Tag Archives: Wiesbaden-class scout cruiser SMS Frankfurt

The Day Old Frankie took the Plunge

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Some 105 years ago, 18 July 1921, off the Virginia Capes

Successive leisurely flights of land-based Army and Navy bombers dropped an assortment of bombs over the moored and abandoned 6,600-ton German Wiesbaden-class scout cruiser SMS Frankfurt, formerly of the Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet, and (eventually) sank same.

To help with aimpoints, she even conveniently had two round targets painted on her deck, fore and aft.

From the Alfred A. Cunningham Collection (COLL/3034) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division

Frankfurt, commissioned in October 1915, survived Jutland specifically, the Great War as a whole, and even scuttling at Scapa Flow.

She was hard to kill.

The German Wiesbaden-class scout cruiser SMS Frankfurt, late 1918, Scapa Flow. IWM (Q 64195)

Ceded to the U.S. as a war prize on 11 March 1920 in England, commissioned there on 4 June as USS Frankfurt, she was towed to the East Coast and disposed of via SINKEX.

Capable of over 27 knots on a 31,000shp plant, she was built for speed, not to take punishment. Her armor scheme only included a 2.4-inch belt and deck coverage over her vitals (magazines and fire/engine rooms), and 3.9 inches on the conning tower.

Moored about 50 miles, 83 degrees true, off the Virginia Capes, the bombing took place from 0912 that morning until 1651 that afternoon.

A total of 74 bombs, a mix of 250, 500, 520, and 600-pounders, were dropped in sticks by the Navy and singly by the Army, with only two direct hits and 10 very near misses (counted as hits). She settled on the bottom 28 minutes after the final drop. The average passing speed for the lumbering bombers was about 85 knots.

From an Air Service report:

The tests of the Frankfurt began with an attack by Navy planes carrying 250-pound bombs. Twenty-four of them were dropped, scoring five direct hits. This was followed by an attack by Army planes which dropped twenty-nine 500-pound bombs, registering two hits. Navy planes then dropped seven 520-pound bombs, of which three were hits. The final attack, with fourteen 600-pound Army bombs, scoring two hits, resulted in sinking the vessel.

It would be fair to conclude, then, that attacks upon light cruisers should be with bombs of 500 pounds or heavier. Of the Navy bombs scoring hits, none of the 250-pound bombs detonated, and one of the 550-pound bombs failed. All Army bombs detonated.

NH 44010

NH 44015

NH 44012

NH 44017

NH 44026

The final dive. NH 44016

Frankfurt now rests in about 400 feet of water in the Southern Drill Grounds. 70 miles off the Virginia Capes, and has been extensively surveyed by NOAA.

The big Roman off the Cape

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Image from the Italian-built semi-rigid airship Roma, overflying the bombing of the unmanned ex-German Wiesbaden-class scout cruiser SMS Frankfurt off Cape Henry, Virginia, on 18 July 1921. Note the U.S. Navy Felixstowe F5L flying boats overhead and the white targets painted on the deck of the former Kaiser’s former warship.

The imagery is related to Part of the William Mitchell papers, transferred in 1953 to the Library of Congress, Lot 6079-1. Digitized in 2015.

From the same series is this shot, showing an exploding bomb port mid-ship, about 10:01 a.m., dropped by U.S. Navy F5L.

The big seaplanes, with a 103-foot wingspan, could carry up to 900 pounds of bombs while self-defense was provided by four Lewis guns. However, even with their two big Liberty L12 engines, it could only make about 70 knots at full rpms.

As for Roma, the unusual lighter-than-air aircraft purchased by the U.S. Army for $184,000 from the Italian government just three months prior to the above images. Over-powered by six Liberty engines (which replaced the four original Ansaldo engines), the big 410-foot airship could actually outrun the F5L in terms of speed, not to mention range.

U.S. Army airship Roma in November 1921 over Norfolk, Virginia. – NARA – 518863

However, being hydrogen-filled, Roma was a flying bomb and burst into flames when brushing against powerlines outside of Norfolk on 21 February 1922, killing 34 aboard, and was the worst U.S. aviation accident on record at the time. Following the incident, the U.S. military went with helium for LTA vehicles moving forward.