Georg Thiele (naval officer)

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Georg Max Thiele (born May 11, 1880 in Posen , † October 17, 1914 off the Dutch coast near the island of Texel ) was a naval officer in the German Imperial Navy , most recently with the rank of corvette captain .

During the First World War, Thiele was in command of the torpedo boat S 119 and commander of the 7th torpedo boat semi -flotilla, which consisted of the five torpedo boats S 115 to S 119 . At a mine laying company off the Dutch coast near Texel in autumn 1914 there was a battle with superior British naval forces. His boat was sunk and he himself was killed.

The battle

German torpedo boat of the type 1898

On October 17, 1914, the four torpedo boats S 115 , S 117 , S 118 and S 119 ran from Emden to lay mines in front of the Downs and the Thames estuary . The boats, of type 1898, were of older construction (1903), designed for a maximum speed of 26 knots , and with their three small 5.0 cm / L / 40 TK, they were hopelessly inferior to newer torpedo boat destroyers of the Royal Navy .

During this operation the boats were sighted off the island of Texel by the English light cruiser HMS Undaunted and four Laforey-class torpedo boat destroyers (1913) ( Lance , Lennox , Loyal and Legion ) and were sighted at around 53 ° 17 ′  N , 3 ° 28 ′  E posed. Although the German boats turned around immediately, they were unable to escape the faster English ships, as they could only accelerate to 18 knots.

The British divided their unit and attacked with the Legion and the Loyal first S 118 , which sank at 3:17 p.m., while the other two destroyers hit S 115 so badly that the boat could no longer be steered. The two remaining torpedo boats attempted a torpedo attack on the Undaunted , but the Undaunted was able to evade and concentrated its fire on the attacking boats. At 3:30 p.m., S 117 , which the Legion had previously shot at the helm , sank . At 3:35 p.m. the guide boat S 119 also sank in the fire of Lance and Loyal after it had carried out another torpedo attack on the Lance . A torpedo hit the destroyer amidships without exploding. The last boat S 115 , which was still floating but unable to maneuver , was boarded by the Lennox , which was only able to capture a single surviving German on board. Then the Undaunted sank this boat at 16:30. 218 German seamen died on the boats, 30 were captured by the British. The next day, two seamen were rescued by a Dutch fishing boat.

The loss of the entire German semi-flotilla led to a considerable reduction in German activities against the British coast. After that, almost only heavy units were used.

Honors

literature

  • Harald Fock: Black journeymen , Volume 2: Destroyers before 1914 . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1981, ISBN 3-7822-0206-6 .
  • Erich Gröner: The German warships 1815-1945 , Volume 2: Torpedo boats, destroyers, speedboats, minesweepers, mine clearance boats . Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-7637-4801-6 .
  • Robert Gardiner: Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1860-1905 . Conway Maritime Press, London 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Walter Lohmann: The German warships: names and fates . Rütten & Loening, 1941, p. 84.
  2. ↑ List of fallen soldiers of the German Imperial Navy
  3. ↑ The boat SMS S 116 , which originally also belonged to the semi-flotilla, was sunk by the British submarine HMS E 9 on October 6th .
  4. ↑ TK = abbreviation for T orpedobootskanone . A fast-loading cannon with a particularly narrow mount that could also be mounted on the narrow decks of torpedo boats.
personal data
SURNAME Thiele, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thiele, Georg Max (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Poses
DATE OF DEATH October 17, 1914
Place of death off the Dutch coast near the island of Texel