SMS Wiesbaden (1915)
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The small cruiser SMS Wiesbaden was a ship of the Imperial German Navy .
technology
The ship had a displacement of 6,601 t and had side armor up to 60 mm thick. The armament consisted of eight 15 cm guns , four 5.2 cm guns and four 50 cm torpedo tubes . In addition, up to 120 mines could be carried.
history
The Wiesbaden was launched on January 30, 1915 in Stettin at the AG Vulcan shipyard and was put into service on August 23, 1915. Your commandant was Captain Fritz Reiss .
First World War
After training in the Baltic Sea, the ship was assigned to the II reconnaissance group. From December 1915, Wiesbaden provided outpost and security services in the North Sea and took part in mining operations.
Battle of the Skagerrak
On May 31, 1916, the Wiesbaden took part in the Second Reconnaissance Group (flagship was the sister ship Frankfurt ) commanded by Rear Admiral Friedrich Boedicker in the Skagerrak Battle . At the beginning of the battle, the ship was shot in a direct hit in the engine room, making it impossible to maneuver. In the course of the battle it drifted between the battle lines and was continuously fired at by British ships. Later it was hit by a torpedo in the stern. The ship showed an astonishing stability and only went down after hours, on June 1, 1916 at around 2:45 a.m., almost with the entire crew. 22 men were initially able to save themselves on three rafts, but only the chief heater Hugo Zenne was rescued two days later as the only survivor of the Norwegian steamer Willy . 589 crew members died. Among them was the Low German poet Johann Kinau, known as Gorch Fock .
The wreck today
The wreck was found by divers of the German Navy in 1983 at a depth of 52 meters. A piece of the shaft cover was salvaged by marine divers of the German Navy as part of a diving exercise and given to the Cuxhaven wreck museum . At the end of June 2011 the wreck (position inaccurate: 57 ° 1 ' N , 5 ° 53' E, ) was dived again by a group of German divers. It was found that the cruiser's two propellers are missing. It is believed that they were lifted by salvage divers before 1983. According to current reports, parts of the ship are planned to be salvaged and exhibited in the International Maritime Museum Hamburg in memory of the last naval battle .
Model buildings
A model of the cruiser is in the Wiesbaden city hall , where it can be viewed on May 31 and June 1 of each year.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Name after: [[Eberhard von Mantey (Admiral) |]] (Ed.): At sea undefeated. Vol. 2, Munich 1922, frontispiece
- ↑ Expedition to the wreck of the cruiser Wiesbaden
- ^ SMS cruiser Wiesbaden
- ↑ Dive to the wreck of the Wiesbaden ( Memento from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Bild-Zeitung Hamburg of July 7, 2011, p. 3
- ↑ Memorial hour for the sunken cruiser “SMS Wiesbaden” in the town hall ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Ingeborg Toth; Wiesbaden Courier from June 3, 2014
- ↑ Commemoration: In the Skagerrak the SMS Wiesbaden sank in the night from May 31st to June 1st, 1916 by Ingeborg Toth; Wiesbadener Tagblatt from May 28, 2016
