A Short History of the Imperial Navy - Part 2

Until the end of the century the Imperial Navy played only a secondary role compared with the army. From 1898, however, the fleet was expanded while the enlargement of the army was limited. This was done mainly for fiscal reasons; it was also believed that acceptable limits in terms of quantity had been reached. The military leadership wanted to focus on optimizing the quality of organization, training and equipment in the army. Thus the peacetime strength of the German army stagnated until shortly before World War I, when rearmament again began feverishly. The preference for the navy corresponded to Wilhelm II’s maritime inclinations. The central promoter of Wilhelmine naval policy, however, was Alfred von Tirpitz (1849–1930).

Text for the previous picture: The SMS Preußen was a battleship named after the Kingdom of Prussia. It belonged to the Braunschweig class and was launched in 1903 at the A.G. Vulcan shipyard (Stettin). The crew consisted of 35 officers and 708 men. The SMS Preussen was armed with four 28 cm quick-firing guns (in twin turrets), fourteen 17 cm, eighteen 8.8 cm quick-firing guns and six torpedo tubes. After the war the ship was taken over by the Reichsmarine and was not decommissioned until 1929.

The naval officer, who came from an upper-middle-class Protestant family and was ennobled in 1900, was Chief of Staff of the Naval High Command from 1892, commander of the cruiser division in East Asia from 1896, and from June 1897 State Secretary of the Imperial Naval Office. Early on he had demanded a High Seas Fleet and implemented his strategic ideas in various naval laws. From 1911 he was Grand Admiral; the construction of a battle fleet, the establishment of an overseas fleet and the further modernization of the navy were his work, but during World War I he was unable to assert his demand for deploying the High Seas Fleet and conducting an unrestricted submarine campaign. He resigned his offices in 1916.

According to the “Law Concerning the German Fleet” of 14.06.1900, the fleet was to consist of: 1. the battle fleet of 2 fleet flagships, 4 squadrons of 8 battleships each, 8 large and 24 smaller cruisers; 2. the overseas fleet of 3 large and 10 small cruisers; and 3. the material reserve of 4 battleships, 3 large and 4 small cruisers (§ 1).

Text for the previous picture: The SMS Cormoran was a light cruiser that was launched in Danzig on 17.05.1892. The ship was mainly used overseas. From 1895 it belonged to the East Asia Cruiser Division and after returning home in 1901 was initially decommissioned. After extensive repairs and conversion work the SMS Cormoran was recommissioned in 1909 and then took part, among other things, in a punitive expedition against the indigenous population in Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land (northeast New Guinea). Later converted into a gunboat, the ship arrived in Tsingtau on 30.05.1914 where it was to be overhauled. At the outbreak of war the ship was finally decommissioned. The disarmed hull was later sunk in the bay of Tsingtau.

Text for the previous picture: The SMS Seeadler was a small unprotected cruiser. She was launched on 02.02.1892 in Danzig. The SMS Seeadler was built there in the Imperial Dockyard. The ship had a crew of 165 men. Length was 82 m, beam 12.7 m and draft 5.30 m. Armament consisted of eight 10.5 cm quick-firing guns, five 3.7 cm revolver cannons and two torpedoes. The SMS Seeadler was mainly used overseas in the protectorates (East Africa) and served from 1914 as a mine hulk, but was destroyed by an explosion in 1917.

Before the outbreak of World War I the German Empire had become the second largest naval power; in the North Sea alone in 1914 there were 3 battlecruisers, 5 armored cruisers, 37 battleships, 14 small cruisers, 80 torpedo boats and 28 submarines.

Smaller forces were stationed in the Baltic Sea, but these could be quickly reinforced by transfers via the Kaiser-Wilhelm Canal. Only a small Mediterranean division was stationed in the Mediterranean. The presence of the German fleet overseas was only small.

This distribution resulted from the strategic concept of the German Empire, i.e. first priority was given to the defense of the home coasts and operations in the North Sea.

Already in 1912, after the outbreak of the First Balkan War, a naval unit was sent to the eastern Mediterranean.

At the outbreak of war in August 1914 this consisted of the battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau.

Overseas the East Asia Squadron had its area of operations. It emerged in 1897 from the former cruiser squadron of the Imperial Navy.

It was an independent unit stationed in the port of Tsingtau in the German leased territory there.

Its task was primarily the protection of German interests in the Asia-Pacific region.

Text for the previous picture: The light cruiser SMS Leipzig belonged to the Bremen class. She was launched in 1905 at AG Weser. The ship served on foreign stations and from 1914 was part of Graf Spee’s cruiser squadron. The SMS Leipzig sank in the action at the Falkland Islands after heavy hits from British cruisers in December 1914 with 315 men.

Text on the two previous pictures: The SMS Panther was a gunboat of the Imperial Navy. The ship belonged to the Iltis class. Other ships of this class were SMS Iltis, SMS Jaguar, SMS Tiger, SMS Luchs and SMS Eber. The SMS Panther was mainly deployed overseas. The ship was initially assigned to the American station.

From 1907 the SMS Panther belonged to the African station. In 1911 the boat was stationed in Cameroon.

It had been planned since the previous year to order the ship back to Germany for an overhaul. On the way there the SMS Panther bunkered on the recommendation of the Foreign Office in Agadir. This was understood against the background of the Moroccan Crisis as a political signal (the Panther’s jump to Agadir), which caused political upset especially in France.

The sailors’ and dockyard divisions belonged to the naval units on land. In the event of mobilization they were to provide crews for the warships. Each station (North/South Sea) had one sailors’ and one dockyard division. The sailors’ divisions were divided into 2 detachments each with 3 core companies, while the dockyard divisions each had 5 core companies. A variety of training took place in the divisions, e.g. rowing, sailing, signaling, gun drill, shooting exercises, etc. Promising personnel were sent for further training to training ships or later to the division school.

The torpedo was an underwater projectile that moved under its own power and primarily threatened the underwater hulls of enemy ships. As early as 1883 the Imperial Navy had 10 torpedo boats. The initially small boats were made seaworthy from 1899. These were then called large torpedo boats, had two funnels and later reached up to 33 nautical miles. S 102 belonged to the first series of high-seas torpedo boats. Between 1899 and 1907 about 50 boats of relatively similar design were launched by Schichau/Elbing and by the Germania Shipyard/Kiel. Over time the torpedo boats became larger and increasingly capable through better equipment and armament. Friedrichsort already had its own torpedo workshop before 1914 (from 1901).

In 1914 the Inspection of the Torpedo Service (Kiel) was responsible for: the 1st Torpedo Division (3 detachments each consisting of companies) in Kiel-Wik, the 2nd Torpedo Division (4 detachments each of 2 companies) in Wilhelmshaven, a submarine department (2 companies), the torpedo test command in Kiel, 2 torpedo acceptance commissions in Kiel and Danzig-Neufahrwasser and the active torpedo boat flotillas/half-flotillas as well as the torpedo training and test ships. Tactically the torpedo boats were primarily set up for attack. They operated in flotillas (11 boats) which were subdivided into groups of 2–3 boats.

The torpedo detachments (each 250 men) trained the personnel to operate the torpedo weapon and provided personnel for the torpedo arm and for naval facilities that handled torpedoes.

Duties of the torpedo boats included anti-submarine screening of larger high-sea units, commerce warfare, escorting minesweepers and firing at mines drifting at sea, but also attacks on land targets (e.g. in the Channel or in the Baltic). They played a not insignificant role in the Battle of Jutland. Mention should also be made of torpedo activities off the Flemish coast. In the war 110 torpedo boats were sunk.

At the outbreak of the First World War the Imperial Navy did not yet possess minesweepers. For this purpose older torpedo boats were initially used.

Already in 1914/15 ships specifically designed for minesweeping were developed. The first series comprised 30 minesweepers and mine-clearance vessels.

A total of 119 ships were built of the so-called design: Minesweeper 1916.

According to a contribution on Wikipedia the following boats were lost in the First World War: M12 (1916), M11, M14, M15, M23, M24 and M26 (1917), M6, M16 and M22 (1918).

The first German submarine was commissioned in 1906; in 1906 U 1–12 were in existence.

At the outbreak of the war 15 (of 28) submarines were combat-ready. U 1–23 belonged to the naval station of the Baltic. In March 1916 the German Navy had 48 operational submarines. For U 1–2 the crew numbered 22 each; on other U-boat types it was up to 83. Longer submerged voyages were only possible since the invention of the electric motor (1880). For surface voyages petroleum or diesel engines were installed from 1910, which at the same time charged the batteries for the electric motors. The first submarines were 400 tons; the later-built U-boat cruisers displaced over 1000 tons and made 15 knots (on the surface).

In September (22.09.) 1914 U 9 succeeded in sinking 3 armored cruisers and shortly thereafter another British armored cruiser. In 1916 U 9 was lost with her entire crew. During the war 391 submarines were commissioned, of which 178 (according to other sources: 198) were sunk or lost for other reasons. Overall half of the German submarine crews (5132) died in the war.

In 1914 there were 5 sailors’ artillery detachments of 3–5 companies located in Friedrichsort, Wilhelmshaven, Lehe, Cuxhaven and on Heligoland. A mine detachment (2 companies) was stationed in Cuxhaven, as was the core detachment of the sailors’ artillery detachment Kiautschou. The I Sailors’ Artillery Detachment (Friedrichsort) belonged to the Baltic naval station, the others to the North Sea naval station.

The aforementioned training of naval cadets and ship’s boys in the Imperial Navy took place on training ships.

Until 1908 this was carried out on corvettes. There were 5 training ships: SMS Moltke, SMS Stosch, SMS Stein, SMS Gneisenau and SMS Charlotte. Corvettes were, in the age of sailing ships, smaller warships mainly used for scouting or courier duties.

The cruiser frigates eventually had to be replaced due to their age. Existing ships of the Victoria class were used for this purpose, e.g. SMS Hertha. This ship was initially used particularly on foreign service (East Asia). From 1908 the ship then served as a training ship. Prior to that a corresponding conversion had taken place from 1906. As a training ship the SMS Hertha undertook, for example, summer cruises to Norway and in the Baltic (e.g. 1910, 1913) or winter voyages to America and the Caribbean (1909) or to the Mediterranean (1911) or to the Azores (1912) or to the West Indies (1912). In 1913 the SMS Hertha showed presence due to unrest in South America in order to protect German citizens and economic interests; afterwards the ship returned to its home port Kiel after a visit to the Antilles. In 1914 the SMS Hertha was the last German ship to visit an English port before the outbreak of war.