguldak.Midilli quickly sankOleg but was forced to turn away after spottingRostislav. She then encountered another blockship,Athos, and forced her crew toscuttle the ship. She then briefly engaged Russiandestroyers before moving ahead of the Russian fleet to monitor their progress. Ottoman coastal guns forced the remaining blockships to scuttle in deep water.[24]
Midilli conducted a series of sorties against the Russians in early 1915, including an operation in concert with the cruiserHamidiye in January, during which they inadvertently came into contact with the Black Sea Fleet.Midilli scored a hit on the battleshipEvstafi's main battery turret before the Ottoman ships withdrew.[25]
On 3 April, the Ottoman fleet sortied to attack Russian transports offOdessa.Midilli andYavûz Sultân Selîm provided the covering force for the attack, which failed after the cruiserMecidiye struck a mine and sank off Odessa. The Russian fleet attempted to intercept the Ottoman force, butMidilli andYavûz Sultân Selîm were able to escape undamaged. The two ships, joined byHamidiye, conducted a sweep to attack Russian transports on 6 May, but found no targets.[26] Later that month, detachments of naval infantry fromMidilli andYavûz Sultân Selîm were landed to assist in the defense against theAllied landings at Gallipoli.[27] On the night of 10/11 June,Midilli encountered the Russian destroyersDerzky andGnevny off Zonguldak. In a brief firefight, the cruiser crippledGnevny with a hit in her starboard engine compartment that broke the main steam line to the engines, but was forced to turn away whenGnevny fired five torpedoes at her.Midilli was hit by gunfire seven times herself with only slight damage andGnevny was towed back to Sevastopol the following day byDerzky.[28][29]
Midilli struck a mine on 18 July as she sailed from Constantinople to escort a merchant ship through the minefields defending the capital. The explosion under No. 4boiler room killed eight crewmen and she was flooded with over 600 t (590 long tons) of water. The ship made it to port atİstinye and an inspection revealed that she was not badly damaged. Hampered by a shortage of trained personnel and material, however, the ship's repairs took quite a long time.[30]
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The ship did not return to service until February 1916, and the opportunity was taken to replace two of her 10.5 cm guns with 15 cm pieces. On 27 February, she was used to quickly transport 71 officers and men of a machine-gun company and a significant stock of supplies and munitions to Trebizond, which was then under heavy pressure from the Russian army. While en route on the night of the 28th, she encountered the Russian destroyersPronzitelni andBespokoiny.Midilli evaded the Russians and reached Trebizond. On 2 March, she attempted to attack a pair of destroyers north of Zonguldak, but she was unable to catch them. The ship then returned to the Bosporus. On 11 March,Midilli made another run, this time carrying 211 soldiers and twelve barrels of fuel and lubricating oil, which were successfully landed on the 13th. She then stopped inSamsun, where she picked up 30 t (30 long tons; 33 short tons) of flour, one ton of maize, and 30 tons of coal, before returning to the Bosporus.[31][c]
A third supply operation followed on 3 April, when the ship brought 107 men, 5,000 rifles, and 794 cases of ammunition to Trebizond. After making the delivery, the ship met theU-boatU-33 and proceeded to attack Russian forces.Midilli shelled Russian positions atSürmene Bay, where she set the minesweeperT.233 on fire, which was then destroyed byU-33's deck gun.Midilli then turned north and sank a Russian sailing vessel offTuapse before running into the powerfuldreadnought battleshipImperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya.Midilli fled at high speed after beingstraddled several times, though she was not damaged.[33][d] In early May, the cruiser laid twominefields, each of 60 mines. The first of these was laid off theChilia branch of theDanube River and the other offCape Tarkhankut in the Crimea. On the second trip she bombardedYevpatoria after laying her mines.Midilli transported more troops to Sinope and Samsun on 30 May, returning with grain and tobacco as deck cargo.[32]
In July,Midilli andYavûz Sultân Selîm sortied to support the Ottoman counterattack at Trebizond, which broke the Russian lines and advanced some 20 km (12 mi).Midilli sank a pair of Russian ships offSochi on 4 July and destroyed another that had been torpedoed the previous day. She then rejoinedYavûz Sultân Selîm for the return to the Bosporus, during which the two ships evaded strong Russian forces attempting to intercept them. Later that month, on 21 July,Midilli attempted to lay a minefield off Novorossisk, but Russian wireless interception allowed the dreadnoughtImperatritsa Mariya and several destroyers to leave port and attempt to cutMidilli off from the Bosporus. The two ships encountered each other at 13:05, andMidilli quickly turned back south. Her stern 15 cm gun kept Russian destroyers at bay, but the ship only slowly drew out of range ofImperatritsa Mariya's heavy guns. Several near misses rained shell splinters on the deck and wounded several men. Heavy use of smoke screens and a rain squall allowedMidilli to break contact with her Russian pursuers, and she reached the Bosporus early the following morning. By the end of 1916, a severe coal shortage preventedMidilli andYavûz Sultân Selîm from conducting offensive operations.[34]
In May 1917,Midilli laid a minefield off the mouth of theDanube; while there, she destroyed the wireless station onFidonisi Island and captured 11 prisoners. The minefield she laid later sank the destroyerLeytenant Zatsarenni on 30 June. WhileMidilli was at sea, a Russian force includingImperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya, which had by then been renamedSvobodnaya Rossiya, raided the Bosporus. Returning to port,Midilli was spotted by the Russian fleet, which attempted to cut her off from the safety of the Bosporus.Midilli raced toward port, while salvos fromSvobodnaya Rossiya fell around her. The destroyerGnevny closed to attack, butMidilli's 15 cm guns drove her off. The cruiser managed to reach port without damage; this was the last engagement of the war between the former German warships and the Russian fleet.[35][e] On 1 November,Midilli left the Bosporus to conduct a sweep for Russian warships. The Russians observed the departure and attempted to attack the cruiser withSvobodnaya Rossiya and the new battleshipVolya, but mutiny aboardSvobodnaya Rossiya prevented the force from interceptingMidilli before she slipped back into port that night.[37][f]
On 20 January 1918,Midilli andYavûz Sultân Selîm 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 Ottoman forces there.[39] Outside the straits, in the course of what became known as theBattle of Imbros, the two Ottoman ships 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 Ottoman ships.[40] While en route to MudrosMidilli struck a total of five mines and sank;[41]Yavûz hit three mines as well and was forced to beach to avoid sinking.[42] Three hundred and thirty ofMidilli's crew were killed in her sinking,[7] though the number of survivors differ. According to Langensiepen & Güleryüz, 162 survivors were rescued by British destroyers,[43] but Hildebrand, Röhr, and Steinmetz state that only 133 men were rescued from the ship.[44]
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40°3′42″N25°58′42″E / 40.06167°N 25.97833°E /40.06167; 25.97833
