On 12 August, "Turgut Reis" was laid up at the Golden Horn after "Barbaros Hayreddin" was torpedoed and sunk by a British submarine. At some point in 1915, some of "Turgut Reis"s guns were removed and employed as coastal guns to shore up the defenses protecting the Dardanelles. On 19 January 1918, "Yavuz" and the light cruiser , which had also been transferred to Ottoman service under the name "Midilli", sailed from the Dardanelles to attack several British monitors stationed outside. The ships quickly sank and before turning back to the safety of the Dardanelles. While en route, "Midilli" struck five mines and sank, while "Yavuz" hit three mines and began to list to port. The ship's captain gave an incorrect order to the helmsman, which caused the ship to run aground. "Yavuz" remained there for almost a week, until "Turgut Reis" and several other vessels arrived on the scene on 22 January; the ships spent four days trying to free "Yavuz" from the sand bank, including using the turbulence from their propellers to clear sand away from under the ship. By the morning of 26 January, "Yavuz" came free from the sandbank and "Turgut Reis" escorted her back into the Dardanelles. "Turgut Reis" was laid up again on 30 October 1918, and was refitted at the Gölcük Naval Shipyard from 1924 to 1925. After returning to service, she served as a stationary training ship based at Gölcük. At the time, she retained only two of her originally six 28 cm guns. Two main turrets were removed and installed as a part of the heavy coastal battery Turgut Reis, situated at the Asian coast of the Dardanelles Strait. Both turrets are preserved with their guns (two L/40 and two L/35). She was decommissioned in 1933 and was thereafter used as a barracks ship for dockyard workers, a role she filled until 1950, when she began to be broken up at Gölcük. By 1953, the ship had been broken down into two sections, and these were sold to be dismantled abroad. Demolition work was finally completed between 1956 and 1957.