SMS Danzig

SMS was a light cruiser of the Imperial German Navy. Named for the city of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland), she was the seventh and last ship of the . She was begun by the Imperial Dockyard in her namesake city in 1904, launched on 23 September 1905 and commissioned on 1 December 1907. Armed with a main battery of ten guns and two torpedo tubes, was capable of a top speed of .

spent the first ten years of her career in the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet. The ship saw extensive service during the First World War; she was present at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914, but did not engage British warships. She also saw action in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces, and was badly damaged by a Russian mine in November 1915. was also involved in Operation Albion, the seizure of the islands at the entrance of the Gulf of Riga, in September 1917. She was thereafter withdrawn from service, and surrendered to Britain after the end of the war as a war prize. was dismantled for scrap starting in 1921.

Design

The German 1898 Naval Law called for the replacement of the fleet's older cruising vessels—steam corvettes, unprotected cruisers, and avisos—with modern light cruisers. The first tranche of vessels to fulfill this requirement, the , were designed to serve both as fleet scouts and as station ships in Germany's colonial empire. They provided the basis for subsequent designs, beginning with the that was designed in 1901–1903. The principle improvements consisted of a larger hull that allowed for an additional pair of boilers and a higher top speed.

was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced as designed and up to at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of two triple-expansion steam engines with steam provided by ten coal-fired Marine-type water-tube boilers. Her propulsion system was rated at for a top speed of . carried up to of coal, which gave her a range of at . She had a crew of 14 officers and 274–287 enlisted men.

The ship was armed with ten SK L/40 guns in single mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle, six were located amidships, three on either side, and two were placed side by side aft. The guns could engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1,500 rounds of ammunition, for 150 shells per gun. For defense against torpedo boats, she carried ten Maxim guns in individual mounts. She was also equipped with two torpedo tubes with five torpedoes. They were submerged in the hull on the broadside. was also fitted to carry fifty naval mines. The ship was protected by an armored deck that was up to thick. The conning tower had thick sides, and the guns were protected by thick gun shields.

Service history

was ordered under the contract name and was laid down at the (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig on 12 July 1904. She was launched on 23 September 1905, and at the ceremony, she was christened by Heinrich Otto Ehlers, the Bürgermeister of the ship's namesake city. After completing fitting-out work, she was commissioned to begin sea trials on 1 December 1907. These were carried out with a temporary crew, and lasted until 6 April 1908. The ship then took most of the crew from the light cruiser , whose place she took in I Scouting Group, the reconnaissance force of the High Seas Fleet. She and the rest of I Scouting Group embarked on a voyage into the central Atlantic in July and August. The cruise was made in company with the battleship squadrons of the High Seas Fleet. Prince Heinrich had pressed for such a cruise the previous year, arguing that it would prepare the fleet for overseas operations and would break up the monotony of training in German waters, though tensions with Britain over the developing Anglo-German naval arms race were high. The fleet departed Kiel on 17 July, passed through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to the North Sea, and continued to the Atlantic. The fleet returned to Germany on 13 August. The autumn maneuvers followed from 27 August to 12 September. That year, was awarded the Kaiser's (Shooting Prize) for excellent shooting for the light cruisers of I Scouting Group.

In February 1909, I Scouting Group went on another training cruise in the Atlantic. The cruisers joined the High Seas Fleet for another Atlantic cruise in July and August. On the way back to Germany, the fleet stopped in Spithead, Britain, where it was received by the Royal Navy. won the again that year. was detached from I Scouting Group on 5 June 1910 and she was assigned to the naval artillery inspectorate, based in Sonderburg. In June, the ship came under the command of (Corvette Captain) Hans Pfundheller. During this period, the torpedo boat served as s tender. ''S32'' accidentally collided with the torpedo boat in the Kieler Förde on the night of 16–17 August, and came to their aid, picking up both of their crews. attempted to take ''S76'' under tow, but her line failed and other vessels came to the torpedo boat's aid. The ships were unable to save ''S32'' before she sank. was drydocked in her namesake city later that year for modifications and an extensive overhaul.

After returning to service in early 1911, joined the armored cruiser for shooting practice held off the Faroe Islands in March. She joined the Training and Experimental Ships Unit on 2 April for exercises conducted in the northern North Sea, in the vicinity of the 60th parallel; during the maneuvers, the ships operated out of Ålesund, Norway. was present for the naval review held for Kaiser Wilhelm II on 5 September in the Bay of Kiel. Her annual overhaul lasted from 22 October to 2 December. In 1912, was recommissioned for service with the newly formed II Scouting Group, with the armored cruiser as its flagship. was drydocked for another overhaul in mid-December. The year 1913 saw assigned to what was now the Training Squadron, and the annual training routine culminated in large scale fleet maneuvers with the rest of the High Seas Fleet in August and September. She remained in the unit through early 1914, and she participated in training exercises in March and April. In late July, as tensions between the Central Powers (which included Germany) and the Triple Entente over the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and ensuing July Crisis, was assigned to guard the Bay of Kiel against a possible Russian attack.

World War I

With the High Seas Fleet

Following the outbreak of World War I on 28 July, was assigned to III Scouting Group on 1 August, which was given the task of patrolling the German Bight. The unit was renumbered as IV Scouting Group on 25 August. The next day, and her sister were temporarily sent to the Baltic Sea to assist in efforts to recover the light cruiser that day. was moored in Brunsbüttel with her sister-ship , having passed back through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal on the way back to join IV Scouting Group on the morning of 28 August 1914, when the British attacked the German patrol line in the Heligoland Bight. During the ensuing Battle of Heligoland Bight, and were recalled and ordered to steam to the mouth of the Elbe and wait for further orders. reached the stricken cruiser shortly before 15:00 and lowered boats to rescue survivors. Franz von Hipper, the commander of I Scouting Group, issued an order for all cruisers to regroup on the approaching battlecruisers and , but Reiß, s commander, refused, replying that he was "Rescuing people from ." rescued some 170 survivors from the ship.

, still part of IV Scouting Group, took part in the fleet advance on 3–4 November 1914 in support of the raid on Yarmouth by the battlecruisers of I Scouting Group. The Germans hoped to surprise detached elements of the numerically superior British Grand Fleet or lure them to be ambushed by the High Seas Fleet, but they failed to do either. She was also present as part of the screen of the High Seas Fleet during the operation on 15–16 December to cover the battlecruisers' raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby. She saw no combat during the action; after reports that other cruisers in the fleet screen had encountered British warships on the morning of 16 December, Ingenohl broke off and withdrew to port. next took part in the fleet advance on 24 January 1915 to support I Scouting Group after it had been ambushed by the British 1st and 2nd Battlecruiser Squadrons during the Battle of Dogger Bank, though she again saw no action, as the battle had ended before the High Seas Fleet arrived late in the afternoon. Two further fleet advances followed on 29–30 March and 18–22 April, both of which ended without result.

Baltic operations and mine damage

On 7 May 1915, IV Scouting Group, which by then consisted of , , , and , and twenty-one torpedo boats was sent into the Baltic Sea to support a major operation against Russian positions at Libau. The operation was commanded by Rear Admiral Hopman, the commander of the reconnaissance forces in the Baltic. IV Scouting Group was tasked with screening to the north to prevent any Russian naval forces from moving out of the Gulf of Finland undetected, while several armored cruisers and other warships bombarded the port. The Russians did attempt to intervene with a force of four cruisers: , , , and . The Russian ships briefly engaged , but both sides were unsure of the others' strength, and so both disengaged. Shortly after the bombardment, Libau was captured by the advancing German army. On 8 May, joined the old pre-dreadnought battleships of IV Battle Squadron on a reconnaissance toward Gotland; the operation lasted until 10 May, but encountered no Russian forces. and the rest of IV Scouting Group were thereafter recalled to the High Seas Fleet. After rejoining the High Seas Fleet, joined the escort for a minelaying operation near the Dogger Bank, and at 09:18, she struck a British mine on her starboard side and was seriously damaged. Unable to steam under her own power, was taken under tow by her sister at 11:15 back to Helgoland, with and seven torpedo boats escorting her. There, the tugboat took over the tow and brought to the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen for repairs. The damage to the ship was so severe that most of her crew was sent to man the cruiser on 1 June.

returned to active service on 13 November and ten days later, she was assigned to the naval forces in the Baltic. The next day, she took on a load of eighty mines at Kiel to carry them to Libau. While cruising off the southern tip of Gotland on 25 November, the ship ran into a Russian minefield and struck a mine at 01:58. The mine explosion tore off the ship's rudder, bent one of her propeller shafts, and holed the aft two watertight compartments, flooding them with water. was again sent to take under tow, which was effected at 10:30. A torpedo boat guided the ships back to port, initially to Neufahrwassar, which they reached on 26 November. was then brought to the in Danzig for repairs. The initial inspection provided an estimate of six months worth of repairs, so s crew was again reduced on 16 December so the men could be employed aboard other vessels, and again most of them went to . received temporary repairs at Danzig to allow her to be towed to Bremen, where permanent work would be carried out. The transfer was made on 27 January 1916, and she remained in drydock there until 12 July. After a brief working up period, rejoined IV Scouting Group on 4 August, which was still assigned to patrol duties in the German Bight. She was present with the fleet screen for the operation of 18–20 August, along with another such sweep into the North Sea toward the Dogger Bank in October. On 1 December, was transferred to II Scouting Group, though on 10 January 1917 she briefly joined IV Scouting Group to cover a minelaying operation between Helgoland and Norderney to strengthen an existing minefield. In May, ''KK'' Prinz Adalbert, the son of Wilhelm II, took command of the cruiser. On 11 June, was sent to the Baltic to serve as a target ship for other cruisers, torpedo boats, and U-boats.

Later operations

In early September 1917, following the German conquest of the Russian port of Riga, the German navy decided to eliminate the Russian naval forces that still held the Gulf of Riga. The (the Navy High Command) planned an operation to seize the Baltic island of Saaremaa, Ösel, and specifically the Russian gun batteries on the Sõrve Peninsula, Sworbe Peninsula. On 18 September, the order was issued for a joint operation with the army to capture Ösel and Muhu, Moon Islands; the primary naval component was to comprise the flagship, , along with III Battle Squadron, III and IV Battle Squadrons of the High Seas Fleet. The invasion force amounted to approximately 24,600 officers and enlisted men. had by this time been transferred back to II Scouting Group, which was tasked with screening for the invasion force. s only significant action during the operation came on the 19th, when she and and were sent to intercept two Russian torpedo boats reported to be in the area. The Germans could not locate the vessels, and broke off the operation.

was withdrawn from front line service in late 1917, and the navy planned to convert her into a seaplane tender along the lines of . The project came to nothing and the ship was instead allocated to the material reserve fleet, reserve. She spent the following several months serving as a target ship for the U-boat school. was decommissioned on 25 March 1918 in her namesake city and Prinz Adalbert left the ship. She survived the end of the war, but she was not retained by the postwar owing to the damage she had sustained in the two minings. She was instead stricken from the naval register on 5 November 1919. The ship was surrendered to the United Kingdom as the war prize ''R'' on 15 September 1920 to replace ships that had been scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, scuttled at Scapa Flow, and broken up for scrap in Whitby in 1921–1922.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Danzig
Bremen-class cruisers
1905 ships
Ships built in Danzig