Muavenet-i Milliye

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
flag
Large 1906- class torpedo boat
Muavenet-i Milliye
Muavenet-i Milliye
Overview
Type Torpedo boat
units 4th
Shipyard

Schichau-Werke , Elbing,
BauNr. 784

Keel laying 1908
Launch March 20, 1909
period of service

1910-1923

Commissioning 1910
Decommissioning 1918
Whereabouts Demolished in 1953
Technical specifications
displacement

765 t ,

length

74 m

width

7.9 m

Draft

3 m

crew

90 men; in the war:
89 Turks, 23 Germans

drive

2 water tube boilers
2 steam turbines
17700 HP
2 screws

speed

26 kn , for tests over 30 kn

Range

1000 nm at 17 kn

Armament
  • 2 × 1 75mm L / 50 rapid fire guns
  • 2 × 1 57mm L / 50 rapid fire guns
  • 3 × 1 - 450 mm torpedo tubes
Fuel supply

116 tons of coal, 74 tons of oil

Series of

Large torpedo boats 1906

Schichauwerke, Elbing

S 138 - S 149, S 165 - S 168,
S 176 - S 179,
S 165 (II) - S 168 (II),

AG Vulcan Szczecin

V 150 - V 164, V 180 - V 191

Germania shipyard, Kiel

G 169 - G 175, G 192 - G 197

Sister ships

Yadigar-i Millet
Numune-i Hamiyet
Gayret-i Vataniye

The Muavenet-i Milliye was a destroyer of the Ottoman Navy , which was originally built for the Imperial Navy as the S 165 torpedo boat and was sold to the Ottoman Navy in 1910. During the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 she sank the British ship of the line HMS Goliath .

Acquisition history

“Muavenet” means support in Turkish and the full name of this ship “Muavenet-i Milliye” means national support . It was named in honor of a voluntary organization that raised public funds to expand the armed forces. The organization "Donanma-i Osmani Muavenet-i Milliye Cemiyeti" ( Society for the National Support of the Ottoman Navy ) founded in July 1909 was founded by 28 well-known Turkish businessmen in Istanbul and found support in the society as "Donanma Cemiyeti" ( Marine Association ). Muavenet-i Milliye was the first ship whose procurement in Germany was made possible through the efforts of the association and partly through the funds it had raised. The collection of funds for the expansion of the fleet became a national task, which led to donations from all sectors of society. The efforts of the naval association led to Milli Piyango , the Turkish state lottery, which then raised further funds for the fleet expansion.

Muavenet-i Milliye and her three sister ships were procured by the German Imperial Navy in 1910. It was the four Schichau boats S 165 to S 168 , which represented the most modern type of German deep sea torpedo boat. They had just been completed. In the Imperial Navy they were replaced by boats with the same number, which were the last of the series to enter service in 1911. They belonged to the large torpedo boat type 1906, of which the deep sea fleet received 60 boats from 1907 to 1911, which were built at three shipyards (Schichau, Vulcan and Germania shipyard ). They differed in size and armament and grew by about a third during the construction period. Only the first 21 boats still had expansion engines, the rest were powered by turbines.

Boats of this size were referred to as destroyers in other navies.

Mission history

The boats were delivered in 1910 together with the German ships of the line SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and SMS Weißenburg bought by the Ottoman Empire .

Balkan Wars

The four new torpedo boats / destroyers belonged to the Ottoman fleet during the Balkan Wars , which failed to break out of the Dardanelles in two battles with the Greek fleet. In 1912 Muavenet-i Milliye received Ahmed Saffet , a lieutenant who belonged to the new generation of Turkish officers trained to use modern weapons, as commandant.

Offensive in the Black Sea

Muavenet-i Milliye

On October 27, 1914, the new Ottoman fleet chief, Vice Admiral Wilhelm Souchon , assembled the battle cruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim , the cruisers Midilli and Hamidiye , the torpedo cannon boats Berk-i Satvet and Peyk-i Şevket , the destroyers Gayret-i Vataniye , Muavenet-i Milliye , Taşoz and Samsun as well as the mine- layers Nilufer and Samsun near Kilyos , on the coast north of Istanbul , to start the offensive in the Black Sea . For the first time in almost 40 years, the Ottoman Navy wanted to carry out a major operation in the Black Sea. Disguised as an exercise, the commanders only learned of Souchon's plans, who wanted to attack a large number of Russian ports, at a meeting on the Yavuz at sea . According to the agreement with the Ottoman Minister of War Enver Pasha , he should concentrate on the fight with the Russian fleet.

According to the plan, the Yavuz should now attack Sevastopol with the destroyers Taşoz , Samsun and a miner ; Midilli and Berk-i Satvet were to advance against Novorossiysk and lay mines in the Kerch Strait ; the Hamidiye should bombard Feodosiya ; the Gayret-i Vataniye under Ayasofyali Ahmet and the Muavenet-i Milliye were to attack Odessa with a mine- layer and lay mines at Ochakiv ; the Peyk-i Şevket had the order to destroy the underwater cable between Varna and Sevastopol.

Gayret-i Vataniye

The Muavenet-i Milliye and the Gayret-i Vataniye under Ayasofyali Ahmet were the first to reach the goal. The two torpedo boats entered the port of Odessa at 3:00 a.m. on October 29 and completely surprised the Russians. The gunboat Donez was sunk by a torpedo from Gayret-i Vataniye , the gunboat Kubanez was damaged by gunfire, the mine- layer Beshtau was set on fire and four merchant ships were damaged. The two Turkish torpedo boats fired at the port for almost an hour, destroyed the power station and damaged an oil depot. During this time, the miner Samsun laid 28 mines between Odessa and Sevastopol. Then the three ships deployed near Odessa marched back to Constantinople unmolested. As successful as the attack was, he also warned the Russians, who were prepared for the arrival of the main forces in Sevastopol two hours later.

On April 3, 1915, the light cruisers Hamidiye and Mecidiye with the four destroyers Muavenet-i Milliye , Yadigar-i Millet , Taşoz and Samsun were used against Odessa . The Mecidiye ran into a mine shortly before the target and sank in shallow water, killing 26 men. The Hamidiye rescued the Mecidiye's crew , while the accompanying destroyer Yadigar tried with a torpedo to completely destroy the Mecidiye , which did not succeed.

Sinking of the Goliath

Goliath

On April 25, 1915, the landing at Cape Helles took place as part of the Allied attempt to conquer the Gallipoli peninsula and force the breakthrough through the Dardanelles. The Allied fleet gave artillery support to the troops that had landed. The French had asked in their section at Cape Helles for help against Turkish counterattacks who wanted to retake Kerevizdere . That is why two ships of the line shot at the Turkish positions every night. The Turks wanted to stop this support by attacking the ships of the line. The task was entrusted to the Muavenet-i-Milliye . During the day, the German lieutenant captain Rudolph Firle and two other officers explored the area around Morto Bay before boarding the Muavenet-i Milliye to carry out the torpedo attack. She had arrived at the Dardanelles at noon on May 10 and had prepared for the mission. On May 12, at around 6:40 p.m., the Muavenet-i-Milliye attack began . Between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. she passed the mine barriers and anchored at 7:40 p.m. at Soganlidere to wait until midnight. On the night of May 12th to 13th 1915, the Goliath and the Cornwallis were sheltered by five wreckers in Morto Bay near Cape Helles . The headlights of the ships of the line were extinguished at around 11:30 p.m. The Muavenet-i-Milliye anchored at 00:30 and sailed to the European side of the Dardanelles. The Allied destroyers did not notice this movement.

At around 1:00 a.m., the Muavenet-i-Milliye had passed the destroyer's locking ring and the Goliath was right in front of her. The Goliath asked for the detection signal, the Muavenet-i-Milliye fired the first two torpedoes. The first hit at the level of the bridge, the second near the chimney. To be on the safe side, the Muavenet also fired the third torpedo at the Goliath , which capsized and hit again in the stern. The ship of the line sank very quickly, 570 men of the 700-strong crew lost their lives.

The sinking of the Goliath led to changes in the leadership of the Royal Navy. Two days later, the First Sea Lord , Admiral Fisher , resigned in dispute with the First Lord of the Admiralty , Winston Churchill , who also resigned on May 17th. It became apparent that the previous plans had misjudged the situation. The following losses of Triumph at Anzac Cove and the Majestic at Cape Helles, both of U 21 were torpedoed, confirmed this.

Although the Muavenet-i Milliye was discovered immediately after the first torpedo hit, taken under fire and pursued by the destroyers Wolverine and Pincher , she managed to escape. The commander of the Muavenet-i-Milliye , Lieutenant Ahmet Saffet Bey , the German lieutenant captain Rudolph Firle, his two auxiliaries and the 90-man Turkish crew were celebrated as heroes on their return to Istanbul , all the lights along the Bosporus were lit in their honor , they were promoted and honored. Ahmet Saffet Bey was promoted to major for the sinking of the Goliath . Rudolph Firle received, in addition to various Austro-Hungarian and Turkish awards, the Iron Cross 1st class .

For both of them, this success was probably also beneficial for their post-war careers. Ahmet Saffet Bey was briefly the Turkish naval minister and active in politics. Rudolph Firle became chairman of the board of Norddeutscher Lloyd in 1933 during National Socialism .

Further missions

After the Allies withdrew from Gallipoli, the Muavenet-i Milliye was primarily used to secure the coal freighters on the Black Sea coast, whose cargo was vital for the operational readiness of the Ottoman fleet. On September 5, 1915, she accompanied three coal freighters from Zonguldak to Istanbul together with her sister ship Numune-i Hamiyet and the Hamidiye when the Russian destroyers Bystry and Pronzitelni attacked. With the cruiser's six-inch guns failing, the Ottoman ships were unable to defend the transports, which sat on the beach to avoid falling into Russian hands. The Yavuz Sultan Selim arrived too late to save the coal freighters.

Whereabouts

In 1918 the ship was decommissioned and disarmed. As a result, it was used as a storage ship at the Taşkızak shipyard in Istanbul and finally demolished in 1953.

More name bearers

Three ships of the Turkish Navy were named Muavenet to commemorate the torpedo boat that achieved the greatest single success of a ship in the Ottoman Navy.

One of the first aircraft of the Turkish armed forces, a Blériot XI monoplane, also bore the name Muavenet-i Milliye .
With this machine, Captain Fethi Bey and Sadik Bey flew from Istanbul on February 8, 1914 towards Egypt via Eskishehir , Afyon , Konya , Tarsus , Adana , Aleppo , Homs and reached Beirut on February 15. They started again on the 19th, but had to make an emergency landing east of the city on the Beirut River due to an engine failure. After the repair, it went on to Damascus on the 24th . The start to Jerusalem took place on the 27th. The plane crashed over the Golan near Samakh . Fethi Bey and Sadik Bey died in the crash and were buried in Damascus near the Umayyad Mosque.

Fate of the sister boats

The keel laying of all four boats took place in 1908 at the Schichau shipyard in Elbing for the Imperial Navy, for which they were also launched; The boats were delivered to Turkey in September 1910.

ship Launch resume
SMS S 166
Yadigar-i Millet
April 24, 1909 1st Destroyer Division. Used on April 3, 1915 with the light cruisers Hamidiye and Mecidiye , the sister boat Muavenet-i Milliye , as well as the Taşoz and Samsun against Odessa. The Mecidiye ran into a mine shortly before the target and sank in shallow water. The Yadigar tried to completely destroy the Mecidiye with a torpedo , which did not succeed. On June 29, 1915 attack on the British submarine HMS E14 west of Marmara. A torpedo missed the submarine. Continued in the submarine protection in the Marmara Sea until August 1915. Sunk in the night of July 9-10 , 1917 under Binbaşı (Corvette Captain) Cesmeli Raif Said by the bombing of a British Handley Page aircraft in the Istinye harbor in Istanbul . 29 sailors died. The attack was aimed at the nearby Yavuz . Only after some time did it lift and attempt to repair it. Decommissioned in Istanbul in December 1918 and then sunk again. Canceled in 1924.
SMS S 167
Numune-i Hamiyet
3rd July 1909 In April 1915 submarine security service in the Sea of ​​Marmara. On May 10, 1915, she discovered the Russian fleet approaching the Bosphorus, engaged in a brief battle with accompanying minesweepers and brought the Yavuz over by radio. The Russians broke off their attack after a battle. On September 5, 1915, she accompanied three coal freighters from Zonguldak to Istanbul together with her sister boat Muavenet-i Milliye and the cruiser Hamidiye when the Russian destroyers Bystry and Pronzitelni attacked. With the cruiser's six-inch guns failing, the Ottoman ships were unable to defend the transports, which sat on the beach to avoid falling into Russian hands. Took part in the attack on Imbros on January 20, 1918 .

1919 to 1923 closed in the Golden Horn, then canceled.

SMS S 168
Gayret-i Vataniye
September 30, 1909 1st destroyer division under Ayasofyali Ahmet with the Muavenet-i Milliye attacked Odessa on October 29, 1914 and the gunboat Donez sunk with a torpedo. The Gayret accompanied under Kasımpaşalı Cemil Ali Bey on May 10, 1915 the transporters Patmos and Gülcemal , which transported troops from Istanbul to Çanakkale, in the Marmara Sea when the British submarine HMS E14 attacked. E14 missed the Patmos but hit the Gülcemal . Two arriving ferries took over troops and material and the ship hit was able to be brought into Istanbul. Also in the submarine protection in the Sea of ​​Marmara in August 1915.

The Gayret ran on October 28, 1916 on previously unknown rocks off the Bulgarian coast off Balchik near Varna , could not be recovered and was abandoned on the 30th.

literature

Web links

Commons : Muavenet-i Milliye (ship, 1909)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Langensiepen, p. 158 f.
  2. see Naval Competition Between Turkey and Greece in the years 1909–1914 and its impact on the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean, pp. 126–133, Trakya University, Edirne, English summary ( Memento of February 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 3.49 MB)
  3. Later referred to as T 138 to T 197 , one boat ( G 171 ) was lost in peacetime, nine lost in war, 23 had to be delivered, some of the rest still served in the Imperial Navy or some were used in the Navy . Some were completely renewed, got larger superstructures and even 10.5 cm guns as main armament. It was used as a school boat, high-speed tug for target targets, remote control or test boat. Some even survived World War II and were used by the Soviet Navy until the 1960s.
  4. Use and whereabouts (English) ( Memento from April 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive )