The Mediterranean Division () was a
division consisting of the
battlecruiser
The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of att ...
and the
light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
of the German ''
Kaiserliche Marine
The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control.
The term was used partic ...
'' (Imperial Navy) in the early 1910s. It was established in response to the
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Greece, Greece and Kingdom of Montenegro, Montenegro) agai ...
and saw action during the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. It was disbanded after the ships were transferred to the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
four years after
their pursuit by the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
battlecruisers and and light cruisers and .
Service
Pre-war
When the
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Greece, Greece and Kingdom of Montenegro, Montenegro) agai ...
broke out in October 1912, the only permanent German naval presence in the Mediterranean was provided by , a small gunboat not intended to be used in combat. Therefore, the
German General Staff
The German General Staff, originally the Prussian General Staff and officially the Great General Staff (), was a full-time body at the head of the Prussian Army and later, the Imperial German Army, German Army, responsible for the continuous stu ...
determined that a larger naval presence was needed to give Germany the ability to project power in the Mediterranean. As a result, the
battlecruiser
The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of att ...
and the
light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
were despatched to join ''Loreley'' in
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
, forming the new Mediterranean Division. The two ships left
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
on 4 November, and arrived on 15 November 1912. From April 1913, ''Goeben'' visited many
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
ports, including
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
,
Pola, and
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
, before sailing into Albanian waters, while the Mediterranean Division was reinforced with the arrival of the light cruisers and . Following this trip, ''Goeben'' returned to Pola and remained there from 21 August to 16 October for maintenance.
[Staff, p. 18]
On 29 June 1913, the
Second Balkan War
The Second Balkan War was a conflict that broke out when Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia and Kingdom of Greece, Greece, on 1 ...
broke out. As a result, the Mediterranean Division would need to remain in the area. The end of the war saw the withdrawal back to Germany of ''Strassburg'' and ''Dresden'', while on 23 October 1913, ''Konteradmiral''
Wilhelm Souchon assumed command of the squadron. ''Goeben'' and ''Breslau'' continued their activities in the Mediterranean, and visited some 80 ports before the outbreak of the First World War.
[ The Navy intended on replacing ''Goeben'' with her sister in June 1914, but the ]assassination
Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives.
Assassinations are orde ...
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia on 28 June 1914 and the subsequent rise in tensions between the Great Powers made this impossible.
In the immediate aftermath of the assassination, Souchon correctly assessed that war was imminent between the Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...
and the Triple Entente
The Triple Entente (from French meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was built upon th ...
. As a result, he ordered his ships to make for Pola for repairs. Engineers came from Germany to work on the ship.[Halpern, p. 51] ''Goeben'' had 4,460 boiler tubes replaced, among other repairs. Upon completion, the ships departed for the French ports Bone
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...
and Phillipville, which they shelled in the early hours of August 4.[Sufrin, p. 27] From there, they departed for Messina
Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...
, where they would be coaled by German merchant ships.[ They arrived in the early hours of August 5, coaled for 36 straight hours, protected from the British due to Italy's neutrality.][Sufrin, pp. 28-29]
The pursuit
After their coaling, the ships decided to break out of Messina, although it had been surrounded by British warships, the battlecruisers and and the light cruisers and , under the overall command of Sir Archibald Berkeley Milne
Admiral Sir Archibald Berkeley Milne, 2nd Baronet, (2 June 1855 – 4 July 1938) was a senior Royal Navy officer who commanded the Mediterranean Fleet at the outbreak of the First World War.
Naval career
Milne was the son of distinguished admi ...
. Milne thought that the Germans, after coaling at Messina, would break out to the west and try to escape to the Atlantic. Therefore, he positioned both his battlecruisers and ''Dublin'' at the west end of the Strait of Messina
The Strait of Messina (; ) is a narrow strait between the eastern tip of Sicily (Punta del Faro) and the western tip of Calabria (Punta Pezzo) in Southern Italy. It connects the Tyrrhenian Sea to the north with the Ionian Sea to the south, with ...
. The French also moved their Mediterranean fleet to guard the Gibraltar Strait. On August 6 they broke out of Messina and steamed northwards, feigning a move to the Adriatic Sea to make the British fleet drop back.[ However, after 5 hours of steaming west, ''Goeben'' decided to turn east as her coal supply was running low.][
''Goeben'' radioed ''Breslau'' to drop back and delay the ''Gloucester'' which would allow ''Goeben'' to reach a collier off the coast of Greece. ''Gloucester'' engaged ''Breslau'' with minor damage, and then tried to attack ''Goeben'', but missed. ''Breslau'' was then able to continue on with ''Goeben''. The battlecruisers had been approaching, but stopped after they received a false announcement that Austria-Hungary had declared war on England. The squadron avoided action with a cruiser squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Ernest Troubridge, and on August 10, the ships reached Constantinople.][Sufrin, pp. 30-31]
First World War
After their arrival in Constantinople on 16 August 1914, the ships were transferred to the Turkish Navy
The Turkish Naval Forces (), or Turkish Navy (), is the naval warfare service branch of the TAF.
The modern naval traditions and customs of the Turkish Navy can be traced back to 10 July 1920, when it was established as the ''Directorate o ...
, although they retained their German crews and captains. ''Goeben'' and ''Breslau'' were renamed and , respectively. Soon after their transfer, ''Yavuz Sultan Selim'' shelled the Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
n ports of Sevastopol
Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...
, Odessa
ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
and Novorossiysk
Novorossiysk (, ; ) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is one of the largest ports on the Black Sea. It is one of the few cities designated by the Soviet Union as a Hero City. The population was
History
In antiquity, the shores of the ...
and intercepted the Russian fleet at the Battle of Cape Sarych
The Battle of Cape Sarych was a naval engagement fought off the coast of Cape Sarych in the Black Sea during the First World War. In November 1914, two modern Ottoman Empire, Ottoman warships, specifically a light cruiser and a battlecruiser, eng ...
. This helped push Turkey into World War I on the side of the Central Powers.[ The division then started to escort coal convoys and bombard Entente positions during the Dardanelles Campaign until the ]Battle of Imbros
The Battle of Imbros was a naval action that took place during the First World War. The battle occurred on 20 January 1918 when an Ottoman squadron engaged a flotilla of the British Royal Navy off the island of Imbros in the Aegean Sea. A l ...
in early 1918. There, ''Midilli'' came under air attack and sank.[Haplern, pg.255] ''Yavuz Sultan Selim'' also hit three mines,[Gardiner & Gray, p. 152] and came under attack by British torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...
s and light bomber
A light bomber is a relatively small and fast type of military bomber aircraft that was primarily employed before the 1950s. Such aircraft would typically not carry more than one ton of ordnance.
The earliest light bombers were intended to dr ...
s,[Halpern, pp. 255–256] but was towed to safety.[Staff, p. 20] The ships were officially transferred to the Ottoman Navy on 2 November 1918, nine days before the Armistice
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...
ended the war.
See also
*Imperial German Navy order of battle (1914) This is the order of battle of the Imperial German Navy (''Kaiserliche Marine'') on the outbreak of World War I in August 1914.
Commanders and locations of the Imperial German Navy
The overall commander of the Imperial German Navy was German Empe ...
References
Bibliography
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{{Authority control
Military units and formations of the Imperial German Navy
Germany–Ottoman Empire relations
Military history of the Mediterranean
Naval units and formations of Germany in World War I