Battle of Kirpen Island

The Battle of Kirpen Island was a small naval battle fought during the Naval warfare of World War I, Black Sea campaign of World War I. On 29 November 1915 the Germany, German U-boat SM UC-13, SM ''UC-13'' was shadowing five Russian merchant ships when she ran aground off the mouth of the Sakarya River in poor weather. Admiral Wilhelm Souchon, the German commander of the Ottoman Navy sent two gunboats to recover the wreck. During the following cruise, the three Russian Derzky-class destroyers Russian destroyer Derzky, ''Derzky'', Russian destroyer Gnevny, ''Gnevny'' and Russian destroyer Bespokoiny, ''Bespokoiny'' encountered the gunboats Ottoman gunboat Taşköprü, ''Taşköprü'' and Ottoman gunboat Yozgat, ''Yozgat''. In the ensuing combat the Russian gunners fired accurately and quickly sank both of the gunboats off Kefken Island on 10 December 1915.Halpern, Paul G., ''A Naval History of World War I'', Routledge New York (1994),
p. 237.
/ref>Bernd Langensiepen, Ahmet Güleryüz, ''The Ottoman Steam Navy, 1828-1923'', Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1995, , pp. 163-164.

Order of battle

Ottoman Navy:
*Ottoman gunboat Taşköprü, ''Taşköprü'', gunboat
*Ottoman gunboat Yozgat, ''Yozgat'', gunboat

Russian Navy:
*Russian destroyer Derzky, ''Derzky'', destroyer
*Russian destroyer Gnevny, ''Gnevny'', destroyer
*Russian destroyer Bespokoiny, ''Bespokoiny'', destroyer

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kefken Island
Naval battles of World War I involving Russia
Naval battles of World War I involving the Ottoman Empire
Black Sea naval operations of World War I
Conflicts in 1915
December 1915 events