Early career 1912–1914 was ordered under the contract name " ", and was
laid down at the
AG Vulcan shipyard in
Stettin in early 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. On 10 May, she was
commissioned to begin
sea trials, which were interrupted to escort —
Kaiser Wilhelm II's
yacht—first to the
Kiel Week sailing
regatta and then for the Kaiser's annual summer cruise to Norwegian waters. The ship's first commander was (FK—Frigate Captain)
Lebrecht von Klitzing. Only on 23 August could
Breslau return to her initial testing, which were interrupted again by the annual autumn maneuvers of the
High Seas Fleet, held from 12 to 20 September, during which
Breslau escorted Wilhlem II again. On 26 September,
Breslau was assigned to the Scouting Unit. The ship's stint in the main fleet's reconnaissance force was to be short-lived; already on 3 November, she was ordered to join the battlecruiser to form the (Mediterranean Division), under the command of (Rear 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.
Breslau sailed from
Wilhelmshaven on 5 November, steaming at top speed for the eastern Mediterranean. After arriving in
Alexandria in
Ottoman Egypt,
Breslau met with the
unprotected cruiser and the
protected cruiser .
Breslau then sailed on to visit a series of ports in Greece and the
Ottoman Empire, ultimately arriving in the Ottoman capital at
Constantinople. By 25 March 1913, the ship had sailed west to
Brindisi, Italy, where
Ernst August, the Kaiser's son-in-law, came aboard. From there, the ship sailed to
Corfu, where she embarked
Prince Heinrich, the Kaiser's brother. She then carried both men to
Piraeus, Greece, for the funeral of King
George I of Greece, who had been assassinated on 18 March. In April, the
Great Powers decided to implement a
blockade of Montenegro to force the government to end the
Siege of Scutari and allow the city to fall under the control of
Albania.
Breslau joined an international naval force in the
Adriatic Sea that included warships from Britain, France,
Austria-Hungary,
Italy, and
Russia. After the Montenegrin government withdrew from the city, the international force sent landing parties ashore at the mouth of the
Bojana and then move overland to Scutari. The landing parties were to take temporary control with a provisional international government.
Breslau contributed 100 men to the occupation force. The Powers agreed to place Klitzing in the role of civil commissioner over the interim government. The crew aboard
Breslau was having difficulty keeping the ship operational with their reduced number, and so Germany sent the so-called Scutari Detachment to
Pola, Austria-Hungary, which
Breslau embarked on 30 June. She took them to the mouth of the Bojana and exchanged the soldiers for her landing party on 6 July. The ship remained in the
Gulf of Drin until 6 August, when she departed to return to Constantinople, arriving there four days later.
Breslau remained in Constantinople from mid-August until 27 October. During this period of rest, her crew and that of the German station ship helped to suppress a major fire in the French embassy in the city, and then assist with cleanup of the flood damage. After getting underway again in late October,
Breslau initially cruised in the eastern Mediterranean, and then in early January 1914, she returned to the mouth of the Bojana. From there, she steamed north to
Trieste, Austria-Hungary, where she underwent an overhaul that lasted until 18 March. She thereafter joined
Goeben to escort
Hohenzollern on the Kaiser's Mediterranean cruise; the three vessels steamed together from
Venice, Italy, to Corfu.
Breslau then departed to return to her patrol area off the
Levant. The ship returned to the Adriatic and anchored at
Durazzo, Albania, on 20 June in response to domestic unrest in the country.
Breslau was to protect the Albanian king,
Prince Wilhelm. After the situation calmed, the Germans left behind a detachment of ten men to guard the German embassy. From there,
Breslau steamed to Corfu, where she rendezvoused with
Goeben on 8 July. Souchon gave instructions to both vessels' crews in the event that the tensions created over the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand led to war in Europe. On 1 August, as the
July Crisis spiraled out of control,
Breslau returned to Durazzo to pick up the ten men who had been left at the embassy. She then rejoined
Goeben; the two ships received the
mobilization order on the night of 2 August.
World War I At the outbreak of
World War I, and were to interdict French transports transferring troops from
Algeria to France. On 3 August 1914, Souchon's two ships were steaming off Algeria; shortly after 06:00, bombarded the embarkation port of
Bône while attacked
Philippeville. The attacks caused minimal damage, however, and Souchon quickly broke off and returned to
Messina to replenish his coal stocks. Although the British were not yet at war with Germany, the two British battlecruisers and shadowed the German ships while en route to Messina. After partially replenishing s coal on the 5th, Souchon arranged to meet a
collier in the Aegean. and left port the following morning bound for
Constantinople,
pursued by the British Mediterranean Fleet. That evening, the
1st Cruiser Squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral
Ernest Troubridge, intercepted the Germans; briefly exchanged fire with the light cruiser before Troubridge broke off the attack, fearing s powerful guns. On 8 August, and met the collier off the island of
Donoussa near
Naxos, and two days later they entered the
Dardanelles, under escort of an Ottoman torpedo boat. To circumvent neutrality requirements, Germany transferred the two ships to the
Ottoman Navy on 16 August, and officially the Ottomans purchased the two ships as replacement for the battleships and , which had been confiscated by the British
Royal Navy shortly before they were completed at British shipyards. The supposed sale was simply a ruse, as only a small number of Ottoman naval personnel came aboard the ships, and on 23 September, Souchon accepted an offer to command the Ottoman fleet. was renamed after the Ottoman name for
Lesbos, while was renamed ; their German crews remained with the ships and donned Ottoman uniforms and
fezzes. The British did not accept the sale of the ships to the Ottoman Empire and stationed a blockading force outside the Dardanelles with orders to attack the ships if they appeared, regardless of the flag they flew. Over the following month, the German and Ottoman governments negotiated the terms of the agreement that would bring the Ottomans into the war on the side of the
Central Powers. By 22 October, the situation was resolved, and the Ottoman war minister,
Enver Pasha, ordered the fleet to mobilize and prepare for offensive operations against Russia. There would be no declaration of war first, however.
Ottoman service 1914 On the evening of 27 October 1914, and the rest of the Ottoman fleet left the
Bosporus and steamed into the
Black Sea, ostensibly to conduct maneuvers. Instead, the fleet split into four groups to attack Russian bases on the other side of the Black Sea; and another cruiser were tasked with mining the
Strait of Kerch and then attacking the port of
Novorossisk. laid sixty mines in the Strait, which later claimed two Russian merchant ships, and then joined the other ship in bombarding Novorossisk. They set the port's oil tanks on fire, damaged seven merchant ships, and sank of . Although the damage inflicted on the Russians was relatively light, it forced the Russians to declare war on the Ottoman Empire, bringing the country into the war on the side of Germany. In early November 1914, while was operating in the eastern Black Sea and covering Ottoman transports, she was detached to shell the Russian port of
Poti in retaliation for Russian attacks on Ottoman shipping. On 17 November, she sortied with , under the command of Souchon, in an attempt to intercept the
Black Sea Fleet as it returned from bombarding
Trebizond. discovered the Russian ships off
Cape Sarych, the southern tip of the
Crimea in poor visibility at short range. In the
resulting engagement on 18 November, Souchon ordered to assume a safer position to s rear, but she was engaged by the pre-dreadnoughts and without effect before Souchon ordered the Ottoman ships to disengage shortly afterward. The cruiser spent the rest of the month escorting shipping to Trebizond. On 5 December, she escorted a small raiding party to
Akkerman,
Bessarabia, that was intended to attack railroad installations. On the return voyage, bombarded
Sevastopol, damaging some
minesweepers at anchor. A month later, on 23 December, sortied to rendezvous with off
Sinope, and in the darkness the following morning she encountered the Russian transport , which was intended to be sunk as a blockship in
Zonguldak. quickly sank but was forced to turn away after spotting . She then encountered another blockship,
Athos, and forced her crew to
scuttle the ship. She then briefly engaged Russian
destroyers before moving ahead of the Russian fleet to monitor their progress. Ottoman coastal guns forced the remaining blockships to scuttle in deep water.
1915 conducted a series of sorties against the Russians in early 1915, including an operation in concert with the cruiser in January, during which they inadvertently came into contact with the Black Sea Fleet. scored a hit on the battleship s main battery turret before the Ottoman ships withdrew. On 3 April, the Ottoman fleet sortied to attack Russian transports off
Odessa. and provided the covering force for the attack, which failed after the cruiser struck a mine and sank off Odessa. The Russian fleet attempted to intercept the Ottoman force, but and were able to escape undamaged. The two ships, joined by , conducted a sweep to attack Russian transports on 6 May, but found no targets. Later that month, detachments of naval infantry from and were landed to assist in the defense against the
Allied landings at Gallipoli. On the night of 10/11 June, encountered the Russian destroyers and off Zonguldak. In a brief firefight, the cruiser crippled with a hit in her starboard engine compartment that broke the main steam line to the engines, but was forced to turn away when fired five torpedoes at her. was hit by gunfire seven times herself with only slight damage and was towed back to Sevastopol the following day by . struck a mine on 18 July as she sailed from Constantinople to escort a merchant ship through the minefields defending the capital. The explosion under No. 4
boiler room killed eight crewmen and she was flooded with over of water. The ship made it to port at
İstinye and an inspection revealed that she was not badly damaged. Hampered by a shortage of trained personnel and material, however, the ship's repairs took quite a long time.
1916 The ship did not return to service until February 1916, and the opportunity was taken to replace two of her 10.5 cm guns with 15 cm pieces. On 27 February, she was used to quickly transport 71 officers and men of a machine-gun company and a significant stock of supplies and munitions to Trebizond, which was then under heavy pressure from the Russian army. While en route on the night of the 28th, she encountered the Russian destroyers and . evaded the Russians and reached Trebizond. On 2 March, she attempted to attack a pair of destroyers north of Zonguldak, but she was unable to catch them. The ship then returned to the Bosporus. On 11 March, made another run, this time carrying 211 soldiers and twelve barrels of fuel and lubricating oil, which were successfully landed on the 13th. She then stopped in
Samsun, where she picked up of flour, one ton of maize, and 30 tons of coal, before returning to the Bosporus. A third supply operation followed on 3 April, when the ship brought 107 men, 5,000 rifles, and 794 cases of ammunition to Trebizond. After making the delivery, the ship met the
U-boat and proceeded to attack Russian forces. shelled Russian positions at
Sürmene Bay, where she set the minesweeper
T.233 on fire, which was then destroyed by
U-33s deck gun. then turned north and sank a Russian sailing vessel off
Tuapse before running into the powerful
dreadnought battleship . fled at high speed after being
straddled several times, though she was not damaged. In early May, the cruiser laid two
minefields, each of 60 mines. The first of these was laid off the
Chilia branch of the
Danube River and the other off
Cape Tarkhankut in the Crimea. On the second trip she bombarded
Yevpatoria after laying her mines. transported more troops to Sinope and Samsun on 30 May, returning with grain and tobacco as deck cargo. In July, and sortied to support the Ottoman counterattack at Trebizond, which broke the Russian lines and advanced some . sank a pair of Russian ships off
Sochi on 4 July and destroyed another that had been torpedoed the previous day. She then rejoined for the return to the Bosporus, during which the two ships evaded strong Russian forces attempting to intercept them. Later that month, on 21 July, attempted to lay a minefield off Novorossisk, but Russian wireless interception allowed the dreadnought and several destroyers to leave port and attempt to cut off from the Bosporus. The two ships encountered each other at 13:05, and quickly turned back south. Her stern 15 cm gun kept Russian destroyers at bay, but the ship only slowly drew out of range of s heavy guns. Several near misses rained shell splinters on the deck and wounded several men. Heavy use of smoke screens and a rain squall allowed to break contact with her Russian pursuers, and she reached the Bosporus early the following morning. By the end of 1916, a severe coal shortage prevented and from conducting offensive operations.
1917–1918 In May 1917, laid a minefield off the mouth of the
Danube; while there, she destroyed the wireless station on
Fidonisi Island and captured 11 prisoners. The minefield she laid later sank the destroyer on 30 June. While was at sea, a Russian force including , which had by then been renamed , raided the Bosporus. Returning to port, was spotted by the Russian fleet, which attempted to cut her off from the safety of the Bosporus. raced toward port, while salvos from fell around her. The destroyer closed to attack, but s 15 cm guns drove her off. The cruiser managed to reach port without damage; this was the last engagement of the war between the former German warships and the Russian fleet. On 1 November, left the Bosporus to conduct a sweep for Russian warships. The Russians observed the departure and attempted to attack the cruiser with and the new battleship , but mutiny aboard prevented the force from intercepting before she slipped back into port that night. On 20 January 1918, and left the Dardanelles under the command of Vice Admiral
Hubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz, who had replaced Souchon the previous September. Rebeur-Paschwitz's intention was to draw Allied naval forces away from Palestine in support of Ottoman forces there. Outside the straits, in the course of what became known as the
Battle of Imbros, the two Ottoman ships surprised and sank the
monitors and which were at anchor and unsupported by the pre-dreadnoughts that should have been guarding them. Rebeur-Paschwitz then decided to proceed to the port of
Mudros; there the British pre-dreadnought battleship was raising steam to attack the Ottoman ships. While en route to Mudros struck a total of five mines and sank; hit three mines as well and was forced to beach to avoid sinking. Three hundred and thirty of s crew were killed in her sinking, though the number of survivors differ. According to Langensiepen & Güleryüz, 162 survivors were rescued by British destroyers, but Hildebrand, Röhr, and Steinmetz state that only 133 men were rescued from the ship. == Notes ==