SMS V 25
 Deck view of the slightly larger sister boat V 47
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V 25 was a large torpedo boat designed by the Imperial Navy in 1913. The boat was part of a six-unit series that wasawardedto AG Vulcan Stettin by the Imperial Navy Office in the budget year 1913. V 25 sank on February 13, 1915 during minesweeping near the Amrumbank lightship .
history
The large torpedo boats of the 1913 official draft were a departure from the 1911 preliminary draft and an attempt to procure smaller and inexpensive boats. The new design reached the size of the British destroyer, but had a lighter artillery armament with a stronger torpedo component. Primarily the Tirpitzsche torpedo boat doctrine still applied , that the torpedo was the primary weapon and the artillery was only used for defense.
The boats of the official draft of 1913 were the first torpedo boats of the Imperial Navy to be fired exclusively with oil. As with the procurement of torpedo boats for the Imperial Navy since the beginning of the century, the construction contracts for the 1913 series went to competing private shipyards: AG Vulcan in Stettin and the Schichau shipyard in Elbing, after which the boats with the first letters of the shipyards ( V or S ) as well as with consecutive serial numbers. The Stettiner Vulcan built the semi-flotilla from V 25 to V 30 and the Schichau shipyard the boats from S 31 to S 36 .
The V 25 , launched on January 29, 1914, was taken over by the Navy on June 27, 1914 and joined the IX. Torpedo boat flotilla that was just being deployed. With the sister ships up to V 30 it formed the 17th torpedo boat semi-flotilla under Corvette Captain Paul Jacobi (1878–1915). The 18th torpedo boat half flotilla in the same formation consisted of the Schichau boats S 31 to S 36 .
Calls
The boat, which was put into service under the orders of Corvette Captain Franz Wieting immediately before the start of the war in 1914, was in a test drive in the Baltic Sea from the outbreak of World War I until October of that year . There it took part in combat operations as part of its training activities due to the lack of modern ships. With the sister boat V 26 (in service on August 1, 1914) as well as V 186 and the only modern cruisers Augsburg and Magdeburg from the training association available on this theater of war , it was assigned to the coastal protection division of the Baltic Sea under Rear Admiral Robert Mischke (1865-1932). The main task of this association was to secure the Bay of Kiel and the Belte against possible enemy attacks and offensive undertakings against the Russian Baltic coast.
On August 8, 1914, the boat and the aforementioned ships took part in a first action in the northern Baltic Sea: the Dagerort lighthouse (on the island of Dagö ) and the Bengtskär lighthouse were shot at. This was followed on the 17th of the month by a mining operation with the auxiliary mine steamer Germany against the Gulf of Finland . Due to early discovery, the mines had to be laid on the Hanko - Cape Tachkona line (north-western tip of Dagö). The torpedo boats then fired at the lighthouse on Cape Ristna near Dagerort again. Due to a lack of oil, however, the boats were released to Gdansk on August 18 to replenish their fuel. For the next venture, the subordination in the Baltic Sea was changed: A separate detached admiral , Rear Admiral Ehler Behring (1867-1918), was appointed for offensive advances in the eastern Baltic Sea and the existing modern and fast ships were subordinated to him.
Together with the other ships and supplemented by the old cruiser Amazone , the gunboat Panther and U 3 undertook V 25 another foray into the northern Baltic Sea from 23 to 28 August 1914. During this expedition that went Magdeburg by beaching before Odensholm on 26th lost. V 25 only joined the warship group on this day due to a stay in the shipyard. Two days later the boat came into action together with V 186 and SMS Augsburg with the Russian armored cruisers Pallada and Bajan , while attempting to pull the Russian ships on SM U 3 . This attempt failed and the German ships had to withdraw; the submarine under Max Valentiner was not shot. Another advance with the support of parts of the deep sea fleet up to Bogskär came from September 3 to 9, 1914. The boat stopped the Swedish steamer Gauthiod in front of Raumo and sank the steamer Uleaborg, which was loaded with contraband , according to the price order .
In November, the boat came to the North Sea under the new commander, First Lieutenant Bruno Crux (1885–1915), and became the leader of the 17th torpedo boat semi-flotilla. During the advance of the ocean-going fleet to bombard the British cities of Hartlepool , Whitby and Scarborough from December 15 to 17, 1914, the boat was part of the association to secure the small cruisers of the Second Reconnaissance Group and came into action with English cruisers. Due to the higher speed of the T-boats and bad weather, however, they were able to detach themselves from the English association pursuing them, so that no damage occurred. On January 14, 1915, together with the cruisers Stralsund and Strasbourg, an offensive mining operation against the Humber estuary took place . The boat collided with the sister ship V 26 and had to break off the mission prematurely. After the repairs in the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven it resumed the outpost service in the North Sea and was also used for security tasks at mine sweeping companies.
loss
For such an undertaking north of Helgoland near the lightship Amrumbank, the boat with four other T-boats of the semi-flotilla left the Helgoland port on February 12, 1915. The association should, supported by the naval airship L 6 , the III. Protect the minesweeping division from any unexpected British ships while clearing a British barrier. V 25 was last seen by S 35 at 3:30 a.m. the following day . The boat was probably to 4:00 on February 13, 1915 at position 54 ° 22 ' N , 7 ° 47' O on an English mine and sank with the entire crew . In addition to 78 men of the crew, the half-flotilla boss Paul Jacobi was also killed. By searching boats of the I. and IX. Torpedo boat flotilla 11 bodies were recovered - with multiple attacks by an English submarine reportedly. However, the German Naval Warfare Department also considers a loss through a submarine attack to be unlikely due to a lack of British reports.
Honors
The German Navy honored the semi-flotilla chief who had fallen on V 25 by naming the destroyer Z 5 Paul Jacobi .
literature
- Rudolph Firle : The Wars at Sea 1914–1918. The war in the Baltic Sea. Volume 1: From the beginning of the war to mid-March 1915. ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1921.
- Harald Fock: Black journeymen. Volume 2: Destroyers until 1914. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1981, ISBN 3-7822-0206-6 .
- Harald Fock: Z-before! Volume 1: International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats 1914 to 1939. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford 1998, ISBN 3-7822-0207-4 .
- 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 .
- Otto Groos : The Wars at Sea 1914–1918. The war in the North Sea. Volume 3: From November 1914 to the beginning of February 1915. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1923.
- Otto Groos: The Wars at Sea 1914–1918. The war in the North Sea. Volume 4: From the beginning of February 1915 to December 1915. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1924.
- Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray: Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Conway Maritime Press, London (1985), ISBN 0-85177-245-5 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/lösbaren/vl_halbstocks_die_flagge_wk1_teil_1_torpedoboote.htm
- ↑ Firle: Baltic Sea. Vol. 1, pp. 55-71.
- ↑ Firle: Baltic Sea. Vol. 1, pp. 76-96.
- ↑ http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/lösbaren/vl_halbstocks_die_flagge_wk1_teil_1_torpedoboote.htm
- ↑ Groos: North Sea. Vol. 3, pp. 50-104.
- ↑ Groos: North Sea. Vol. 4, pp. 29-31.