SMS Medusa (1900)

SMS Medusa

The sister ship SMS Nymphe

Ship data flag  German Empire Ship type Small cruiser class Gazelle- class Shipyard AG Weser , Bremen Build number 128 building-costs 4,739,000 marks Launch 5th December 1900 Commissioning July 26, 1901 Whereabouts Sunk on May 3, 1945

Ship dimensions and crew length 105.1 m ( Lüa ) 104.1 m ( KWL ) width 12.2 m Draft Max. 5.39 m displacement Construction: 2,659 t Maximum: 2,972 t   crew 257 men

Machine system machine 9 marine boilers, 2 3-cylinder compound machines Machine performance 7,972 hp (5,863 kW) Top speed 20.9 kn (39 km / h) propeller 2 three-winged ∅ 3.5 m

Armament 10 × 10.5 cm L / 40 Sk (1,000 shots) 2 × torpedo tube ∅ 45 cm (under water, 5 shots) Armor Deck: 20-50 mm Coam: 80 mm Command tower: 20–80 mm Shields: 50 mm

The SMS Medusa was a Gazelle- class small cruiser of the Imperial Navy . It was named after the monster Medusa in Greek mythology .

The Medusa remained with the Imperial Navy after the war and was the first larger ship to be commissioned in 1920. She was decommissioned in 1924 and removed from the list of warships in 1929.

The Medusa , which still exists as a residential ship , was converted into a floating anti-aircraft battery in 1942 and blown up in May 1945.

history

The Medusa belonged to the second group of the Gazelle class like the SMS Niobe , SMS Nymphe , SMS Ariadne , SMS Amazone and SMS Thetis, which were also created under the official draft 1895–1896 . Compared to the type ship SMS Gazelle, they had an engine system that was increased to 8,000  PSi .

The cruiser entered service on July 26, 1901 and completed the usual test drives until September 11, 1901. The ship then had to be parked in reserve due to a lack of personnel. The actual commissioning with subsequent fleet service with the reconnaissance forces did not take place until April 1, 1903.

Thereafter, the ship took part in the annual fleet association exercises and foreign visits of the fleet between 1903 and 1906 ( Spain , Netherlands , Norway and Great Britain ). In 1906 the Medusa won the Imperial Prize for Small Cruisers for the best shooting performance in this ship category. A machine breakdown on September 7, 1907 had to be repaired in the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel . The cruiser retired from the reconnaissance forces on September 15, 1907 and was replaced by the new small cruiser SMS Königsberg ; instead, he replaced the sister ship Nymphe as an artillery training ship for machine weapons . The Medusa switched from the deep-sea fleet to the inspection of ship artillery . After the nymph's return on May 23, 1908 as an artillery training ship, the Medusa was decommissioned in Danzig , overhauled at the Imperial Shipyard there and then transferred to the 1st  Reserve .

Operations in the First World War

• At the beginning of the First World War , the cruiser was reactivated and put back into service on August 4, 1914
• from August 11, 1914 Elbe harbor flotilla together with Nymphe , SMS Pfeil and SMS Fuchs , there until September 13, 1915 for security and outpost service
• September 14, 1915 to Wilhelmshaven, crew reduced
• 1 December 1915 crew replenished, as a replacement for Undine for the coastal defense division of the Baltic Sea, there from 16 December 1915 base in Warnemünde , until December 1916 (as a patrol cruiser for the western and central Baltic Sea as well as a target ship for submarine and torpedo boat training)
• from February 1916 to December 1916 flagship of Vice Admiral Robert Mischke (head of the coastal defense division of the Baltic Sea)
• short-term deployment in the eastern Baltic Sea (October 31 to November 7, 1916 in Libau)
• December 18, 1916 Decommissioned in Kiel, transfer to Flensburg - Mürwik as a ship for the young ship's school ship SMS König Wilhelm during the inspection of the educational system

Imperial Navy

The cruiser was one of the obsolete ships that were left in the Reichsmarine after the First World War. In January 1920, the Medusa was intended as the mother ship for the 12th minesweeping semi-flotilla (UZ boats) - but this was no longer set up.

Thus the cruiser - without major modernization work being carried out - was put into service as the first larger ship for the Reichsmarine on July 17th, 1920 and assigned to the naval station of the Baltic Sea . He also made the first foreign visit by the Imperial Navy after the First World War, from August 30 to September 5, 1920, calling at the Swedish ports of Fårösund , Gotland and Wisby . After the new Hanover liner was put into service on February 10, 1921, the flagship function was transferred to it. Until the decommissioning on September 26, 1924, a few foreign visits were made in Swedish and Finnish ports. The Medusa was removed from the list of warships on March 27, 1929 and continued to be used as a barge in Wilhelmshaven.

Navy

In winter 1939/40, the ship was in the Rickmers shipyard ind Wesermünde for floating Flak - Battery rebuilt. For this purpose, armament was completely changed and adapted to the task: five later six 10.5 cm L / 45 flak, two 3.7 cm flak and four 2 cm flak as well as a Würzburg radar device . The ship's berth during the Second World War from July 1940 was the Vareler Tief or Schillig roadstead in front of Wilhelmshaven . The ship belonged to Marine Flak Division 222, whose Flak Subgroup Command South was near Vareler Hafen. Since the machinery was unusable, the ship always had to be towed to its place of use. In a low-flying attack on April 19, 1945, the Medusa was badly damaged and unusable. 41 injured and 23 dead on board were the result of this attack. The ship then moved to Wilhelmshaven at the Wiesbaden Bridge and was blown up when the 1st Panzer Division of the Polish Army marched into the IV entrance in Wilhelmshaven on May 3, 1945.

In 1947 the wreck was lifted during clearance work and broken up until 1950.

Commanders

July 26 to September 11, 1901	Frigate Captain Karl Deubel
April 1, 1903 to September 30, 1904	Frigate Captain William Kutter
October 1, 1904 to September 1905	Frigate Captain Paul Schlieper
September 1905 to September 1906	Frigate Captain Friedrich Schultz
September 1906 to September 1907	Frigate Captain Wilhelm Starke
September 1907 to January 1908	Frigate Captain Heinrich Trendtel
January 23rd to May 23rd 1908	Frigate Captain Paul Jantzen
August 4 to December 1914	Frigate Captain Erich Graf von Zeppelin
December 1914 to February 1915	Lieutenant Captain Walther von Mallinckrodt (deputy)
February to September 1915	Frigate Captain Wilhelm Bruckmeyer
September to December 1915	Corvette captain zD Heinrich Glaue
December 1915 to December 18, 1916	Frigate Captain Karl Windmüller
July 17, 1920 to September 1922	Sea captain Alexander Werth
September 1922 to September 26, 1924	Frigate Captain Ernst Meusel
August 1940 to July 1941	Lieutenant captain dR Roediger
July 1941 to September 1943	Corvette Captain Dr. Wolfgang Howaldt
December 1943 to October 1944	First Lieutenant d. Naval Artillery Elingius
October to November 1944	First Lieutenant d. Marine artillery grapevines
November 1944 to April 1945	Lieutenant zur See dR Schütt

Known crew members

• Werner Ehrhardt (1898–1967), was from 1957 to 1960, as rear admiral , first commander of the command of naval training (KdoMarAusb)

literature

• Lutz Bengelsdorf: The naval war in the Baltic Sea 1914-1918. Hauschild, Herford 2008, ISBN 978-3897574045 .
• Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 1. Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe 1998 ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
• Erich Gröner: The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 7. Landing associations (II): Landing vehicles ie S. (Part 2), landing ferries, landing support vehicles, transporters, ships and boats of the army, ships and boats of the sea pilots / air force, colonial vehicles. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe 1990 ISBN 3-7637-4807-5 .
• Hans H. Hildebrandt, Albert Röhr and Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Volume 4, Herford: Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH 1981 ISBN 3-7822-0235-X .
• Robert Gardiner: Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1860-1905. London: Conway Maritime Press 1979 ISBN 0-8517-7133-5 .
• Friedrich August Greve: The air defense in the Wilhelmshaven section 1939-1945. 2nd Navy Flak Brigade. Hermann Lüers, Jever 1999.

Web links

• Page to the cruiser on deutsche-schutzgebiete.de
• Data Gazelle class on worldwar1.co.uk (Engl.)
• SMS Medusa on battleships-cruisers.co.uk (engl.)
• Gazelle class on historyofwar.org (Engl.)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Friedrich August Greve: The air defense in the Wilhelmshaven section 1939-1945. 2nd Navy Flak Brigade . Hermann Lüers, Jever 1999, p. 48 .