SMS Dresden (1907)
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The SMS Dresden was a small cruiser of the German Imperial Navy and the type ship of the Dresden class named after it . It was launched on October 5, 1907 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg . On November 11, 1908, the ship was put into service by the Imperial Navy.
The Dresden had four propellers with turbine drive and was the first ship of this shipyard with such a drive system. She had a length of 118.3 m, a width of 13.5 m and a draft of 5.54 m. The water displacement was 4,268 t. The machines made 18,880 hp ; thus the ship reached a top speed of 25.2 knots .
The armament consisted of ten sea target cannons of caliber 10.5 cm with 1,500 rounds, eight rapid-loading cannons of caliber 5.2 cm, two machine guns , and two underwater torpedo tubes of 45 cm diameter. Six of the main guns were positioned on deck, the others were placed in casemates below deck.
history
Before the First World War
First in command of the ship was Corvette Captain Count Harry von Posadowsky-Wehner . On November 28, 1908, the Swedish galeas Cäcilie was accidentally brought to sink during a measurement trip . Between September 24th and October 9th, 1909, Dresden took part in the 300th anniversary celebrations for the discovery of the Hudson River in New York . The official German representative was Grand Admiral Hans von Koester on board the training ship Victoria Louise . The training ship Hertha and the station cruiser Bremen also belonged to the German association .
On February 16, 1910 there was an accident with the small cruiser Königsberg . During the First Balkan War , the ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Division from April 6 to September 23, 1913 together with the small cruiser Strasbourg . Both ships reached Valletta on April 13th . On September 23, the Dresden returned to Kiel together with the Strasbourg .
On December 13, 1913, the Dresden departed from Kiel to replace the small cruiser Bremen on the East American station ( Gulf of Mexico , Caribbean). From January 21, 1914, the ship was in Veracruz . Civil war was raging in Mexico at the time . In order to protect German interests, ships of the Imperial Navy patrolled there. In July, the former Mexican President Victoriano Huerta traveled into exile on the Dresden in Jamaica . On July 26, 1914, the ship was replaced by the small cruiser Karlsruhe in the roadstead of Port-au-Prince ( Haiti ) . The commanders of the two cruisers were also exchanged there. Now frigate captain Fritz Lüdecke led the Dresden again . In view of the imminent danger of war, the ship started its journey home on the same day. On July 31, 1914, coal was taken over again in Saint Thomas ( Virgin Islands ). The Dresden should arrive in Wilhelmshaven around mid-August . But shortly after leaving St. Thomas a telegram was received from the German naval command: "Imminent danger of war - do not return home - wage cruiser war!"
Beginning of the First World War
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With the beginning of the First World War , the commander of the Dresden intended to wage cruiser warfare in Zone Three (east coast of South America). On the way to the mouth of the Río de la Plata , three British merchant ships were stopped in early August. Their captains allegedly did not yet know anything about the state of war, which is why Commander Lüdecke released them again. In doing so, he was adhering to a paragraph of the Hague Agreement . The German steamer Corrientes of the shipping company Hamburg Süd was ordered to Dresden by radio . He had taken over a load of coal in Pernambuco and was supposed to serve as a supply ship for the cruiser. After taking over coal, the Dresden crossed the trade routes in the South Atlantic. On August 14, 1914, she was able to sink the British steamer Hyades . On August 26, 1914, the steamer Holmwood followed . Two other British ships had to be released due to their neutral cargo. In the meantime, more coal ships had come to Dresden . With the Hapag steamer Baden and the Santa Isabel , also from the Hamburg-Süd shipping company, the Dresden now headed south. The Santa Isabel was able to procure provisions and urgently needed machine parts in Punta Arenas . It was learned that the old British armored cruisers Good Hope and Monmouth were east of the Strait of Magellan . On September 5, 1914, supplies and coal were hurriedly replenished and repairs carried out in Orange Bay near Cape Horn . The Dresden received orders to switch to the Pacific and to unite with the small cruiser Leipzig . On October 3, 1914, they got in touch with Leipzig . It was also learned that the East Asia Squadron under Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee was soon to be expected off the Chilean coast. On October 12, 1914, all ships finally met at Easter Island .
On October 18, 1914, the German squadron continued its voyage and set course for the coast of Chile. On November 1, 1914, there was a sea battle at Coronel . After the successful outcome of this battle, the Dresden and Leipzig managed to muster two sailors in the next few days. The other ships of the squadron had entered Valparaíso for supply . Finally the two remaining ships were able to replenish their supplies there on November 13, 1914. The East Asia Squadron then headed for Cape Horn. The Dresden was able to sink the freighter North Wales . Coal was picked up again in St. Quentin Bay. On December 6, 1914, it continued and the association reached the Atlantic.
Escape after the Battle of the Falkland Islands
On December 8, 1914, there was then a naval battle in the Falkland Islands . The Dresden was the only warship to escape the destruction of the East Asia Squadron, especially thanks to the higher maximum speed caused by the turbine drive. In the following years it hid in the fjords of Tierra del Fuego from its British pursuers. The ship received support from the German-Chilean Albert Pagels , who worked there as a pilot. British warships repeatedly searched the lonely bays and fjords of Tierra del Fuego for the Dresden .
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Ultimately, Captain Lüdecke decided to break out into the Pacific and wage cruiser war there as long as possible. He had to give up trying to break through to his homeland due to lack of coal. In addition, due to multiple overloads on the run from their pursuers - at times they reached a speed of 26 knots - in a very poor condition.
The Sierra Cordoba of North German Lloyd (NDL), located in Montevideo , was dispatched to support the cruiser with 1,600 tons of coal, provisions and spare parts after the Battle of the Falklands on December 18. It reached the Strait of Magellan on December 24, 1914 and entered Punta Arenas . She was then controlled by the British armored cruiser Kent . Since the waters were in neutral waters, the British could not stop the ship, and German pilots managed to hide her in an unmapped bay - like the Dresden . However, the ships were now in different bays, and it wasn't until January 19, 1915 that the two German ships that were last sighted in Punta Arenas were merged (the Dresden 37 days ago and the Sierra Cordoba 26 days ago). On February 13, both ships broke out of the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific and must have passed the British armored cruiser Carnarvon very closely. They then tried to land steamers on the well-known steamboat routes off the Chilean coast, but could only find sailors. On February 27, 1915, the British sailor Conway Castle was sunk. It was the Dresden's last booty . By radio they asked for a further supply of coal. As the coal supplies dwindled, the Sierra Cordoba was released on March 3rd to Callao , Peru, where it took over 1,200 tons of coal and then went back to sea. On February 20, the Gotha of the NDL under Captain Hillmann was sent from Montevideo to Dresden with 3,000 t of coal and spare parts for machinery . It was supposed to hit Dresden in the Pacific on March 5th . But instead of the suppliers, the British armored cruiser Kent came into view on March 7, 1915 - thanks to the radio messages he had found the track of the Dresden again. After five hours of maximum speed, the Dresden managed to escape her pursuer once more. She set course for what is now Robinson Island, which is part of neutral Chile .
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On March 9, 1915, the German cruiser anchored in the Cumberland Bay of Robinson Crusoe Island off San Juan Bautista . He only had 80 tons of coal on board, and the machines had become almost unusable due to the long maximum speed. The next day the commander decided to intern the ship in Chile . Instead of the expected Chilean forces, the British cruisers Glasgow and Kent came into view on the morning of March 14, 1915 . In disregard of neutrality, they shot at the anchored Dresden . Eight sailors were killed. The commandant sent his adjutant, First Lieutenant to the Sea, Wilhelm Canaris , to negotiate. But the British were not impressed by his reproaches about the neutral waters; this could be discussed after the war. At least this gave the commandant of the Dresden time to prepare for the sinking of his ship. After opening the sea valves, the Dresden sank in Cumberland Bay at 11.15 a.m. at position 33 ° 38 ′ 6 ″ S , 78 ° 49 ′ 30 ″ W .
In the rocky coast behind the last berth of the Dresden there are still some shells from the guns of the British cruisers. In San Juan Bautista a school, the Escuela Dresden, is named after the ship.
Fate of the ship and the crew
The crew were interned in Chile, where they had to support themselves. The men kept chickens and cows and also laid out gardens. Several people, including Wilhelm Canaris, managed to escape and return to Germany. The rest of the Dresden crew did not return to Germany until December 30, 1919. In November 1916, eight crew members fled to Norway together with other interned German seamen on the Chilean Bark Tinto , where they arrived in March 1917.
The Dresden is located since its self-absorption in the Robinson Crusoe Island at the bottom of Cumberland Bay in 60 meters depth. The wreck was declared a Chilean national good.
On February 24, 2006, the well-preserved, 155 kg heavy bell of the ship was salvaged by German and Chilean divers. After a restoration in the Archaeological State Museum in Schleswig , 100 years after the ship was put into service, it has been exhibited in the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden since November 14, 2008 .
tradition
The name of this ship was given to the new cruiser in Dresden during the war .
Commanders
- Corvette Captain Count Harry von Posadowsky-Wehner - November 1908
- Lieutenant Max Fleck - November 1908 to January 1909
- Corvette Captain Count Harry von Posadowsky-Wehner - January to March 1909
- Frigate Captain Eduard Engels - April to July 1909
- Lieutenant Max Fleck - July to September 1909
- Frigate Captain / Sea Captain Eduard Varrentrapp - September 1909 to September 1911
- Frigate Captain / Sea Captain Max Köthner - September 1911 to September 1912
- Frigate Captain Heinrich Retzmann - September 1912 (deputy)
- Frigate Captain Fritz Lüdecke - September 1912 to December 1913
- Frigate Captain Erich Koehler - December 1913 to July 1914
- Frigate captain / sea captain Fritz Lüdecke - July 1914 to March 1915
photos
Sketch of the small cruisers of the Dresden class from “Koehler's Fleet Calendar” from 1910
Bow view of the Dresden ,
approx. 1908-1915
SMS Dresden during a fleet parade, September / October 1909 near New York City
Model of the SMS Dresden (scale 1: 350)
Trivia
Some of the mountains of the Coast Mountains along the Canadian Pacific coast are named after the ship names used in the naval battle at Coronel, such as the 2656 m high Mount Dresden , which was climbed again in 2006 for the 800th anniversary of the city.
literature
- Else Lüdecke: Cruises and war experiences SMS "Dresden" 1914/1915 based on letters from the crew and official reports. Berlin (Marinedank-Verlag) 1915.
- Parker de Bassi, Maria Teresa: cruiser Dresden: an odyssey of no return. Koehler Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1993, ISBN 3-7822-0591-X .
- John Walter: Pirates of the Emperor. German trade troublemakers 1914–1918. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-613-01729-6 .
- Martin Perez Ibarra: Señales del Dresden ( Spanish ). Uqbar Editores, Chile 2014, ISBN 978-956-9171-36-9 .
Movie
Documentation
- The sinking of the "SMS Dresden". Production: National Geographic.
- Jürgen Stumpfhaus (director): Under the imperial flag - hunt in front of Cape Horn. 2-part documentation, Germany 2006, RBB, first broadcast 2006 arte.
- Steffen Hengst / Peter-Hugo Scholz: Submerged legend - In the footsteps of Kleiner Kreuzer Dresden. Germany 2009, 45 min.
- Royal Navy training film from the 1920s: “ The Battle of Coronel and the Falklands. "
motion pictures
- After a novella by CS Forester - Brown on Resolution , a feature film with the same title was made in 1935. His hero, the sailor Brown, is picked up by the Dresden . ( Brown on Resolution in the Internet Movie Database )
Web links
- Dresden on german-navy.de (English)
- Pictures and history on deutsche-schutzgebiete.de
- Gallery of the German Federal Archives on the sea battle at Coronel
- Exhibition at the Google Cultural Institute on the sea battle at Coronel
- Ship's bell of the "Dresden" returns home ( Sächsische Zeitung of June 20, 2007)
- History and archeology of the small cruiser Dresden
- Data and pictures for Dresden
Footnotes
- ↑ The supply ship Seydlitz also escapes
- ↑ Dresden and Sierra Cordoba in the Bahia Christmas, Patagonia (date not applicable)
- ↑ So Parker de Bassi. P. 406; other authors call the Sierra Cordoba Valparaíso.
- ↑ Don Ser: Coast Mountains Roundup. December 8, 2006, accessed September 15, 2013
- ↑ J. Stumpfhaus on the shooting (arte.tv) ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )