When was the SMS Gneisenau built?
SMS Gneisenau
SMS "Gneisenau" was an armored cruiser of the German navy, part of the two-ship . She was named after August von Gneisenau, a Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars. The ship was laid down in 1904 at the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen, launched in June 1906, and completed in March 1908, at a cost of over 19 million goldmarks. She was armed with a main battery of eight guns, had a top speed of , and displaced at full combat load.
SMS Gefion
SMS "Gefion" ("His Majesty's Ship "Gefion"") was an unprotected cruiser of the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy), the last ship of the type built in Germany. She was laid down in March 1892, launched in March 1893, and completed in June 1895 after lengthy trials and repairs. The cruiser was named after the earlier sail frigate , which had been named for the goddess Gefjon of Norse mythology. Intended for service in the German colonial empire and as a fleet scout, "Gefion" was armed with a main battery of ten guns, had a top speed in excess of , and could steam for , the longest range of any German warship at the time. Nevertheless, the conflicting requirements necessary for a fleet scout and an overseas cruiser produced an unsuccessful design, and "Gefion" was rapidly replaced in both roles by the newer of light cruisers.
SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand
She participated in an international naval protest of the Balkan Wars in 1913, during which she helped enforce a blockade of Montenegro. She was also one of the first ships to deploy seaplanes for military use. During World War I, she saw limited service in the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron, including mobilization to assist the escape of the German ships SMS "Goeben" and SMS "Breslau" and the bombardment of Ancona in 1915. At the end of the war, she was ceded to Italy as a war prize and was eventually scrapped in 1926.
SMS Preussen (1873)
SMS "Preussen"  was an armored frigate of the German Kaiserliche Marine. The ship was built by the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1871–1876; she was commissioned into the fleet in July 1876. She was the first large warship of the German navy built by a private shipyard; all previous vessels had been ordered abroad or built by Royal or Imperial dockyards. Her main battery of four guns was mounted in a pair of twin gun turrets amidships.
SS Gneisenau (1935)
"Gneisenau"'s maiden voyage began on Friday 3 Jan 1936. An announcement appeared in "The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser" on 31 December 1935 and read as follows:
German battleship Gneisenau
On 6 February, the two ships refueled from the tanker "Schlettstadt" south of Cape Farewell. Shortly after 08:30 on 8 February, lookouts spotted convoy HX 106, though it was escorted by the battleship . Lütjens' orders prohibited him from engaging Allied capital ships, and so the attack was called off. "Scharnhorst"s commander, "KzS" Hoffmann, however, closed to in an attempt to lure "Ramillies" away from the convoy so that "Gneisenau" could attack the convoy. Lütjens ordered Hoffmann to rejoin the flagship immediately. The two battleships steamed off to the northwest to search for more shipping. On 22 February, the pair spotted an empty convoy sailing west, though it dispersed at the appearance of the battleships. "Gneisenau" sank three ships, and along with a fourth destroyed by "Scharnhorst", the pair accounted for 25,784 GRT of Allied shipping.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
The crew attempted to drop the starboard anchor, but it did not catch in the stony ground. "Gneisenau" was driven into the mole repeatedly, striking it with her stern twice before being turned and pushed bow-first on the starboard side, forcing her aground. A merchant ship attempted to come to the crew's aid, but they were unable to connect a line between the two ships before "Gneisenau" began to list 35 degrees. A boat from shore also attempted to rescue the crew, but it too was forced ashore in the heavy seas. Wave action quickly smashed "Gneisenau"s hull against the mole, and part of her crew attempted to find safety by climbing the rigging. The ship rolled over onto her side, and the surviving crewmen reached shore with a line. Forty-one men were killed in the accident, including Kretschmann and the ship's first officer. "Charlotte" and the British ironclad were sent to aid the wounded. Those killed in the sinking were buried in Málaga's cemetery, and the survivors returned to Germany aboard the HAPAG steamship on 2 January 1901.
SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I
SMS "Kaiser Franz Joseph I (sometimes called the Kaiser Franz Josef I") was a protected cruiser built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for the Austrian emperor and Hungarian king Franz Joseph I, "Kaiser Franz Joseph I" was the lead ship of her namesake class. Constructed by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste, she was laid down in January 1888 and launched in May 1889. "Kaiser Franz Joseph I" was commissioned into the Navy in June 1890. As the first protected cruiser constructed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, she was intended to serve as Austria-Hungary's response to the Italian cruisers and . Her design was heavily influenced by the "Jeune École" (Young School), a naval strategy which had gained prominence in the 1880s as a means to combat a larger and more heavily armored navy of battleships through the use of torpedo flotillas.
SMS Camäleon (1860)
SMS "Camäleon" was the lead ship of the of steam-powered gunboats of the Prussian Navy (later the Imperial German Navy) that was launched in 1860. A small vessel, armed with only three light guns, "Camäleon" saw little active use. She served during the Second Schleswig War of 1864 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, but saw no action in either conflict. Her peacetime career was limited to survey work in 1865 and limited tender duties in and around Kiel in 1867–1868. In poor condition by 1872, she was stricken from the naval register and used as a storage hulk in Kiel. She was broken up for scrap some time after 1878.
SMS Medusa
"Medusa" was ordered under the contract name "E" and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in early 1900 and launched on 5 December 1900, after which fitting-out work commenced. She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 26 July 1901. The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of two triple-expansion engines. They were designed to give , for a top speed of . The engines were powered by ten coal-fired Marine-type water-tube boilers. "Medusa" carried of coal, which gave her a range of at . She had a crew of 14 officers and 243 enlisted men.
Jade-class aircraft carrier
"Gneisenau" was returned to troopship duties after the project was abandoned, but at 12:02 on 2 May 1943, she was sunk by a mine off Gedser. "Potsdam" was converted into a barracks ship in Gotenhafen, where she spent the remainder of the war. Following the German defeat, the ship was seized by the British on 20 June 1946 as a war prize, who commissioned her as a troop transport under the name "Empire Fowey". She was sold to Pakistan, who operated her under the name "Safina-E-Hujjaj" until she was broken up for scrap in 1976.
SMS Gneisenau
In June 1914, the annual summer cruise of the East Asia Squadron began; "Gneisenau" rendezvoused with "Scharnhorst" in Nagasaki, Japan, where they received a full supply of coal. They then sailed south, arriving in Truk in early July where they restocked their coal supplies. While en route, they received news of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. On 17 July, the East Asia Squadron arrived in Ponape in the Caroline Islands. Here, von Spee had access to the German radio network, where he learned of the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia and the Russian mobilization. On 31 July, word came that the German ultimatum, which demanded the demobilization of Russia's armies, was set to expire. Von Spee ordered his ships be stripped for war. On 2 August, Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered German mobilization against France and Russia.
SMS Arminius
SMS "Arminius"  was an ironclad warship of the Prussian Navy, later the Imperial German Navy. The ship was designed by the British Royal Navy Captain Cowper Coles and built by the Samuda Brothers shipyard in Cubitt Town, London as a speculative effort; Prussia purchased the ship during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark, though the vessel was not delivered until after the war. The ship was armed with four guns in a pair of revolving gun turrets amidships. She was named for Arminius, the victor of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
SMS Victoria
SMS "Victoria" was the second and final member of the of steam corvettes built for the Prussian Navy in the 1860s. She had one sister ship, ; the ships were armed with a battery of fourteen guns. "Victoria" was laid down in 1863 at the Arman Brothers shipyard in Bordeaux, France and was launched in early 1864. Originally ordered by the Confederate States Navy, her delivery was blocked by the French Emperor Napoleon III, and she was instead sold to the Prussian Navy in May 1864. The Prussians had been in search of vessels to strengthen their fleet before and during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark, but "Victoria" arrived too late to see action in the conflict.
German battleship Gneisenau
On 15 March, the two battleships, with the two tankers in company, encountered a dispersed convoy in the mid-Atlantic. "Gneisenau" captured three tankers and sank a fourth, totaling 20,139 GRT of shipping. The next day, stragglers from a convoy were sighted. "Gneisenau" sank seven ships for 26,693 GRT, while her sister accounted for six vessels for . One of the surviving ships radioed the location of the German battleships, which summoned the powerful British battleships "Rodney" and . "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" used their high speed to escape in a squall, and the intervention by the British battleships convinced Lütjens that the chances of further success were small. He therefore decided to head for Brest in occupied France, which the ships reached on 22 March. She then entered drydock for periodic maintenance.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
The new corvette, ordered under the contract name "D", was laid down in June 1877 at the "Kaiserliche Werft" (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig (Gdańsk). She was launched on 4 September 1879, and was christened with the name "Gneisenau", after the veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and Prussian military reformer "Generalfeldmarschall" (Field Marshal) August von Gneisenau, during the launching ceremony by Admiral Albrecht von Stosch, the head of the "Kaiserliche Admiralität" (Imperial Admiralty). She was commissioned on 3 October 1880 before work on the ship actually finished in order to transfer her to the "Kaiserliche Werft" in Kiel, where her guns were installed. Sea trials were then conducted, lasting from the end of December to 12 February 1881, after which she was decommissioned and placed in reserve. Her commander during this period was "Kapitän zur See" ("KzS"—Captain at Sea) Bartholomäus von Werner. At the time, Stosch had implemented a plan whereby Germany's colonies would be protected by gunboats, while larger warships would generally be kept in reserve, with a handful assigned to a flying squadron that could respond to crises quickly.
SMS Ariadne
SMS "Ariadne" was the fifth member of the ten-ship of light cruisers, built by the Imperial German Navy. She was built by the Imperial Dockyard in Danzig, laid down in 1899, launched in August 1900, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in May 1901. Armed with a main battery of ten guns and two torpedo tubes, "Ariadne" was capable of a top speed of .
SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max
SMS "Erzherzog Ferdinand Max" (German: "His Majesty's ship Archduke Ferdinand Max") was a pre-dreadnought battleship built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1902. The second ship of the , she was launched on 21 May 1905. She was assigned to the III Battleship Division.
SMS König Albert
Ordered under the contract name "Ersatz Ägir" as a replacement for the obsolete coastal defense ship , "König Albert" was laid down at the Schichau-Werke dockyard in Danzig on 17 July 1910. She was launched on 27 April 1912; Princess Mathilde of Saxony christened the ship, and her brother, the last king of Saxony, Friedrich August III gave the speech. Following the completion of fitting-out work, the ship was commissioned into the fleet on 31 July 1913.
German battleship Gneisenau
By early 1943, the ship had been sufficiently repaired to begin the conversion process, but Hitler, angered by the failure of German surface raiders at the Battle of the Barents Sea in December 1942 ordered the cessation of all work. "Gneisenau" was disarmed and her 28 cm and 15 cm gun turrets were used in shore batteries. Turret Caesar was installed in Austrått Fort in Trondheim as the coastal battery "Orlandet".
Operation Donnerkeil
The German flotilla had reached home ports on the evening of the 12 February. However, while the threat from RAF bombers in daylight had now gone, Bomber Command was soon making night bombing attacks on Kiel’s port. "Gneisenau" was moved into an inner basin alongside her depot ship, "Monte Olivia". The hatches were left open and her tanks, still containing a large amount of fuel, were left unattended. RAF Bomber Command made its first attack on the night of the 25/26 February, when 61 bombers flew over Kiel. "Monte Olivia" was destroyed but "Gneisenau" escaped. On 26/27 February another 61 RAF bombers returned. A bomb penetrated "Gneisenau"s foredeck and exploded. The oil fumes from the tanks ignited and the ship was engulfed in fire from her bow to the Anton turret. The entire forward part of the bow needed to be replaced. She steamed to Gdynia, in Poland on 4 April where she was decommissioned out of range of RAF bombers. "Gneisenau" did not put to sea again. The raid cost three aircraft, one Hampton and two Wellingtons. German casualties amounted to 16 civilians and 116 sailors dead.
SMS Nixe
SMS "Nixe" was a steam corvette built for the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy) in the 1880s. She was laid down in August 1883, launched in July 1885, and commissioned into the fleet in April 1886. Hopelessly out of date even by the time she was ordered in 1882 and possessing insufficient gun power or speed, she was nevertheless completed as designed. In addition to those shortcomings, she proved to be difficult to handle in service and was particularly affected by wind.
SMS Prinz Heinrich
SMS "Prinz Heinrich" was a unique German armored cruiser built at the turn of the 20th century for the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy), named after Kaiser Wilhelm II's younger brother Prince Heinrich. The second vessel of that type built in Germany, "Prinz Heinrich" was constructed at the "Kaiserliche Werft" (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel, being laid down in December 1898, launched in March 1900, and commissioned in March 1902. "Prinz Heinrich"s design was a modification of the previous armored cruiser, , and traded a smaller main battery and thinner armor for higher speed. All subsequent German armored cruisers were incremental developments of "Prinz Heinrich".
SMS Nautilus (1906)
SMS "Nautilus" was a German minelaying cruiser built for the "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy) in the 1900s, the lead ship of the . The ship was built by AG Weser, with her keel laying taking place in December 1905. She was launched in August 1906 and commissioned in March 1907. "Nautilus" initially carried 186 naval mines and a battery of eight guns, but she was later modified to carry 205 mines and, in 1918, numerous light weapons to support amphibious operations.
SMS Gazelle (1859)
SMS "Gazelle" was an screw-driven frigate of the Prussian Navy built in the 1850s. The ship was laid down in 1855 at the Royal Dockyard in Danzig, launched on 19 December 1859, completed on 22 May 1861, and commissioned into the Navy almost a year later on 15 May 1862. She served on overseas duties for the majority of her career, which lasted until 8 January 1884, when she was stricken from the naval register. She was used as a barracks ship in Wilhelmshaven thereafter, until she was sold for scrap in 1906 for 36,000 gold marks and broken up.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
The six ships of the "Bismarck" class were ordered in the early 1870s to supplement Germany's fleet of cruising warships, which at that time relied on several ships that were twenty years old. "Gneisenau" and her sister ships were intended to patrol Germany's colonial empire and safeguard German economic interests around the world.
SMS Amazone
SMS "Amazone" was the sixth member of the ten-ship , built by the Imperial German Navy. She was built by the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel, laid down in 1899, launched in October 1900, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in November 1901. Armed with a main battery of ten guns and two torpedo tubes, "Amazone" was capable of a top speed of .
SMS Lussin
SMS "Lussin was a torpedo cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, a modified version of the preceding . As envisaged by the "Marinekommandant" (Navy Commander), Vice Admiral Friedrich von Pöck, "Lussin" would be the leader of a flotilla of torpedo boats, with the additional capability of carrying out scouting duties. The ship proved to be too slow and too lightly armed for either of these tasks, so she spent the majority of her career as a training ship for engine and boiler room personnel, along with occasional stints with the main fleet for training exercises. She took part in only one significant operation, an international blockade of Greece in 1886 to prevent the country from declaring war on the Ottoman Empire. In 1910–1913, "Lussin" was rebuilt as an admiralty yacht, and she spent World War I as a barracks ship for German U-boat crews based in Pola. After the war, she was ceded to Italy as a war prize, renamed Sorrento", and briefly saw service as a mother ship for MAS boats from 1924 to 1928, when she was discarded.
SMS Marie
SMS "Marie" was a member of the of steam corvettes built for the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy) in the 1880s. Intended for service in the German colonial empire, the ship was designed with a combination of steam and sail power for extended range, and was equipped with a battery of ten guns. "Marie" was laid down at the Reiherstieg AG of Hamburg in 1880, the first Imperial German warship built in the city. She was launched in August 1881. In May, 1883, she was completed and commissioned into the fleet. The namesake was Princess Marie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, who married Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1868.
SMS Gneisenau
"Gneisenau"s primary armament consisted of eight 21 cm (8.2 inch) SK L/40 guns, four in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the main superstructure, and the remaining four were mounted in single wing turrets. Secondary armament included six 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns in MPL casemates, and eighteen 8.8 cm (3.45 inch) guns mounted in casemates. She was also equipped with four submerged torpedo tubes. One was mounted in the bow, one on each broadside, and the fourth was placed in the stern.
SMS Admiral Spaun
SMS "Admiral Spaun" was a scout cruiser built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for Admiral and "Marinekommandant" (Commander-in-Chief of the Navy) Hermann von Spaun, "Admiral Spaun" was constructed shortly before World War I. Laid down at the Pola Navy Yard in May 1908, the cruiser was launched in October 1909. "Admiral Spaun" was commissioned into the Navy just over a year later, in November 1910. The first ship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy to be constructed with steam turbines, her design later influenced the construction of the s.
SMS Kaiser (1874)
SMS "Kaiser"  was the lead ship of the s; was her sister ship. Named for the title "Kaiser" (), held by the leader of the then newly created German Empire, the ship was laid down in the Samuda Brothers shipyard in London in 1871. The ship was launched in March 1874 and commissioned into the German fleet in February 1875. "Kaiser" mounted a main battery of eight guns in a central battery amidships.
SMS Gneisenau
Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, the former Chief of the General staff, christened the ship at her commissioning on 6 March 1908. Captain Franz von Hipper was the ship's first commanding officer; he took command of the ship the day she was commissioned. He was tasked with conducting the ship's shakedown cruise, which lasted from 26 March to the middle of July. She officially joined the fleet on 12 July. The ship then departed for Asia, though Hipper left the ship and went on to command the I Torpedo-boat Division in Kiel. "Gneisenau" was assigned to the "Ostasiengeschwader" (East Asia Squadron), where in 1910 she joined "Scharnhorst", which had been assigned to the unit the previous year. The two ships formed the core of the squadron, with "Scharnhorst" serving as the flagship. The pair were crack gunnery ships; "Gneisenau" won the Kaiser's Cup four times during her career: twice while in German waters in 1908 and 1909 and twice in Asia in 1910 and 1911, and "Scharnhorst"s finished in second place in 1913 and 1914.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
"Gneisenau" was recommissioned for another tour abroad on 5 October 1884 to join the newly-formed West African Cruiser Squadron, which was commanded by "Konteradmiral" (Rear Admiral) Eduard von Knorr aboard his flagship . The ship's new commander was "KzS" Victor Valois. While en route from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven to join the rest of the squadron, "Gneisenau" ran aground off the island of Lolland in heavy fog; she had to be towed free by the ironclad , though she was undamaged in the accident. The squadron left Wilhelmshaven on 30 October, bound for West Africa. While in the Cape Verde islands, Knorr detached "Gneisenau" to Cape Town, where she arrived on 8 January 1885. There, she embarked Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs, who had been appointed consul to Zanzibar, and took him to the island on 28 January. "Gneisenau" then went to the port of Lamu to survey the coast of eastern Africa, particularly the area around Wituland. "Gneisenau"s survey of the area led the German government to instruct Rohlfs to accept the offer of the Witu Sultan, Ahmed ibn Fumo Bakari, to form a protectorate on 27 May.
SMS Elsass
"Elsass" was laid down on 26 May 1901 at the Schichau-Werke in Danzig under construction number 97. The second unit of her class, she was ordered under the contract name "J" as a new unit for the fleet. "Elsass" was launched on 26 May 1903, and the launching ceremony was attended by Hermann zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the "Reichsstatthalter" (Governor) of the ship's namesake province. The ship was transferred to Kiel on 26 October 1904 by a shipyard crew. She was commissioned into the fleet on 29 November 1904 and began sea trials thereafter. These were interrupted on 15 December, when the ship's rudder broke, forcing her to return for repairs that lasted until February 1905. "Elsass" then returned to trials, which were completed by May. She thereafter joined the II Squadron, replacing the old coastal defense ship . Her first commander was then-"Kapitän zur See" ("KzS"—Captain at Sea) Hugo von Pohl, who remained in the position until September 1905.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
"Gneisenau" departed Lamu on 6 September and went to Kismayu, before proceeding on to Zanzibar four days later. In the meantime, Paschen had been instructed to form a second cruiser squadron, which was to consist of his flagship "Stosch", along with "Gneisenau" and "Prinz Adalbert". The squadron was to proceed to the Caroline Islands, which were at the center of a dispute between Germany and Spain. "Gneisenau" first went to Cape Town, arriving on 11 October. While there, she received new orders to proceed instead to what was now German East Africa; on 9 November she was formally reassigned back to Knorr's squadron. "Gneisenau" patrolled the coast of East Africa until 6 March 1886, when Knorr's squadron, at that time consisting of "Gneisenau", "Bismarck", and the corvette , departed for Australia. After reaching the south Pacific, the ships toured Australian ports, New Zealand, Tonga, and Samoa before "Gneisenau" was detached first to the Gazelle Peninsula on the island of New Pomerania to suppress an uprising against German colonial rule. She then went to the Palau Islands, part of the Caroline group, to retrieve a German monument, as Germany had dropped its claim to the islands in favor of Spain. On 25 July, "Gneisenau" began the journey back to Germany, reaching Kiel on 27 September. She was decommissioned there on 14 October.
SMS Luise
SMS "Luise" was a steam corvette of the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy). She was the second member of the , which included two other ships, and . Ordered as part of a large naval expansion program after the Austro-Prussian War, she was laid down in 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War. She was launched in December 1872 and completed in June 1874. "Luise" was a small vessel, armed with a battery of just eight guns.
German battleship Gneisenau
Repair work on "Gneisenau" was completed by 26 February 1942, and she was scheduled to deploy to Norway on 6 March. Despite the fact that she was still in dry dock, her ammunition stores had been restocked and she was prepared for a short round of trials before her departure. On the night of 26–27 February, however, the British launched a heavy air raid on the ship. The ship was hit by a single bomb in her forecastle that penetrated the armored deck and exploded. Red-hot bomb fragments ignited propellant charges in the forward turret and caused a tremendous explosion. The turret was thrown off its mount and the entire bow section was burned out. The crew partially flooded the magazine to prevent a more catastrophic explosion. The blast killed 112 men and wounded 21 others.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
"Gneisenau" was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 18 officers and 386 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove one 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by four coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of at . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . As built, "Gneisenau" was equipped with a full ship rig, but this was later reduced.
SMS Saida
SMS "Saida" was a scout cruiser built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the early 1910s. The ship was armed with a main battery of nine guns, and six twin torpedo tubes were added in 1917. She was built by the Cantiere Navale Triestino shipyard from 1911 to 1914, entering service days after the outbreak of World War I. She spent the war as a flotilla leader, conducting raids and patrols in the narrow waters of the Adriatic Sea.
SMS Undine
SMS "Undine" was the last member of the ten-ship , built by the Imperial German Navy. She was built by the Howaldtswerke shipyard in Kiel, laid down in 1901, launched in December 1902, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in January 1904. Armed with a main battery of ten guns and two torpedo tubes, "Undine" was capable of a top speed of .
SMS Stosch
"Stosch" was recommissioned on 20 September 1888 to serve as the flagship of the school squadron, replacing "Stein" in that role. At the time, the squadron was commanded by "KAdm" Friedrich von Hollmann, and it included "Gneisenau", their sister , and the corvette . The ships left for an overseas training cruise shortly thereafter, entering the Mediterranean Sea on 29 September. The ships visited ports throughout the Mediterranean individually and as a squadron, and they participated in celebrations commemorating the 25th anniversary of King George I of Greece from 27 October to 5 November in Piraeus. While "Stosch" was in Smyrna, Hollmann and his staff made an official visit to Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire. On 24 February 1889, Hollmann received orders to take the squadron to Egypt, where they were to replace the East Africa Squadron, which was in turn being sent to Samoa, but by the time "Stosch" and the rest of the squadron arrived in Alexandria, the reassignment of the East Africa Squadron had become unnecessary, and so on 20 March, the school squadron was recalled. While the ships were in Palermo, Sicily, the "Admiralität" again reconsidered deploying the ships after the 1889 Apia cyclone sank two German gunboats in Samoa, but again decided against deploying the ships. The squadron arrived back in Wilhelmshaven on 16 April, where the squadron was dissolved and "Stosch" was decommissioned on 27 April.
Ilmenau station
Ilmenau station was built by the Prussian state railways in 1879 as a relatively simple, red brick building typical of the time. The three-storey building is very similar to the station buildings of Elgersburg, Plaue and above all Arnstadt. In the 1920s, an entrance hall was erected on the street side, but it was well adapted to the building. In GDR times, the western side of the station was covered with red asbestos shingles, which disrupted the originally uniform brick architecture. After the station building was unused between 1998 and 2005, a Deutsche Bahn "Servicecenter" was opened in autumn 2005, but this was closed in 2008.
A locomotive shed for four locomotives in the north-western station area and the north and south signal boxes were added. When the Rennsteig Railway was opened in 1904, two platforms and a platform subway were added. Later, the subway was extended to platform 2/3, which is now closed due to dilapidation. A long goods shed that joined to the north of the station building was built, but it was demolished in the 1990s and the area is now used for a car park.
After the purchase of the station building by the town, its reconstruction began in the summer of 2010. It has been supplemented by a few extensions in modern glass architecture and was intended to be used as a commercial building. In addition, the island platform is to be demolished and another commercial building is to be built in its place. The reconstruction was expected to be completed in the middle of 2011, but its completion was delayed. The renovation of the main building and the construction of extensions was followed by a redesign of the station surrounds and the forecourt, which was completed in the spring of 2014. In the station building there are currently a waiting room, a tax office as well as a bike shop and various offices (as of 2014).
SMS G96
SMS "G96" was a large torpedo boat of the Imperial German Navy that was built and served during the First World War. She was the prototype ship of the 1916 Mobilisation Type torpedo boats, and was launched at Germaniawerft's Kiel shipyard on 19 September 1916, completing in December that year.
SMS Adler
SMS "Adler" was a gunboat of the Imperial German Navy. She was launched 3 November 1883 in the Imperial shipyard in Kiel. On 5 September 1888, she shelled Manono Island and Apolima, Samoa, which were strongholds of Malietoa’s forces. She was wrecked together with the German gunboat , the German corvette , the United States Navy gunboat , the U.S. Navy screw steamer , and the U.S. Navy sloop-of-war on 16 March 1889 in a hurricane at Apia, Samoa, during the Samoan crisis. Twenty crew members lost their lives.
SMS Gefion
The keel for the new cruiser was laid down on 28 March 1892 at the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Danzig, and the completed hull was launched on 31 March 1893. Kaiser Wilhelm II attended her launching, and the speech was given by the director of the "Kaiserliche Werft" (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig, "Kapitän zur See" (Captain at Sea) Graf Kurt von Haugwitz. Sea trials began on 27 June 1894 at Kiel and lasted until 2 October. Serious defects in her design, in particular poor ventilation, were revealed through the trials, which necessitated modifications at the "Kaiserliche Werft" in Kiel. She was accordingly placed in reserve after completing her trials. The work lasted until mid-1895, and the ship was ready for commissioning on 5 June 1895. That month, she was present for the celebration marking the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal.
SMS Zieten
SMS "Zieten" was the first torpedo-armed aviso built for the Imperial German Navy ("Kaiserliche Marine"). She was built in Britain in 1875–1876, and was the last major warship built for Germany by a foreign shipyard. Ordered as a testbed for the new Whitehead torpedo, "Zieten" was armed with a pair of torpedo tubes, and was capable of a top speed of , making her the fastest ship in the German fleet at the time. "Zieten" proved to be the first torpedo-armed vessel in a series of avisos that ultimately developed into the first light cruisers. In addition to her impact in German warship design, "Zieten" also influenced numerous other navies, who built dozens of similar avisos and torpedo vessels of their own.
German battleship Gneisenau
"Gneisenau" was ordered as "Ersatz Hessen" as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought , under the contract name "E." The "Deutsche Werke" in Kiel was awarded the contract, where the keel was laid on 6 May 1935. The ship was launched on 8 December 1936, after which fitting-out work was begun. The ship was completed in May 1938 and commissioned for sea trials on the 21st, under the command of "Kapitän zur See" ("KzS") Erich Förste. The trials revealed a dangerous tendency to ship considerable amounts of water in heavy seas. This caused flooding in the bow and damaged electrical systems in the forward gun turret. As a result, she went back to the dockyard for extensive modification of the bow. The original straight stem was replaced with a raised "Atlantic bow." A diagonal cap was fitted to the smoke stack to keep the main mast free of smoke. The modifications were completed by September 1939, by which time the ship was finally fully operational.
German battleship Gneisenau
At 04:30 on the 9th, "Gneisenau" located the British battlecruiser "Renown" with her Seetakt radar; the call to battle stations rang out on both "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst", though it was that fired first, at 05:05. "Gneisenau" scored two hits on "Renown"; the first failed to explode and the second exploded on her upper deck and damaged the radio equipment. "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst" then turned to disengage. Almost simultaneously, two of "Renown"'s 15 in (38 cm) shells struck "Gneisenau". One shell hit the director tower and passed through it without exploding; regardless, it cut several cables and killed one officer and five enlisted men. The second shell disabled the rear turret. This prompted "Gneisenau" to cease firing and increase speed in order to break away from "Renown". Vice Admiral Lütjens feared that the destroyers escorting "Renown" could be used to make torpedo attacks against his unescorted battleships. In the course of the action, "Gneisenau" fired sixty 28 cm and eight 15 cm rounds. During the high-speed escape, both "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst" were flooded by significant quantities of water over their bows, which caused problems in both of their forward gun turrets.
SMS Gneisenau
At the outbreak of World War I the East Asia Squadron consisted of "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst", and the light cruisers , , and . On 6 August 1914, "Gneisenau", "Scharnhorst", the supply ship "Titania", and the Japanese collier "Fukoku Maru" were still in Ponape; von Spee had issued orders to recall the light cruisers, which had been dispersed on various cruises around the Pacific. "Nürnberg" joined von Spee that day. Von Spee decided the best place to concentrate his forces was Pagan Island in the northern Marianas Islands, a German possession in the central Pacific. All available colliers, supply ships, and passenger liners were ordered to meet the East Asia Squadron there. On 11 August, von Spee arrived in Pagan; he was joined by several supply ships, as well as "Emden" and the auxiliary cruiser "Prinz Eitel Friedrich".
SMS Gneisenau
"Gneisenau" was long overall, and had a beam of , a draft of . The ship displaced standard, and at full load. "Gneisenau"s crew consisted of 38 officers and 726 enlisted men. The ship was powered by coal-fired triple expansion engines that provided a top speed of
SMS Custoza
SMS "Custoza" was an ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1870s, the only member of her class. She was the first Austro-Hungarian ironclad to be built after the navy studied the results of the Battle of Lissa of 1866; she was also the first iron-hulled capital ship to be built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She was laid down in November 1869, launched in August 1872, and completed in February 1875. Her career was fairly limited, in part due to reduced naval budgets in the 1870s that also delayed her completion. "Custoza" was somewhat more active in the 1880s, taking part in an international naval demonstration against the Ottoman Empire in 1880, being modernized in 1882, and a trip to Spain for the Barcelona Universal Exposition in 1888. The ship became a training ship in 1902, was converted into a barracks ship in 1914, and after World War I, was awarded as a war prize to Italy. "Custoza" was immediately broken up.
SMS Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie
SMS "Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie" was an ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1880s, the last vessel of that type to be built for Austria-Hungary. The ship, named for Archduchess Stephanie, Crown Princess of Austria, was laid down in November 1884, was launched in April 1887 and completed in July 1889. She was armed with a pair of guns in open barbettes and had a top speed of . Her service was limited, in large part due to the rapid pace of naval development in the 1890s, which quickly rendered her obsolescent. As a result, her career was generally limited to routine training and the occasional visit to foreign countries. In 1897, she took part in an international naval demonstration to force a compromise over Greek and Ottoman claims to the island of Crete. "Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie" was decommissioned in 1905, hulked in 1910, and converted into a barracks ship in 1914. After Austria-Hungary's defeat in World War I, the ship was transferred to Italy as a war prize and was eventually broken up for scrap in 1926.
SMS Ariadne (1871)
"Ariadne" was laid down in September 1868 at the "Königliche Werft" (Royal Shipyard) in Danzig. Work was delayed by the Franco-Prussian War and she was launched on 21 July 1871; during the launching ceremony, she was christened after the Greek goddess Ariadne by the shipyard director, "Kapitän zur See" ("KzS"—Captain at Sea) Franz Kinderling. She was commissioned into the fleet on 23 November 1872. She thereafter began sea trials, during which a number of defects were discovered that required repeated repairs. She was finally ready for service with the fleet by Spring of 1873.
SS Friedenau (1920)
SS "Friedenau" was built in 1920 by Ateliers & Chantiers De La Loire, St. Nazaire as a refrigerated cargo steamer for Cie. Française De Navigation À Vapeur Chargeurs Réunis who named her SS "Adrar". In 1937 she was acquired by Bugsier-Reederei and renamed "Friedenau". While carrying German mountain troops in support of the German invasion of Norway, SS "Friedenau" was torpedoed and sunk in the Kattegat by the British submarine HMS "Triton" on 10 April 1940.
SMS Hessen
SMS "Hessen" was the third of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the . She was laid down in 1902, was launched in September 1903, and was commissioned into the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy) in September 1905. Named after the state of Hesse, the ship was armed with a battery of four guns and had a top speed of . Like all other pre-dreadnoughts built at the turn of the century, "Hessen" was quickly made obsolete by the launching of the revolutionary in 1906; as a result, she saw only limited service with the German fleet.
SMS Irene
"Irene" was the first protected cruiser built by the German navy. She was ordered under the contract name ""Ersatz" " and was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1886. She was launched on 23 July 1887, after which fitting-out work commenced. She was commissioned into the German navy on 25 May 1888. The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of two horizontal Wolfsche 2-cylinder double-expansion steam engines powered by four coal-fired cylindrical double-boilers. These provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at . She had a crew of 28 officers and 337 enlisted men.
SMS Hansa (1872)
"Hansa" was laid down at the Royal Dockyard in Danzig in 1868. She was the first ironclad warship to be built in a German shipyard; her predecessors had all been built in French and British shipyards. The ship was launched on 26 October 1872 and moved to the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin for fitting out work. The work proceeded very slowly, and "Hansa" was not commissioned into the German fleet until 19 May 1875, two and a half years after her launch. By comparison, all of the earlier foreign-built ironclads were completed in less than a year.
German battleship Gneisenau
On 12 January 1942, the German Naval Command, in a conference with Hitler, made the decision to return "Gneisenau", "Scharnhorst", and the heavy cruiser to Germany. The intention was to deploy the vessels to Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. The so-called "Channel Dash", codenamed Operation "Cerberus", would avoid the increasingly effective Allied radar and patrol aircraft in the Atlantic. Vice Admiral Otto Ciliax was given command of the operation. In early February, minesweepers swept a route through the English Channel, though the British failed to detect the activity.
Hermann Wissmann
In 1890 a single screw steamship christened SMS "Hermann von Wissmann" was built by the Hamburg Janssen and Schilinsky shipyard. It was built in sections in Germany shipped to East Africa, transported overland and launched in Lake Nyasa in September 1893. It was captured at Liuli by the British in the first naval action of World War I. A similar but smaller version christened the SMS "Hedwig von Wissmann" after Hermann's wife was launched on Lake Tanganyika in September 1900. She was sunk in 1916 in a battle with HMS "Mimi" and HMS "Toutou".
SMS Kaiser Karl der Grosse
German Emperor ("Kaiser") Wilhelm II believed that a strong navy was necessary for the country to expand its influence outside continental Europe. As a result, he initiated a program of naval expansion in the late 1880s; the first battleships built under this program were the four "Brandenburg"-class ships. These were immediately followed by the five "Kaiser Friedrich III"-class battleships, of which "Kaiser Karl der Grosse" was a member. She was ordered under the contract name "B" as a new ship of the fleet. The ship's keel was laid on 17 September 1898 at the Blohm & Voss in Hamburg under yard number 136. She was the first capital ship to be built by the yard and the second warship of any type. The new battleship was launched on 18 October 1899 and named for Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse in German); Wilhelm II gave the launching speech and Johann Georg Mönckeberg, the "Erster Bürgermeister" (First Mayor) of Hamburg, christened the ship. A major strike by shipyard workers in late 1900 significantly delayed completion of the ship. In October 1901, a shipyard crew took the ship to the naval base at Wilhelmshaven, though while en route she ran aground in the lower Elbe river. The hull was damaged in the incident and the necessary repairs further delayed her entry into service; she was not commissioned until 4 February 1902.
Bismarck-class corvette
In 1887, "Gneisenau" began her service as a training ship, a role she held for more than a decade. During this period, she was generally occupied with training cruises and individual, squadron, and fleet training. Long-distance cruises frequently alternated between the West Indies and the Mediterranean Sea. During fleet maneuvers in 1895, "Gneisenau" accidentally collided with a Danish schooner, sinking the schooner and killing most of her crew. While on a training cruise, she stopped outside Málaga to conduct gunnery training on 16 December 1900. A strong storm surprised the crew, who, through a communication problem between the commander and engine room crew, raised anchor and tried to get the vessel underway. They were unable to get sufficient steam up in the boilers before she was driven into the mole by heavy winds and destroyed. Most of her crew survived, but 41 officers and men were killed in the sinking, including her commanding officer. Her wreck proved impossible to salvage, and so she was sold for scrap shortly after the accident.
SMS Elsass
SMS "Elsass" was the second of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the in the German Imperial Navy. She was laid down in May 1901, launched in May 1903, and commissioned in November 1904, though an accident during sea trials delayed her completion until May 1905. She was named for the German province of Elsass, now the French region of Alsace. Her sister ships were , , and . The ship was armed with a battery of four guns and had a top speed of . Like all other pre-dreadnoughts built at the turn of the century, "Elsass" was quickly made obsolete by the launching of the revolutionary in 1906; as a result, her career as a frontline battleship was cut short.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
"Gneisenau" left Zanzibar on 1 April, bound for Melbourne, Australia, where she was to meet the corvette in August, but "Augusta" sank in the Bab-el-Mandeb. "Gneisenau" instead proceeded on to Port Louis on the island of Mauritius. There, she met the cruiser squadron commanded by "Kommodore" Carl Paschen, which included her sister ship and the corvette , the frigate , and the supply ship "Ehrenfels". Paschen had been tasked to take his squadron to East Africa to settle disputes over the German protectorate with the Sultan of Zanzibar, Barghash bin Said, which he accomplished by mid-August. On 18 August, "Bismarck" arrived with Knorr, who replaced Paschen as the squadron commander. Knorr sent "Gneisenau" to Wituland, where Valois informed Bakari that the Sultan of Zanzibar had agreed to recognize the protectorate and stop interfering in the internal affairs of Wituland. After anchoring in Lamu on 28 August, "Gneisenau" sent a contingent ashore, led by the executive officer, Curt von Prittwitz und Gaffron, to hold a parade to celebrate the agreement. Three days later, Valois took three officers and twenty-nine enlisted men to the Witu capital to meet Bakari, returning to the ship on 4 September.
SMS Tegetthoff (1912)
SMS "Tegetthoff (His Majesty's Ship "Tegetthoff) was the second of four dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. "Tegetthoff" was named for the 19th-century Austrian Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, most notable for defeating the Italian Regia Marina at the Battle of Lissa in 1866. the ship was armed with a main battery of twelve guns in four triple turrets. Constructed shortly before World War I, she was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste, where she was laid down in September 1910 and launched in March 1912.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
In 1887, "Gneisenau" began her service as a training ship, a role she held for more than a decade. During this period, she was generally occupied with training cruises and individual, squadron, and fleet training. Long-distance cruises frequently alternated between the West Indies and the Mediterranean Sea. While on one such cruise on 16 December 1900, the ship was driven into the mole outside Málaga by heavy winds and destroyed, with the loss of 41 officers and crew. Her wreck proved impossible to salvage, and so she was sold for scrap shortly after the accident.
SMS Medusa (1864)
"Medusa" was ordered in 1861, and her name was assigned by an order from the Prussian Navy Department on 23 July 1861, before work began on the vessel. Her keel was laid down on 6 February 1862 at the "Königliche Werft" (Royal Shipyard) in Danzig, but work proceeded slowly owing to budgetary disputes between the "Landtag" (State Diet) and the Prussian Minister of War, Albrecht von Roon, who was also the naval minister. In addition, the navy wanted to use the experience gained in building her sister ship during the construction of "Medusa". These issues were pushed aside by the outbreak of the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in early 1864, since new warships were needed to counter the significantly stronger Danish fleet. On 20 October, "Medusa" was launched, though the war ended ten days later. Fitting-out work then commenced, and the ship was ready to begin sea trials on 15 September 1865, which were conducted between Danzig and Swinemünde and lasted to the end of the month.
SMS Hansa (1872)
SMS "Hansa"  was a German ironclad warship built in 1868–1875. She was the first ironclad built in Germany; all previous German ironclads had been built in foreign shipyards. She was named after the Hanseatic League, known in Germany simply as "Hanse", Latinized "Hansa". The ship was launched in October 1872 and commissioned into the German Imperial Navy ("Kaiserliche Marine") in May 1875. Designed for overseas service, "Hansa" was classed as an armored corvette and armed with eight guns in a central battery.
Torpedo bomber
On 6 April 1941, a single Bristol Beaufort piloted by Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell attacked the German battleship "Gneisenau" in Brest harbour in Brittany, where she and her sister ship, "Scharnhorst", were sheltering beneath a massive array of anti-aircraft guns. The other five Beauforts on the mission failed to rendezvous due to bad weather. Campbell received a posthumous Victoria Cross for launching his solo torpedo attack, which put "Gneisenau" out of action for six months.
German battleship Gneisenau
"Gneisenau" displaced as built and fully loaded, with a length of , a beam of and a maximum draft of . She was powered by three Germania geared steam turbines, which developed a total of and yielded a maximum speed of on speed trials. Her standard crew numbered 56 officers and 1,613 enlisted men, though during the war this was augmented up to 60 officers and 1,780 men. While serving as a squadron flagship, "Gneisenau" carried an additional ten officers and 61 enlisted men.
SMS Scharnhorst
"Gneisenau" rendezvoused with "Scharnhorst" in Nagasaki, Japan, where they received a full supply of coal. They then sailed south, arriving in Truk in early July where they would restock their coal supplies. While en route, they received news of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. On 17 July, the East Asia Squadron arrived in Ponape in the Caroline Islands. Spee now had access to the German radio network and he learned of the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia and the Russian mobilization against Austria-Hungary and possibly Germany. On 31 July, word came that the German ultimatum that Russia demobilize its armies was set to expire. Spee ordered his ships be stripped for war. On 2 August, Wilhelm II ordered German mobilization against Russia and its ally, France.
German battleship Gneisenau
In early 1942, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. After reaching Kiel in early February, the ship went into drydock. On the night of 26 February, the British launched an air attack on the ship; one bomb penetrated her armored deck and exploded in the forward ammunition magazine, causing serious damage and a large number of casualties. The repairs necessitated by the damage were so time-consuming that it was determined to rebuild the ship to accommodate the 38 cm guns as originally intended. The 28 cm guns were removed and used as shore batteries. In 1943, Hitler ordered the cessation of conversion work, and on 27 March 1945, she was sunk as a blockship in Gotenhafen (Gdynia) in German-occupied Poland. She was eventually broken up for scrap in 1951.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
"Gneisenau" was armed with a battery of fourteen 22-caliber (cal.) quick-firing guns and two 30-cal. guns. She also carried six Hotchkiss revolver cannon.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
She remained out of service for the next year, before being recommissioned on 9 April 1899, thereafter embarking on a training cruise to Bergen on 5 July. On 24 July, she began another training voyage that went first to Iceland and then Queenstown, Ireland before continuing on to the Mediterranean. Foreign ports that were visited included Jaffa from 16 to 20 December and Beirut from 20 December to 2 January 1900. She began the journey back to Germany on 5 January, departing Port Said and sailing to La Spezia, Italy, where she was visited by "Kaiserin" Friedrich and her daughter Princess Viktoria. "Gneisenau" arrived in Kiel on 23 March, and after minor repairs began a training cruise in the Baltic on 26 May. Another short visit to Bergen followed on 10 September.
German battleship Gneisenau
"Gneisenau" remained unused in Gotenhafen until the end of the war. As the Red Army advanced on the city, the remaining crew took the ship out to the entrance of the harbor and sank the vessel as a blockship on 27 March 1945. In 1947, the Polish government ordered the ship be removed, and initial salvage operations began. The ship was sealed and refloated on 12 September 1951 then completely scrapped, though it is believed that some of her steel was used in the construction of Polish merchant vessels. She was the largest ship raised at the time. Norway offered to return the turret from Trondheim in 1979, though the offer was rejected. The gun turret was instead preserved as a museum in Norway.
German battleship Gneisenau
After arriving in Brest, "Gneisenau" was the subject of repeated British air raids. The first attack took place on the night of 30–31 March, and a second occurred on 4–5 April. During this second raid, a armor-piercing (AP) bomb narrowly missed the ship. As a result of the attacks, the ship was moved out of the dry dock and moved to the harbor. On 6 April, "Gneisenau" was attacked by British torpedo bombers, which managed to score a single hit. The Bristol Beaufort that struck the ship was piloted by Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell. The torpedo struck "Gneisenau" in the vicinity of the rear main battery turret. Some of water flooded the ship and caused a 2 degree list to starboard. The flooding also disabled several components of the ship's propulsion system. The explosion caused significant destruction to the side plating as well as the starboard and centerline propeller shafts. The concussive shock also caused widespread damage to the ship's electronic components. A salvage tug came alongside to assist in the pumping effort. Following the attack, "Gneisenau" returned to the drydock for repairs.
SMS Tegetthoff (1878)
SMS "Tegetthoff was an ironclad warship of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She was built by the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste, between April 1876 and October 1881. She was armed with a main battery of six guns mounted in a central-battery. The ship had a limited career, and did not see action. In 1897, she was reduced to a guard ship in Pola, and in 1912 she was renamed Mars". She served as a training ship after 1917, and after the end of World War I, she was surrendered as a war prize to Italy, which sold her for scrapping in 1920.
German battleship Gneisenau
"Gneisenau" was assigned to the forces participating in Operation "Weserübung", the invasion of Denmark and Norway. She and her sister were the covering force for the assaults on Narvik and Trondheim (Flag Officer "Vize Admiral" Günther Lütjens). The two ships left Wilhelmshaven on the morning of 7 April, along with the heavy cruiser and fourteen destroyers. The cruiser and destroyers carried the assault forces for Narvik and Trondheim, while "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst" provided cover for them. Later that day, at around 14:30, the three ships came under attack by a force of British bombers, though the bombers failed to make any hits. On the morning of 8 April, the destroyer encountered the British destroyer . Before being sunk, "Glowworm" rammed "Admiral Hipper", though the latter was not seriously damaged. The crews of the two battleships went to battle stations, though they did not take part in the brief engagement. At 21:00, "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst" took up a position west of the Vestfjorden to provide distant cover to both of the landings at Narvik and Trondheim.
SMS Nautilus (1906)
"Nautilus" was built by the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen; her keel was laid down as "mine steamer A" on 19 December 1905, and her completed hull was launched as "Nautilus" on 28 August 1906. After completing fitting-out work, the ship was commissioned for sea trials on 19 March 1907, which lasted until 25 May. She was initially used for mine warfare training and was based in Cuxhaven. "Nautilus" took part in the annual fleet maneuvers in August and September 1907 and 1908 before being decommissioned in Kiel; her role in the peacetime fleet was then taken over by her recently commissioned sister ship . In 1909–10, "Nautilus" was modernized at the "Kaiserliche Werft" (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel. Her stern overhang was extended by , bringing the ship's overall length to , and her superstructure deck was extended further aft. The work was completed by January 1910.
SMS Gneisenau
The flotilla was reinforced with the arrival of "Emden" and "Nürnberg"; the ships then departed the central Pacific, bound for Chile. On 13 August the captain of "Emden", Commodore Karl von Müller, persuaded von Spee to detach his ship for commerce raiding. On 14 August, the East Asia Squadron departed Pagan for Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The ships again coaled after their arrival on 20 August. In order to keep the German high command informed, von Spee detached "Nürnberg" on 8 September to Honolulu to send word through neutral countries. "Nürnberg" brought back news of the Allied capture of the German colony at Samoa on 29 August. "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst" sailed to Apia to investigate the situation, but on 14 September found no suitable targets.
SMS Kaiserin Augusta
SMS "Kaiserin Augusta" was a unique protected cruiser, built for the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy) in the early 1890s. Named for Empress Augusta, who died in January 1890, she was laid down in 1890, launched in January 1892, and completed in November of that year. Owing to budgetary restrictions, "Kaiserin Augusta" was designed to fill both fleet scout and colonial cruiser roles. The ship was initially armed with a main battery of four and eight guns, which by 1896 was replaced with twelve new model 15 cm guns. She was the first ship in the German Navy to feature a three-shaft propeller arrangement.
SMS Irene
SMS "Irene" was a protected cruiser or "Kreuzerkorvette" of the German Imperial Navy ("Kaiserliche Marine") and the lead ship of the . She had one sister, ; the two ships were the first protected cruisers built by the German Navy. "Irene" was laid down in 1886 at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, launched in July 1887, and commissioned into the fleet in May 1888. The cruiser was named after Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine, sister-in-law of Kaiser Wilhem II. As built, the ship was armed with a main battery of fourteen guns and had a top speed of .
SMS Arcona (1902)
SMS "Arcona" was the ninth member of the ten-ship , built by the Imperial German Navy, and named after Cape Arkona on the German island of Rügen. She was built by the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen, laid down in 1901, launched in April 1902, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in May 1903. Armed with a main battery of ten guns and two torpedo tubes, "Arcona" was capable of a top speed of .
SMS Ägir
SMS "Ägir" was the second and final member of the "Odin" class of coastal defense ships ("Küstenpanzerschiffe") built for the Imperial German Navy. She had one sister ship, . "Ägir" was named for the norse god, and was built by the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig shipyard between 1893 and 1896. She was armed with a main battery of three guns. She served in the German fleet throughout the 1890s and was rebuilt in 1901–1903. She served in the VI Battle Squadron after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, but saw no action. "Ägir" was demobilized in 1915 and used as a tender thereafter. After the war, she was rebuilt as a merchant ship and served in this capacity until December 1929, when she was wrecked on the island of Gotland.
List of ironclad warships of Germany
SMS "Hansa" was built in 1868–1875, the first ironclad built in Germany; all previous German ironclads had been built in foreign shipyards. This resulted in a much longer period of construction, however, as she was built by the relatively inexperienced Royal Dockyard in Danzig. She was named after the Hanseatic League, known in Germany simply as "Hanse", Latinized "Hansa". The ship was launched in October 1872 and commissioned into the Imperial Navy in May 1875. Designed for overseas service, "Hansa" was classed as an armored corvette and armed with eight 21 cm guns in a central battery.
SMS Salamander
SMS "Salamander" was a armored frigate built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1860s; she was laid down in February 1861, launched in August that year, and completed in May 1862, six months before her sister . She was a broadside ironclad, mounting a battery of twenty-eight guns in gun ports along the length the hull. During the Second Schleswig War in 1864, "Salamander" remained in the Adriatic to protect Austria from a possible Danish attack that did not materialize. Two years later, during the Seven Weeks' War, she participated in the Austrian victory over a superior Italian fleet in the Battle of Lissa in July 1866. Immediately after the war, she was modernized with a battery of more powerful guns. Little used thereafter owing to reduced naval budgets, she was stricken from the Navy List in 1883 and hulked for use as a mine storage ship before being broken up in 1895–1896.
SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max (1865)
SMS "Erzherzog Ferdinand Max" was the lead ship of the of broadside ironclads built for the Austrian Navy in the 1860s. She was built by the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, with her keel laying in October 1863, launching in May 1865, and commissioning in June 1866 at the outbreak of the Third Italian War of Independence and the Austro-Prussian War, fought concurrently. The ship was armed with a main battery of sixteen 48-pounder guns, though the rifled guns originally intended, which had been ordered from Prussia, had to be replaced with old smoothbore guns until after the conflicts ended.
SMS Schlesien
SMS "Schlesien" was one of five pre-dreadnought battleships built for the German "Kaiserliche Marine" (Imperial Navy) between 1904 and 1906. Named after the German province of Silesia, "Schlesien" was laid down at the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Danzig on 19 November 1904, launched on 28 May 1906, and commissioned on 5 May 1908. She was armed with a battery of four guns and had a top speed of . The ships of her class were already outdated by the time they entered service, as they were inferior in size, armor, firepower, and speed to the revolutionary new British battleship .
SMS Gneisenau
By 13:20, the faster British ships had caught up with "Gneisenau" and the other cruisers, and began to fire at a range of . Von Spee realized his armored cruisers could not escape the much faster battlecruisers, and so ordered the three light cruisers to attempt to break away while he turned about to engage the British with "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst". However, Sturdee detached his armored and light cruisers to pursue the German light cruisers, while the battlecruisers dealt with "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst". "Inflexible" attacked "Gneisenau" while "Invincible" opened fire at "Scharnhorst". Sturdee attempted to widen the distance by turning two points to the north to prevent von Spee from closing to within the range of his smaller guns. Von Spee counteracted this maneuver by turning rapidly to the south, which forced Sturdee to turn south as well. This allowed "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" to get close enough to engage with their secondary guns; their shooting was so effective that it forced the British to haul away temporarily.
SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia
"Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia" was laid down on 1 June 1891, launched on 29 April 1893, and was commissioned into the fleet in November 1894. In 1895, Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria took a squadron of warships, including "Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia", to Germany to participate in the celebrations for the opening of the Kiel Canal. The squadron called on the port of Brest, France on the way, and stopped in Portsmouth on the return voyage.
SMS Kaiser Karl VI
SMS "Kaiser Karl VI" ("His Majesty's Ship "Kaiser Karl VI"") was the second of three armored cruisers built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She was built by the "Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino" in Trieste between June 1896 and May 1900, when she was commissioned into the fleet. "Kaiser Karl VI" represented a significant improvement over the preceding design——being faster and more heavily armed and armored. She provided the basis for the third design, , which featured further incremental improvements. Having no overseas colonies to patrol, Austria-Hungary built the ship solely to reinforce its battle fleet.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
On 18 September, she left Kiel once again for another overseas cruise, stopping in Dartmouth on the way through the English Channel. She toured ports in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco, stopping in Málaga on 13 November, where she remained for nearly a month. On 10 December, she left the port to begin shooting exercises; she moored off the mole, some from shore, where the exercises were held. At around 10:30 on 16 December, the weather off Málaga worsened considerably, with force 8 winds. The ship's commander, "KzS" Kretschmann, ordered the crew to raise steam in the boilers so the ship could be moved into the safety of the harbor, and thirty minutes later a miscommunication between the engine room personnel and the captain led to Kretschmann ordering the anchors raised so the ship could get underway. The commander believed the engine room had reported 50 revolutions per minute (rpm) on the propeller shaft, but the actual figure was 15 rpm, not sufficient to propel the ship. As a result, the now-unmoored ship drifted helplessly in the heavy winds.
Channel Dash
"Gneisenau" entered a floating dry dock at Kiel for repair and was hit by two heavy bombs dropped by the RAF on the night of One bomb hit the battleship on her forecastle and penetrated the armoured deck. The explosion ignited a fire in the foremost magazine, which detonated, throwing the forward turret off its mount. The damage prompted the German Naval Staff to rebuild "Gneisenau" to mount the six guns originally planned, rather than repair the ship and the damaged bow section was removed to attach a longer one. By early 1943, the ship had been sufficiently repaired to begin the conversion but after the failure of German surface forces at the Battle of the Barents Sea in December 1942, Hitler ordered the work to stop. On 23 February, "Prinz Eugen" was torpedoed by a British submarine off Norway and put out of action until October; then spent the rest of the war in the Baltic. On 28 March, the British raided St Nazaire in Operation Chariot and destroyed the "Normandie" dock, the only one in France capable of accommodating the largest German warships. "Scharnhorst" participated in Operation Zitronella against Spitzbergen on 8 September 1943 and was sunk at the Battle of the North Cape on 26 December.
SMS Babenberg
SMS "Babenberg" was a pre-dreadnought battleship built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1899. She was launched on 4 October 1902 as the last of three s. Along with her sister ships, she participated at the bombardment of Ancona during World War I. At the end of the war, she was ceded to Great Britain as a war prize. She was scrapped in Italy in 1921.
SMS Blitz (1862)
"Blitz" was laid down at the "Königliche Werft" (Royal Dockyard) in Danzig on 26 July 1861; her name was already assigned on 23 May, two months before work began. She was launched on 27 August 1862. On 22 May 1863, "Blitz" was ordered to deploy to the Mediterranean Sea along with her sister ship and the aviso . "Blitz" began sea trials five days later, and on 13 June the gunboat was formally commissioned into service for her tour abroad. On 18 August, the three vessels departed Prussia, bound for Greek waters. "Blitz"s first commander was then "Leutnant zur See" (Lieutenant at Sea) Archibald MacLean. Upon arrival, the three ships protected German nationals in Greece, which was experiencing a period of civil unrest. Later that year, the vessels entered the Black Sea; under the terms of the Treaty of Paris that had ended the Crimean War in 1856, Prussia was permitted to station warships in Sulina at the mouth of the Danube to enforce the peace. "Basilisk" and "Blitz" had their 15 cm gun removed during the trip to prevent damage in heavy weather. On 18 August 1863, the vessels left the Black Sea and returned to Piraeus, Greece, arriving on 9 October. There, on 3 December, they received the order to return to Prussia, as conflict with Denmark over the latter's November Constitution, which integrated the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg with Denmark, a violation of the London Protocol that had ended the First Schleswig War.
German battleship Gneisenau
"Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst" operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During their first operation, the two ships sank the British auxiliary cruiser in a short battle. "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst" participated in Operation "Weserübung", the German invasion of Norway. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser and sank the aircraft carrier . "Gneisenau" was damaged in the action with "Renown" and later torpedoed by a British submarine, , off Norway. After a successful raid in the Atlantic in 1941, "Gneisenau" and her sister put in at Brest, France. The two battleships were the subject of repeated bombing raids by the RAF; "Gneisenau" was hit several times during the raids, though she was ultimately repaired.
SMS Gneisenau (1879)
The Training Squadron began another Mediterranean cruise on 29 September, during which they participated in celebrations commemorating the 25th anniversary of King George I of Greece. The ships toured ports in the Ottoman Empire in Asia Minor and Egypt. On 16 April 1889, "Gneisenau" and the other training ships arrived back in Wilhelmshaven. "Gneisenau" moved to Kiel, where on 30 April she was again decommissioned. On 1 January 1891, "Gneisenau" was formally re-designated as a training ship. The ship remained out of service until 1 April 1892, when she was reactivated for a cruise in the Baltic and North Seas under the command of "Korvettenkapitän" ("KK"—Corvette Captain) Felix Stubenrauch. In August and September, she took part in the annual fleet maneuvers, and beginning on 3 October, she participated in the winter cruise, which this time went to the West Indies and Venezuela. While in the Caribbean Sea, the German squadron met the French West Indies Squadron and exchanged formal visits between the squadrons' commanders. On the way back to Germany, the squadron spent a month in British waters, from 22 May to 21 June, during which time they took part in the Cowes Regatta with Wilhelm II aboard the new aviso .
August Neidhardt von Gneisenau
Several German navy ships, including the World War I armored cruiser SMS "Gneisenau", the World War II battleship "Gneisenau", and a post-war frigate were named after him.
SS Gneisenau (1935)
On 2 May 1943, "Gneisenau" struck a mine in the Baltic Sea, capsized, and sank. The wreck was raised on 12 July 1950 and scrapped in Denmark.
SS Gneisenau (1935)
"Gneisenau" was the second of three sister ships built for NDL. DeSchiMAG in Bremen built "Gneisenau" and , while Blohm + Voss in Hamburg built the third sister, .
SMS Breslau
"Breslau" was ordered under the contract name ""Ersatz" " and was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1910. At her launching ceremony on 16 May 1911, she was christened by the mayor of Breslau, the ship's namesake. After her launching, fitting-out work commenced and lasted until mid-1912. She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 20 August 1912. Following her commissioning, "Breslau" was attached to the German "Mittelmeerdivision" (Mediterranean Division) along with the battlecruiser under the command of Admiral Wilhelm Souchon. The German Navy decided it needed a permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars that began in 1912. Karl Dönitz, the future Grand Admiral during World War II, served aboard "Breslau" from 1912 to 1916.