Tag Archives: SMS Goeben

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

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Some 80 years ago this week. Off Istanbul, Turkey, on 5 April 1946.

Here we see the famed Iowa-class fast battleship USS Missouri (BB 63) moored in the Bosporus. She had just brought home for burial the body of the late Turkish Ambassador to the U.S., Mehmet Munir Ertegun. This visit was also aimed at influencing Russian Middle East policy. The Gearing-class destroyer USS Power (DD-839) is at left.

Note that Missouri is wearing a more peacetime solid-blue hull (Measure 22) over her wartime Measure 32/22d camouflage, which she wore through the end of WWII, just seven months prior.  National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-702557

At right is the infamous Turkish Moltke-class battle cruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim (ex-SMS Goeben), some 36 years old at the time.

When Missouri, the light cruiser Providence (CL-82), and Power had entered the straits on 5 April, Missouri and Yavuz exchanged 19-gun salutes, two great bookends in battlewagon history.

A better look at Missouri on this cruise. Note the Curtiss SC-1 Seahawk floatplane on her catapult. Official caption: “Mediterranean Cruise 1946 of USS Missouri (BB 63). USS Missouri (BB 63) anchored in the harbor of Piraeus, Greece.” 80-GK-9343

Off Istanbul, Turkey, 5-9 April 1946. Missouri center. She had brought the body of the Late Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Mehmet Munir Ertegun, home for burial, on a mission that was also made to influence Soviet Middle East policy. USS Power (DD-839) is at left, and the Turkish Battlecruiser Yavuz (formerly the German Goeben) is at right. The Dolmabahce Mosque is in the foreground. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-366179

The camouflaged Yavuz (Turkish Battlecruiser, 1911, formerly the German Goeben). Off Istanbul, Turkey, in April 1946, during USS Missouri’s visit there. Photographed by Lieutenant Commander Dewey Wrigley. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-376888

Still somewhat capable of at least scratching the paint of a Soviet battleship or providing NGFS against land forces trying to close the strait, when Turkey joined NATO in 1952, Yavuz picked up a B-series hull number (B70) before she was decommissioned in 1954 after 42 years of service (40 of those to the Turks). Even while laid up, she continued to be used as a stationary headquarters for the Battle Fleet until 1960.

Offered as a museum ship to West Germany, and unable to preserve the historic 25,000-ton vessel themselves, Goeben/Yavuz was instead sold by the Turks for scrap to M.K.E. Seyman in 1971, although several relics were preserved.

Check out this great original color clip of the old girl in 1973 as she was preparing for tow to the breakers:

Warship Wednesday, November 7

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk/dieselpunk navies of the 1866-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  November 7


Here we see the beautiful new battlecruiser SMS Goeben of the Kasierliche Marine. She was the second of two Moltke-class battlecruisers of the Imperial German Navy, launched in 1911 and named after the German Franco-Prussian War hero General August Karl von Goeben.

 

SMS Goeben with torpedo nets rolled up pre1914

SMS Goeben with torpedo nets rolled up pre1914, Click to big up

She served only two years in the Kaiser’s navy officially before causing havoc and frustration in the Med while running from British and French warships on the outbreak of World War I. Her Admiral, William Souchon, made for Turkey where the ship was interned and then officially turned over to the Turkish Navy 16 August 1914, just over two weeks into the War. However, renamed the  Yavuz Sultan Selim after Ottoman sultan Selim I, and with her German crew wearing Turkish fez, she became the flagship of the Ottoman Navy.

As such she pulled Turkey into the War when Souchon sailed across the Black Sea to bombard Russian ports. For the rest of the war she traded shots with the occasional Russian battleship, avoiding lurking British subs, and generally trying to just stay one step ahead of the Turks themselves.

Goeben and Breslau

Goeben and Breslau. Click to bigup

The Germans left in 1918 but the Selim remained. In 1936 she was renamed once again as the TCG Yavuz (“Ship of the Turkish Republic Yavuz“) since the old Ottoman name was passe.

Battlecruiser Yavuz (Yavuz Selim) in Bosporus ,1931

Battlecruiser Yavuz (Yavuz Selim) in Bosporus ,1931. Click to bigup

 

Yavuz remained the flagship of the Turkish Navy until she was decommissioned in 1950. She was scrapped in 1973, after the West German government declined an invitation to buy her back from Turkey as a museum. She was the last surviving ship built by the Imperial German Navy, and the longest-serving battlecruiser or dreadnought-type ship in any navy, with some .


Specs:
Displacement:

Design: 22,979 t (22,616 long tons)
Full load: 25,400 t (25,000 long tons)

Length:     186.6 m (612 ft 2 in)
Beam:     30 m (98 ft 5 in)
Draft:     9.2 m (30 ft 2 in)
Installed power:

Design: 52,000 hp (39,000 kW)
Maximum: 85,782 hp (63,968 kW)

Propulsion:     4 screws, Parsons steam turbines
Speed:

Design: 25.5 kn (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph)
Maximum: 28.4 kn (52.6 km/h; 32.7 mph)

Range:     4,120 nmi (7,630 km; 4,740 mi) at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement: 43 officers
1,010 men

Armament:

10 × 28 cm (11 in) SK L/50 guns (5 × 2)
12 × 15 cm (5.9 in) guns
12 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns

Armor:

Belt: 280–100 mm (11–3.9 in)
Barbettes: 230 mm (9.1 in)
Turrets: 230 mm
Deck: 76.2–25.4 mm (3–1 in)
Conning tower: 350 mm (14 in)