Mine cruiser SMS Albatross (1907)

The SMS Albatross was a German mine cruiser, which emerged from the experience of the Russo-Japanese War in dealing with mines as offensive weapons.

 

Launching and design:

On October 23, 1907, the launching of designed as a miner ship type of the Nautilus class took place. The concept of the Albatross and its sister ship Nautilus were the lessons learned from the Russo-Japanese War. Thus, the Marineleitung recognized that sea mines not only purely as a defensive weapon can be used, but also an offensive warfare can be operated. For example, Mine-Layers may set Mine-Locks during tactical retreats, forcing attacking enemy ships onto them or forcing them to turn back. Also, moving from enemy ports can cause enemy warships to be restricted in their movements or damaged, if not destroyed, when they leave.

Since the two ships of the Nautilus class of the deep-sea fleet should be subordinated and were just classified as offensive warships, these were not the markers as mine-depositors but as mine-cruisers. The direct combat with enemy ships, however, was not planned because the ships were equipped with a total of 8 8,8cm guns too weak.

 

 

 

 

History of SMS Albatross:

After the commissioning on May 19, 1908, the usual test drives were made before the ship was assigned to the maneuver squadron with the main port of Cuxhaven.

In 1911, the Albatross was rammed and damaged by Hansa Steamer Wartburg, leaving the ship in the dock for repair for some time.

 

 

 

Use in the war:

With the beginning of the First World War, SMS Albatross was charged with laying out an offensive block. These were relocated, inter alia, to the mouth of the Tyne, the southern North Sea and later in the Baltic Sea.

When on August 26, 1914, the small cruiser SMS Magdeburg stranded before Odensholm and the Russian Navy fell the signal books into the hands, they could overhear the German radio messages and were accordingly also informed of the operation of the German Navy of June 30, 1915 at which the Gulf of Finland should be mined.

When the operation was completed on 1 July, the squadron parted and only the small cruiser SMS Augsburg remained with the Albatross. On the morning of July 2, the two German ships encountered the Russian squadron consisting of the battleships Admiral Makarov and Bayan, as well as the protected cruisers Bogatyr and Oleg.

The Russian ships focused their fire from the beginning on the albatross to sink it if possible. After several heavy hits, the ship began to burn and her commander, Commander West, left this on the eastern coast of Ostergarn at Ostergarn beach to save the rest of the crew.

 

 

 

 

Whereabouts:

The Albatross had to complain after the battle 28 dead, the rest of the team had to internment in Sweden and remained there until the end of the war.

The Albatross was towed by the Swedish Navy to Fårö on July 23, 1915 and returned to Germany after the war, where it arrived in Gdansk on December 31, 1918.

On March 21, 1921, the deletion then took place from the military list, then it was dragged to Hamburg and scrapped there.

 

 

 

Ship data:

Name:	SMS Albatross
Country:	German Empire
Ship Type:	Mine cruiser
Class:	Nautilus-Class
Boatyard:	AG Weser, Bremen
Building-costs:	2.879.000 Mark
Launched:	October 23rd, 1907
Commissioning:	May 19th, 1908
Whereabouts:	Scrapped in Hamburg in 1921
Length:	100,9 meters
Width:	11,5 meters
Draft:	Max. 4,57 meters
Displacement:	Max. 2.506 Tons
Crew:	198 to 208 Men
Drive:	4 Marine Boiler 2 compound engine
Power:	6.600 PS (4.854 kW)
Maximum speed:	20,7 kn (38 km/h)
Armament:	8 × 8/8 "L / 35 (2,000 rounds) rapid-fire gun 288 sea mines

 

 

 

 

 

You can find the right literature here:

 

German Battleships 1914–18 (1): Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes (New Vanguard)

Supported by official documents, personal accounts, official drawings and specially commissioned artwork, this volume is an enlightening history of the Deutschland to Osfriesland classes. Detailing the last of the pre-dreadnaught battleship classes, this book goes on to explain the revolutionary developments that took place within the German Imperial Navy as they readied themselves for war. This included creating vessels with vast increases in size and armament. This account of design and technology is supplemented by individual ship histories detailing combat experience complete with first-hand accounts. The specially commissioned artwork also brings this history to life with recreations of the battleship Pommern fighting at Jutland and ships of the Osfriesland class destroying HMS Black Prince in a dramatic night-time engagement.

Click here!

 

 

The Imperial German Navy of World War I, Vol. 1 Warships: A Comprehensive Photographic Study of the Kaiser’s Naval Forces

The Imperial German Navy of WWI is a series of books (Warships, Campaigns, & Uniforms) that provide a broad view of the Kaiser's naval forces through the extensive use of photographs. Every effort has been made to cover all significant areas during the war period. In addition to the primary use of photographs, technical information is provided for each warship along with its corresponding service history; with a special emphasis being placed on those warships that participated in the Battle of Skagerrak (Jutland). Countless sources have been used to establish individual case studies for each warship; multiple photos of each warship are provided. The entire series itself is unprecedented in its coverage of the Kaiser's navy.

Click here!

 

 

German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design, Construction and Operations

This is the most comprehensive, English-language study of the German Imperial Navy's battlecruisers that served in the First World War. Known as Panzerkreuzer, literally "armored cruiser," the eight ships of the class were to be involved in several early North Sea skirmishes before the great pitched battle of Jutland where they inflicted devastating damage on the Royal Navy's battlecruiser fleet. This book details their design and construction, and traces the full service history of each ship, recounting their actions, drawing largely from first-hand German sources and official documents, many previously unpublished in English.

Click here!

 

 

The Kaiser's Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871-1918

The battleships of the Third Reich have been written about exhaustively, but there is little in English devoted to their Second Reich predecessors. This new book fills an important gap in the literature of the period by covering these German capital ships in detail and studying the full span of battleship development during this period. The book is arranged as a chronological narrative, with technical details, construction schedules, and ultimate fates tabulated throughout, thus avoiding the sometimes disjointed structure that can result from a class-by-class approach. Heavily illustrated with line drawings and photographs, many from German sources, the book offers readers a fresh visual look at these ships. A key objective of the book is to make available a full synthesis of the published fruits of archival research by German writers found in the pre-World War II books of Koop & Schmolke, Großmer's on the construction program of the dreadnaught era, Forstmeier & Breyer on World War I projects, and Schenk & Nottelmann's papers in Warship International. As well as providing data not available in English-language books, these sources correct significant errors in standard English sources.

Click here!

 

 

 

 

 

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