SMS Goeben (1911)

Moltke-class battlecruiser. Laid on August 12 or 28 ^{[Note. 1]} 1909 , launched on March 28, 1911 , previously joined the fleet on July 2, 1912 . The construction cost amounted to 41 564 000 gold marks or 20 728 000 rubles in gold . Construction was carried out at the Blohm und Voss shipyard in Hamburg .

Named in honor of Augustus Karl von Geben , Prussian general during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 .

Before the war, the cruiser was the flagship of the Mediterranean group Kaiserlichmarine (commander - Admiral Wilhelm Souchon ).

1914

By the beginning of World War I, in the summer of 1914 , the Mediterranean group (squadron) consisting of the battle cruiser Göben and the light cruiser Breslau was located off the coast of Africa. Significant forces of the French fleet were in the Mediterranean Sea , therefore, after the declaration of war, it was decided to transfer the group to Constantinople , to the coast of Turkey, which signed a secret alliance treaty with Germany , but declared its neutrality in the outbreak of war. In addition to the French fleet, there was a group of British battle cruisers in the Mediterranean, however, the Göben and Breslau managed to escape from the allies and safely reach the goal: on July 28 ( August 10 ), 1914, German cruisers reached the Dardanelles Strait.

Turkey , declaring its neutrality, under the existing international treaties had no right to let the ships of the warring parties into the straits. However, Germany managed to win Turkey’s Minister of War Enver Pasha , and permission was granted. In order to overcome legal difficulties, German cruisers were formally included in the Turkish fleet under the names Yavuz Sultan Selim and Midilli , while the teams remained German. On August 3 (16), the cruisers approached Constantinople. On September 10 (23), Rear Admiral Sushon was appointed commander of the Turkish fleet. On October 11 (24), Minister of War Enver Pasha ordered Sushon to start military operations against the Russian fleet.

• October 16 (29) “Goben” approached Sevastopol and fired upon it. The coastal batteries returned fire. The 254-mm shell hit the stern pipe area, but did not explode. At the time of departure, the Göben met and fired at the Prut Russian mine layer (to avoid capture, the commander of the 2nd rank captain, G. A. Bykov, ordered the ship to be flooded by opening the kingstones, and the crew landed on boats ^[2] ), after which it covered in a salvo of 150-mm guns the destroyer "Lieutenant Pushchin", who came to the aid of the sinking "Rod" ^[1] . After these events, Russia declared war on Turkey ^{[Note. 2]} .

• On November 5 (18), the Goben and Breslau again approached the coast of the Crimea and at Cape Sarych they suddenly met with the main forces of the Black Sea Fleet led by the battleship Eustache . Due to the fog, the opponents discovered each other less than 5 miles away. In the ensuing skirmish, the Göben received several heavy shell hits, however, thanks to the speed advantage, the German cruisers managed to break away from the Russian squadron and leave (see Fight at Cape Sarych ).
• November 27 ( December 10 ) covered transports with troops and fired at Batum .
• December 13 (26), he ran into a minefield set by Russian ships near the entrance to the Bosphorus . The first mine exploded on the starboard side near the bow cabin. A hole of about 50 square meters formed in the hull, however the internal armored bulkhead ( torpedo bulkhead ) withstood the blow. A few minutes later a second mine exploded - this time on the port side in front of the casemate ; the area of ​​the hole in the case was more than 60 square meters, but the internal armor survived this time too. The ship took up to 600 tons of water, but was able to reach the base. For repairs, they had to call workers from Germany and build giant caissons weighing 160 tons ^[1] .

1915

• On April 3, "Goben" and "Breslau" went to the Black Sea to meet the Turkish armored cruisers " Hamidiye " and " Medzhidiye ", sent to bombard Nikolaev . "Medzhidiye" ran into a mine and sank, so the bombing of Nikolaev was canceled, the German ships went to Sevastopol. The presence of the enemy was discovered by the Russian hydroplane , and a squadron of the Black Sea Fleet entered the sea: six battleships, accompanied by two cruisers and five destroyers. Meanwhile, the German cruisers sunk two cargo ships and waited for the Russian squadron to cover the departure of Hamidiye to the Bosphorus. When the Russian fleet approached a distance of 10 miles, the Breslau put down a smokescreen, under the cover of which the German cruisers began to depart. The Russian battleships developed the maximum course and opened fire, but did not succeed in the dusk. The German cruisers received a radio message saying that Hamidiye had safely returned to base, and began to retreat, not suspecting that Russian destroyers were approaching them in the dark. Careless radio talks were issued by Russian sailors, and Breslau, illuminating the destroyers with searchlights, opened fire from a distance of 200 m. German sailors considered that they had sunk two destroyers, but the Russian ships retreated without casualties. Göben and Breslau again went to the Bosphorus.

Until the end of the year, Göben’s operations were limited due to a lack of coal ; the cruiser went to sea only two times: August 9–11 and September 5–6 .

1916

• January 8 went to sea to pursue the Russian destroyers, but ran into the new Russian battleship " Empress Catherine the Great ." Five volleys of "Göben", fired from the maximum distance, fell short-lived. The cruiser began to retreat, gradually increasing the distance ^{[Note. 3]} . The Russian battleship developed its maximum speed and continued the pursuit for another 30 minutes, firing from 305 mm guns: the last volleys were made from a distance of 22.5 km ^[3] . "Goeben" received only fragmentation hits and went to the Bosphorus ^[1] .
• February 4-6 covered transports with troops.
• July 4 fired at Tuapse .

At the end of 1916, Göben installed central and medium-range guiding devices . The elevation angle of the guns was increased to 22.5 °, which gave the cruiser the opportunity to fight with new Russian battleships at distances up to 23 km. At the same time, the last four 88-mm guns still remaining on board were dismantled.

1917

The appearance of Russian dreadnoughts radically changed the situation at the Caucasian-Black Sea theater of operations . Due to the achieved superior quality, the Black Sea Fleet was able to block the delivery of coal from the Zonguldak region to Constantinople, as a result of which in 1917 the Goeben never went to sea ^[1] .

1918

After the October Revolution in Petrograd and as a result of the anarchy that ensued after this, the Russian fleet lost its combat effectiveness, and hostilities in the Black Sea ceased; the fleet base in Sevastopol under the Brest Treaty came under German control.

After the end of the Dardanelles operation, England held a special flotilla in the Aegean Sea in the event of the release of the Goben.

• On January 10, the Göben and Breslau left the Dardanelles and encountered British forces off the island of Imbros . At that moment, the battleships of the English flotilla ( HMS Agamemnon and HMS Lord Nelson ) were in a different place, and the English destroyers and monitors became easy prey: the monitors M28 and HMS Raglan were sunk. However, shortly after the battle, the German cruisers ran into the minefield: the Breslau sank instantly, the Goeben also blew up on three mines, but remained afloat. Soon, the cruiser was attacked by a squadron of about ten British and Greek aircraft of the Greek Naval Aviation Squadron as part of the 2nd British Royal Air Force (RNAS) and, trying to get away from the air attack, ran aground in the area of ​​the Nagara Shoal.

During air battles over the ship, the Greek ace Aristidis Moraitinis shot down three German planes in the Sopwith Camel 1F.1 fighter trying to intercept Allied bombers, while the Greek Sopwith 1½ Strutter Lieutenant Spiridon Hambras was shot down by German ace Emil Meinecke ( Emil Meinecke ) ^{[4] [5]} .

• January 26 was taken aground and towed to Istanbul. After repair, it returned to service ^{[Note. 4]} .

• On March 30, the Goeben accompanied the Turkish Disarmament Commission, which arrived in Odessa after the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty.
• In May, repairs were carried out in Sevastopol, where, unlike Constantinople, there was a dry dock of a suitable size. Local workers eliminated leaks and cleaned the hull.
• On June 28, the Goeben with a group of destroyers went to Novorossiysk to intern the remnants of the Russian navy, but by the time the group arrived at the site, the ships were already sunk. Leaving the destroyers in Novorossiysk, Geben returned to Sevastopol, where the bottom was cleaned by local workers.
• August 7 - October 19: upon returning to Constantinople, underwent repairs to eliminate damage caused by mine explosions in January. He did not take part in hostilities anymore.
• On November 2, Germany transferred the cruiser to the ownership of the Turkish government ^[6] .

The terms of the Sevres Peace Treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies (1920) provided for the transfer of the cruiser to England as military reparations . However, after the Turkish War of Independence, the treaty was terminated. Under the Lausanne Peace Treaty (1923), most of the fleet remained at the disposal of the Turkish government. The number of ships left by Turkey included Goeben (Yavuz) ^[7] .

The appearance of Göben and Breslau in the Black Sea accelerated Turkey’s entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers. Although the military operations of Turkey had some independent significance, the loss of the southern route of supply of the Russian army and the cessation of export of Russian grain, the main source of currency for the Russian treasury, had the greatest impact on the course of the war ^{[Note. 5]} . Together with the German blockade of the Baltic Sea, it cut off Russia from Europe; the remaining supply routes through Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok were too long and unreliable. All this led to a noticeable weakening of the military power of the Russian army, which experienced a constant shortage of material supplies ^{[8] [Note. 6]} .

Caucasian Front

Göben’s actions had a great influence on the operations of the Caucasian Front . Until 1914, Russian battleships dominated the Black Sea, and the Russian army planned an assault on the Bosphorus . The appearance of the Göben radically changed the situation: any actions off the Turkish coast now required the presence of the entire armored brigade of the Black Sea Fleet, since smaller forces could be destroyed by the Göben. The influence of Goeben was neutralized only at the beginning of 1916 with the commissioning of the Russian battleships “ Empress Maria ” and “ Empress Catherine the Great ”. The neutralization of “Keben” radically changed the balance of power in the Caucasian-Black Sea theater in favor of Russia ^{[9] [Note. 7]} .

• Fight at Cape Sarych
• Caucasus Front (World War I)

In Russian

• Coop G. On the battlecruiser Goben. - St. Petersburg: ANT-Print, 2002.
• Kozlov D. Yu. “A Strange War” on the Black Sea (August-October 1914). - M.: Quadriga, 2009 .-- 223 p., Ill. - ISBN 978-5-904162-07-8
• Liddell Garth B. 1914. The Truth About World War I. - M .: Eksmo , 2009 [1930]. - 480 p. - (Fracture of history). - 4300 copies. - ISBN 978-5-699-36036-9 .
• Eugene Rogan The fall of the Ottoman Empire. World War I in the Middle East, 1914–1920 = The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East. By Eugene Rogan. . - M .: Alpina Non-fiction, 2017 .-- 560 p. - ISBN 978-5-91671-762-4 .

In English

• Halpern, Paul G. A Naval History of World War I. - Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995 .-- ISBN 978-1-55750-352-7 .
• Herwig, Holger. "Luxury" Fleet: The Imperial German Navy 1888–1918. - Amherst, New York : Humanity Books, 1998 .-- ISBN 978-1-57392-286-9 .
• Hough, Richard. Dreadnought: A History of the Modern Battleship. - Cornwall, UK: Penzance, 2003 .-- ISBN 978-1-904381-11-2 .
• Langensiepen, Bernd. The Ottoman Steam Navy 1828–1923 / Bernd Langensiepen, Ahmet Güleryüz. - London: Conway Maritime Press, 1995 .-- ISBN 978-0-85177-610-1 .
• Nekrasov, George. North of Gallipoli: The Black Sea Fleet at War 1914–1917. - Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 1992. - Vol. CCCXLIII. - ISBN 978-0-88033-240-8 .

• Staff, Gary. German Battlecruisers: 1914–1918. - Oxford : Osprey Books, 2006 .-- ISBN 978-1-84603-009-3 .
• Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. - Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1985 .-- ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8 .
• Robert K. Massie , Random House, October 28, 2003; ISBN 978-0-679-45671-1

• The Middle East during World War I - The First World War in the Middle East (doc film).