Tag: Kaiserliche Marine
SMS Kurfurst Friedrich Wilhelm / Barbaros Hayreddin
The first battleship of the Imperial German Navy to fire its guns in anger, but in the service of the Ottoman Empire, not the Kaiser. Spent 6 years as flagship of the Imperial Navy, and then deployed to suppress the Chinese Boxer rebellion. Sold to the Ottomans and provided naval gunfire support to the Turkish defenders at Gallipoli, only to become the first and only battleship to be sunk by a British submarine.
August von Heeringen
In 1897, Korvettenkapitän August von Heeringen was chosen by Konteradmiral Tirpitz to play a key role in creating the German battle fleet which kicked off a naval race with Britain. In 1912, when Germany had lost that race, the then Vizeadmiral von Heeringen was faced with the insuperable problem of how to win a war with the fleet that Tirpitz built.
A Ramming Off Folkestone
In the summer of 1878, two German ironclads collided off the Kent coast, sending over 250 sailors to their deaths as SMS Grosser Kurfürst went to the bottom. The disaster led to four courts martial, a loss of confidence in the Kaiserliche Marine and a withering away of the German battle fleet.