 SMSEmden interned at Scapa Flow after World War I | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | Emden |
| Namesake | SMS Emden |
| Builder | AG Weser,Bremen |
| Laid down | December 1914 |
| Launched | 1 February 1916 |
| Commissioned | 16 December 1916 |
| Fate | Ceded to France, scrapped in 1926 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Königsberg-classlight cruiser |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 151.4 m (496 ft 9 in) |
| Beam | 14.2 m (46 ft 7 in) |
| Draft | 5.96 m (19 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 27.5knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph) |
| Range | 4,850 nmi (8,980 km; 5,580 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Crew |
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| Armament |
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| Armor |
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SMSEmden ("His Majesty's ShipEmden")[a] was aGermanlight cruiser belonging to theKönigsberg class, built during theFirst World War.Emden served in the GermanKaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) until the end of the war, at which point she was ceded to France. The ship was named after the previousEmden, which had been destroyed at theBattle of Cocos earlier in the war. She mounted anIron Cross on her stem-head in honor of the earlierEmden. The new cruiser was laid down in 1914 at theAG Weser shipyard in Bremen, launched in February 1916, and commissioned into theHigh Seas Fleet in December 1916. Armed with eight15 cm SK L/45 guns, the ship had a top speed of 27.5 kn (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph).
After her commissioning, she was assigned to serve as a flotilla leader fortorpedo boats. She participated in only one major action,Operation Albion, in October 1917. There, she shelled Russian gun batteries and troop positions and engaged Russiandestroyers andgunboats. The ship also led a successful, albeit minor, operation against British shipping in the North Sea in December 1917. After the end of the war, she was interned with the rest of the German fleet inScapa Flow. On 21 June 1919, the interned fleetscuttled itself, thoughEmden was run aground by British ships before she could sink completely. Ceded to France in theTreaty of Versailles, she was too badly damaged by the attempted scuttling and beaching to see service with the French Navy, so was instead used as a target after 1922, and broken up for scrap in 1926.
Design work began on theKönigsberg-class cruisers before construction had begun on their predecessors of theWiesbaden class. The new ships were broadly similar to the earlier cruisers, with only minor alterations in the arrangement of some components, including the forward broadside guns, which were raised a level to reduce their tendency to be washed out in heavy seas. They were also fitted with largerconning towers.[1]
Emden was 151.4 meters (496 ft 9 in)long overall and had abeam of 14.2 m (46 ft 7 in) and adraft of 5.96 m (19 ft 7 in) forward. Shedisplaced 5,440 t (5,350long tons) normally and up to 7,125 t (7,012 long tons) atfull load. The ship had a fairly smallsuperstructure that consisted primarily of a conning tower forward. She was fitted with a pair of polemasts, the fore just aft of the conning tower and the mainmast further aft. Herhull had a longforecastle that extended for the first third of the ship, stepping down tomain deck level just aft of the conning tower, before reducing a deck further at the mainmast for a shortquarterdeck. The ship had a crew of 17 officers and 458 enlisted men.[2]
Her propulsion system consisted of two sets ofsteam turbines that drove a pair ofscrew propellers. Steam was provided by ten coal-fired and two oil-fired Marine-typewater-tube boilers that were vented through threefunnels. The engines were rated to produce 31,000shaft horsepower (23,000 kW), which provided a top speed of 27.5knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph). At a more economical cruising speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), the ship had a range of 4,850nautical miles (8,980 km; 5,580 mi).[2]
The ship was armed with amain battery of eight15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns in singlepedestal mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle, four were located amidships, two on either side, and two were arranged in asuperfiring pair aft.[3] They were supplied with 1,040 rounds of ammunition, for 130 shells per gun.Königsberg also carried two8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 anti-aircraft guns mounted on thecenterline astern of the funnels. She was also equipped with a pair of 50 cm (19.7 in)torpedo tubes with eight torpedoes in deck-mounted swivel launchersamidships. She also carried 200mines.[2]
The ship was protected by a waterlinearmor belt that was 60 mm (2.4 in) thick amidships. Protection for the ship's internals was reinforced with a curved armordeck that was 60 mm thick; the deck sloped downward at the sides and connected to the bottom edge of the belt armor. The conning tower had 100 mm (3.9 in) thick sides.[2]
Emden was ordered under the contract name "ErsatzNymphe",[b] and waslaid down at theAG Weser shipyard inBremen in December 1914.[5] Named for the earlierEmden that was sunk in 1914, she waslaunched on 1 February 1916 without fanfare, after whichfitting-out work commenced. She wascommissioned into active service on 16 December and thereafter begansea trials under the command ofFregattenkapitän (FK—Frigate Captain) Max Hagedorn. After completing her initial testing in mid-March 1917,Kommodore (Commodore)Paul Heinrich [de] (the II Commander of Torpedo Boats) came aboardEmden and made her hisflagship.Emden thereafter joined theHigh Seas Fleet and spent the following months carrying out local defensive patrols in theGerman Bight. Heinrich became I Commander of Torpedo Boats on 5 June, and he remained aboardEmden. In August, FK Ernst von Gagern [de] replaced Hagedorn as the ship's captain.[6]
In September,Emden was assigned to theSonderverband (Special Unit) that was to carry outOperation Albion, the invasion of the islands ofDagö,Ösel andMoon that guarded theGulf of Riga in theBaltic Sea. She joined the minelaying cruiserNautilus inLibau on 21 September as preparations for the operation began to get underway.Emden then formed part of the escort for the invasion fleet as it sailed for the eastern Baltic on 9 October.[7] For the initial assault on 12 October,Emden was tasked with bombarding a Russian gun emplacement atPamerort; Heinrich was given command of the landings there.[8] At 06:08,Emden opened fire on the gun battery. Her first two salvos fell short, but the third hit and disabled the telephone wires and speaking tubes, which rendered central control of the Russian guns impossible. By 07:00, the Russian guns were silenced and German troops began to go ashore unopposed.[9] Two and a half hours later, a pair of Russiandestroyers attempted to intervene, butEmden engaged them and drove them off.[10]
The next morning, a group of eight Russian destroyers made an attack on the German fleet.[11]Emden moved forward at around 07:45 to support the German screen, and at 07:56, she opened fire on the three leading destroyers at a range of 13,800 meters (15,100 yd).Emden's salvos straddled the destroyers several times, raining shell splinters down on the Russians. They suffered no casualties, but the wireless equipment for the destroyerGrom was disabled. At 09:30, another pair of destroyers briefly engagedEmden. The weather had by then become poor, but the Germans had erected a signal station at Pamerort to assistEmden in directing her fire.[12] At around 12:20, the RussiangunboatChivinetz arrived with a pair of destroyers; she was intended to use her long-range guns to drive offEmden. She arrived at 13:00 and briefly engagedEmden. Neither ship was hit, thoughEmden straddled the gunboat several times beforeChivinetz retreated.[13]
On 14 October,Emden participated in an operation to clear theKassar Wiek—the body of water between Dagö and Ösel—of Russian naval forces. She and the battleshipKaiser were to steam to the entrance toSoelo Sound, where they could support the force of torpedo-boats tasked with sweeping the Kassar Wiek. Four Russian destroyers approachedEmden, but kept out of range of her guns.Kaiser, however, was in range, and at approximately 11:50, she opened fire. She quickly scored a hit on the destroyerGrom. The round failed to explode and passed throughGrom, causing the ship to begin sinking. The other destroyers subsequently steamed off at high speed.[14]Emden remained in her position outside Soelo Sound after the sweep was completed, through the next day.[15] The following day,Emden initiated the bombardment of Dagö, starting at 15:00.[16] On the morning of the 18th,Emden bombarded Russian positions on Dagö again; she fired 170 shells and forced the Russians to retreat.[17] By 20 October, the islands were under German control and the Russian naval forces had either been destroyed or forced to withdraw. TheAdmiralstab ordered the naval component to return to the North Sea.[18]Emden was detached from theSonderverband three days later, and by 28 October, she had arrived back in the North Sea and had resumed defensive patrols.[7]
From 10 to 20 November,Emden wasdry docked for an overhaul, after which she resumed defensive operations in the German Bight. In December,Emden led a raid on British shipping in the North Sea. Early on the 11th,Emden and the II Flotilla left port; the torpedo-boat flotilla split in half off theDogger Bank to search for the British convoy, whileEmden stood by in support at the Dogger Bank. The 3rd Half-Flotilla swept the eastern British coast while the 4th Half-Flotilla searched the waters off Norway. The torpedo boats sank six steamers located and the destroyerPartridge; the destroyerHMS Pellew was badly damaged as well. The torpedo-boats rejoinedEmden late on 12 December and returned to port, arriving in Wilhelmshaven on 14 December.[19][20]
Emden next went to sea on 10 March 1918 for a sweep through theSkagerrak and theKattegat to search for British shipping to Norway. The cruisersFrankfurt,Graudenz, andBremse also participated in the operation, along with VI and IX Torpedo-boat Flotillas. On 11 March, the torpedo-boat flotillas divided into half-flotillas, each led by one of the cruisers.Emden and her torpedo boats patrolled in the Kattegat in the direction ofGothenburg, Sweden. In the course of the operation, the Germans only captured five small vessels. They steamed back to Germany via theLittle Belt on 13 March, passing through Kiel and then transiting theKaiser Wilhelm Canal back to the North Sea and ultimately Wilhelmshaven.[21]
German attacks on shipping between Britain and Norway, which had begun in late 1917, prompted the Grand Fleet to begin escorting convoys with a detached battle squadron. This decision presented the Germans with opportunity for which they had been waiting the entire war: a portion of the numerically stronger Grand Fleet was separated and could be isolated and destroyed. AdmiralFranz von Hipper planned the operation: thebattlecruisers ofI Scouting Group, along with light cruisers and destroyers, would attack one of the large convoys while the rest of the High Seas Fleet would stand by, ready to attack the British battle squadron when it intervened. At 05:00 on 23 April 1918, the German fleet—includingEmden—departed from the Schilligroadstead. Hipper, aboard the battleshipBaden, ordered wireless transmissions be kept to a minimum, to prevent radio intercepts by British intelligence. During the voyage north, the battlecruiserMoltke suffered a machinery breakdown, and she had to be towed back to port.Emden and several torpedo boats were detached to coverMoltke's withdrawal. In the meantime, the Germans failed to locate the convoy, and by late in the day, the German fleet had made it back to the defensive minefields surrounding their bases. It was later discovered that the convoy had left port a day later than expected by the German planning staff.[21][22]
On 1 June,Emden was dry-docked at the AG Weser shipyard for periodic maintenance, though partway through she was moved to theKaiserliche Werft in Wilhelmshaven. Work was completed by 15 July, when she returned to the fleet to resume command of the torpedo-boat flotillas. The ship's last wartime operation took place in early October, when the German naval forces that had been based in occupiedFlanders—mainly torpedo boats andU-boats—had to withdraw in the face of Allied advances during theHundred Days Offensive.Emden and several torpedo-boat flotillas sortied and patrolled as far asTerschelling to cover the retreating ships.Emden was to participate in afinal, climactic attack by the High Seas Fleet in late October. The planned operation called for raids on Allied shipping in theThames estuary and Flanders to draw out theGrand Fleet.[21][23] On the morning of 29 October 1918, the order was given to sail from Wilhelmshaven the following day. Starting on the night of 29 October, sailors onThüringen and then on several other battleshipsmutinied. The unrest ultimately forced Admirals Hipper andReinhard Scheer to cancel the operation.[24]
After thearmistice that ended the fighting on 11 November, theAllied powers demanded that the bulk of the High Seas Fleet be interned under Allied supervision;Emden was among the vessels required to be interned.[21][25] She departed Germany on 19 November with the rest of the fleet,[26] which was commanded byKonteradmiral (Rear Admiral)Ludwig von Reuter.[27] Two days later, the ships arrived in theFirth of Forth, having been escorted across the North Sea by the Grand Fleet. Over the following days, the German ships were moved to Scapa Flow in smaller groups.Emden and several other vessels left the Forth on 26 November, and arrived in Scapa the following day.[28]
While at Scapa Flow, the crew of thebattleshipFriedrich der Grosse harassed Reuter incessantly, until the British allowed him to transfer his flag toEmden on 25 March 1919, where he remained for the remainder of the internment.[21][29] On 31 May, the men aboardEmden (and every other German ship in captivity) hoisted theReichskriegsflagge (Imperial War Flag) in commemoration of theBattle of Jutland, fought three years earlier. This was in direct violation of the orders given by the British commander, who had ordered the German ensigns lowered while the fleet was in Scapa Flow.[30]
The fleet remained interned during the negotiations that ultimately produced theVersailles Treaty. Reuter believed the British intended to seize his fleet on 21 June 1919, which was the deadline for Germany to sign the peace treaty. Unaware that the deadline had been extended to the 23rd, Reuter ordered the ships to be scuttled at the next opportunity. On the morning of 21 June the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships.[31]Emden, however, did not sink; British ships towed her close to shore where she was beached and later re-floated. Too badly damaged by flooding and beaching for further service,[32]Emden was awarded to theFrench Navy on 11 March 1920,[2] as a so-called "Propaganda ship" which could be used as a target or for experimental purposes for a short time before being scrapped or sunk. She was used as an explosives testing target and ultimately broken up for scrap inCaen in 1926.[33]
 Kaiserliche Marine | |
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 French Navy |
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