SMS Karlsruhe (1916)
SMS Karlsruhe en route to Scapa Flow 1919
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History | |
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German Empire | |
Name | Karlsruhe |
Namesake | Karlsruhe |
Ordered | 1913 |
Builder | Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven |
Laid down | May 1915 |
Launched | 31 January 1916 |
Commissioned | December 1916 |
Fate | Scuttled at Scapa Flow, 21 June 1919 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Königsberg-class light cruiser |
Displacement |
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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 | 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph) |
Range | 4,850 nmi (8,980 km; 5,580 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Crew |
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Armament |
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Armor |
SMS Karlsruhe was a
She saw relatively limited service during the war, due to her commissioning late in the conflict. She was present during a brief engagement with British light forces in August 1917, though she did not actively participate in the battle. She joined the large task force assigned to Operation Albion in October 1917, but did not see significant action during that operation either. She was assigned to what was to have been the final sortie of the High Seas Fleet in the closing days of the war, but a large-scale mutiny in significant parts of the fleet forced the cancellation of the plan. Karlsruhe was interned in Scapa Flow after the end of the war, and scuttled there on 21 June 1919. Unlike most of the other ships sunk there, her wreck was never raised.
Design
Karlsruhe was 151.4 meters (496 ft 9 in)
The ship was armed with a
Service history
Karlsruhe was ordered under the contract name "Ersatz
On 16 August 1917, Karlsruhe participated in a mine-sweeping operation in the North Sea. The minesweepers were clearing Route Yellow, one of the channels in the minefields used by U-boats to leave and return to port. Karlsruhe was joined by the cruiser SMS Frankfurt and three torpedo boats. At 12:55, lookouts on one of the minesweepers spotted a British squadron of three light cruisers and sixteen destroyers approaching. The minesweepers fled south under cover of smoke screens, after which the British broke off the attack. Karlsruhe and the rest of the escort failed to come to their aid, however, and the commander of the operation was subsequently relieved of command.[4]
Operation Albion
In early September 1917, following the German conquest of the Russian port of
The operation began on the morning of 12 October, when Moltke and the III Squadron ships engaged Russian positions in Tagga Bay while the IV Squadron shelled Russian gun batteries on the
Later career
In early April 1918, Karlsruhe supported the laying of a defensive minefield in the North Sea that was laid in preparation for a major fleet operation later that month. She then took part in the abortive fleet operation on 23–24 April to attack British convoys to Norway.
Karlsruhe took part in evacuation efforts on the coast of
Internment and scuttling
Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, most of the High Seas Fleet's ships, under the command of Rear Admiral
In 2017, marine archaeologists from the Orkney Research Center for Archaeology conducted extensive surveys of Karlsruhe and nine other wrecks in the area, including six other German and three British warships. The archaeologists mapped the wrecks with sonar and examined them with remotely operated underwater vehicles as part of an effort to determine how the wrecks are deteriorating.[17] The wreck at some point came into the ownership of the firm Scapa Flow Salvage, which sold the rights to the vessel to Tommy Clark, a diving contractor, in 1981. Clark listed the wreck for sale on eBay with a "buy-it-now" price of £60,000, with the auction lasting until 28 June 2019.[18] The wreck of Karlsruhe ultimately sold for £8,500 to a private buyer, while the three dreadnoughts Clark had also placed for sale were purchased by a company from the Middle East for £25,500 apiece.[19] Her wreck lies at 25 m (82 ft) and remains a popular site for recreational scuba divers.[20]
Notes
- ^ a b c d Gröner, p. 113.
- ^ Campbell & Sieche, p. 162.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 86.
- ^ Staff, pp. 193–194.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 213–215.
- ^ Barrett, p. 127.
- ^ a b c d e f Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 87.
- ^ Halpern, p. 215.
- ^ Barrett, p. 218.
- ^ Halpern, p. 219.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 418–419.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, pp. 87, 147–148.
- ^ Woodward, p. 116.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 280–282.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 282.
- ^ Herwig, p. 256.
- ^ Gannon.
- ^ "Scapa Flow: Sunken WW1 battleships up for sale on eBay". BBC News. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
- ^ "Sunken WW1 Scapa Flow warships sold for £85,000 on eBay". BBC News. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
- ^ "SMS Karlsruhe Wreck Intro". Retrieved 23 October 2020.
References
- Barrett, Michael B. (2008). Operation Albion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34969-9.
- Campbell, N. J. M. & Sieche, Erwin (1986). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 134–189. ISBN 978-0-85177-245-5.
- Gannon, Megan (4 August 2017). "Archaeologists Map Famed Shipwrecks and War Graves in Scotland". Livescience.com. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
- ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
- Halpern, Paul G. (1995). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-352-7.
- Herwig, Holger (1998) [1980]. "Luxury" Fleet: The Imperial German Navy 1888–1918. Amherst: Humanity Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-286-9.
- 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. ASIN B003VHSRKE.
- Staff, Gary (2008). Battle for the Baltic Islands. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime. ISBN 978-1-84415-787-7.
- Tarrant, V. E. (1995). Jutland: The German Perspective. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-304-35848-9.
- Woodward, David (1973). The Collapse of Power: Mutiny in the High Seas Fleet. London: Arthur Barker Ltd. ISBN 978-0-213-16431-7.
Further reading
- Dodson, Aidan; Cant, Serena (2020). Spoils of War: The Fate of Enemy Fleets after the Two World Wars. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4198-1.
- ISBN 978-1-68247-745-8.