SMS Blitz
Blitz in the 1880s or 1890s
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History | |
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German Empire | |
Name | Blitz |
Builder | Norddeutsche Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, Kiel |
Laid down | 1881 |
Launched | 26 August 1882 |
Commissioned | 28 March 1883 |
Stricken | 8 March 1921 |
Fate | Scrapped, 1921 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Blitz-class aviso |
Displacement | |
Length | 78.43 m (257 ft 4 in) o/a |
Beam | 9.90 m (32 ft 6 in) |
Draft | 4.22 m (13 ft 10 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 15.7 knots (29.1 km/h; 18.1 mph) |
Range | 2,440 nmi (4,520 km; 2,810 mi) at 9 kn (17 km/h; 10 mph) |
Complement |
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Armament |
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SMS Blitz was an
For much of her career, Blitz served as a flotilla leader for groups of torpedo boats. In the 1880s, these duties included conducting demonstrations of torpedo boat capabilities under the direction of Alfred von Tirpitz, then the head of torpedo development in the German Navy, who frequently used Blitz as his flagship. She also made numerous trips abroad, including several occasions escorting members of the House of Hohenzollern on visits to Britain, Russia, and elsewhere. By the 1890s, she began to be used in a variety of secondary roles in addition to her normal duties, including as a fisheries protection vessel, a training ship, and a tender. She began to operate as a dedicated tender for various units in the German fleet in the early 1900s.
The ship's activities during
Design
Designed in 1879, the Blitz-class avisos marked a significant advance in naval technology for the German fleet; they were the first steel-hulled vessels, and they were the first cruiser-type vessels to abandon traditional sailing masts. Their armament—a torpedo tube and a battery of light guns—reflected the growing importance of the torpedo as a weapon, since the guns were necessary to defend against the increasingly powerful torpedo boats of the period.[1][2]
Blitz was 78.43 meters (257 ft 4 in)
Her propulsion system consisted of two horizontal 2-cylinder
As built, the ship was armed with one
Service history
Construction – 1887
Blitz was
The ship spent the first half on 1885 as the aviso for the fleet's
Following the conclusion of the maneuvers in September, Blitz and the flotilla visited Christiana, Norway. On the way back, Blitz accidentally rammed the British steamer Oakland on 10 September; she was able to rescue only two crewmen from Oakland before she sank. Blitz suffered minor damage, which necessitated repairs in Kiel. After repairs were completed, she joined the fleet for maneuvers that lasted until 23 September. She was decommissioned on 27 October for the winter and returned to service on 4 May 1886. She again served as the flagship of the torpedo boat flotilla for the year, which concluded with the annual autumn maneuvers in September. She was again withdrawn from service on 4 October in Kiel.[8]
Blitz was recommissioned on 27 April 1887, again with Tirpitz aboard. She was present for the ceremonial start of construction of the
1888–1899
The year 1888 followed the same routine of training exercises in previous years, though now she operated with III Flotilla. In July, she accompanied the fleet that the newly crowned Kaiser Wilhelm II on a state visit to Tsar Alexander III of Russia from 14 to 31 July. The voyage also included stops in Sweden and Denmark. During the August–September fleet maneuvers, she led the fourteen torpedo boats of III Flotilla as part of a squadron defending Wilhelmshaven from a simulated hostile squadron; she led the torpedo boats in a mock attack on the fleet. Blitz was decommissioned in late September; the outbreak of the Abushiri revolt in German East Africa prompted the navy to consider sending Blitz to join the East Africa Squadron, but the proposal was abandoned. She remained in German waters in 1889, conducting training maneuvers with the torpedo boats in July and escorting Wilhelm II on a voyage to Britain in mid-September. She was present for a torpedo demonstration that involved the sinking of the old gunboat Drache.[10][11][12]
The year 1890 passed without incident; Blitz escorted Wilhelm II on a visit to Norway and she was present for the ceremonial transfer of the island of
Blitz initially served as a
The ship served as a tender for the pre-dreadnought battleship Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm, the flagship of I Squadron in 1897. During the summer maneuvers that year, Blitz and Pfeil served in the simulated hostile squadron. She spent most of 1898 as a training vessel, though she was briefly used as a squadron tender. The ship was assigned to the Naval Artillery Inspectorate and was used to train auto-cannon crews from February to April 1899. Beginning on 16 September, she was employed as a fishery protection vessel, along with the old aviso Zieten. During this period, she patrolled off the mouth of the Humber, the Dogger Bank, and in the southern North Sea. She returned to Kiel on 26 November and thereafter reverted to the Naval Artillery Inspectorate.[4][15]
1900–1921
She performed fishery protection duties in 1900 until 14 April, when she returned to the torpedo boat flotillas. During training maneuvers on 10 May, the torpedo boat
In 1904, Blitz was transferred support the battleships of I Battle Squadron, though during the summer training exercises she reverted to Kaiser Wilhelm II. She joined the fleet for a cruise to the
In need of another overhaul by 1910, Blitz went into dry dock at the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig for repairs that lasted from 30 April to 1 August. She was transferred from the list of cruisers to the list of special ships on 8 December. She was reassigned to Wilhelmshaven for her home port in 1911, but she was damaged on the way, requiring repairs in Danzig that were completed by early 1912. She finally arrived at her new home port on 1 April. She saw little activity in 1913 and remained in port when the fleet made its annual summer cruise to Norway. She was present at the ceremonies at Düne, Helgoland on 23 May for the unveiling of a memorial to the crews of the torpedo boats G171 and S178, the transport vessel Unterelbe, and the zeppelin L 1, the latter having been lost in the Helgoland Island air disaster the previous year. Blitz and Pfeil carried observers from Cuxhaven to Helgoland and back. The ship accompanied the fleet on its cruise to Norway from 6 to 25 June, which included stops in Odda and Balestrand.[18]
The ship's activities during
Notes
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 90.
- ^ a b c d e Gröner, p. 91.
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 138.
- ^ a b c Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 92.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 90–91.
- ^ Lyon, p. 256.
- ^ Sondhaus, pp. 162–163.
- ^ a b c Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 91.
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 171.
- ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 91–92.
- ^ Gottschall, p. 107.
- ^ Sondhaus, pp. 177–178.
- ^ Sondhaus, pp. 192, 194.
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 196.
- ^ Garbett, p. 1560.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 92–93.
- ^ Knepper, pp. 416–418.
- ^ a b c d Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 93.
- ^ Staff, pp. 43–44.
References
- Garbett, H., ed. (December 1897). "Naval Notes". Journal of the Royal United Service Institution. XLI. London: J. J. Keliher & Co.
- Gottschall, Terrell D. (2003). By Order of the Kaiser. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-309-1.
- ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
- Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 2. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8364-9743-5.
- Knepper, Orlo S. (1901). "The Naval Maneuvers of 1900". Notes on Naval Progress. General Information Series. XX. Government Printing Office.
- Lyon, Hugh (1979). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
- Sondhaus, Lawrence (1997). Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-745-7.
- Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918. Vol. 1: Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland Classes. Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 978-1-84603-467-1.