On commissioning,
G7 joined the 10th Half Flotilla of V Torpedo Flotilla, and remained in that flotilla in 1914.
First World War G7 was a member of the 10th Half Flotilla of V torpedo boat flotilla of the German
High Seas Fleet on the outbreak of war. On 28 August 1914, the British
Harwich Force, supported by light cruisers and battlecruisers of the
Grand Fleet, carried out a
raid towards
Heligoland with the intention of destroying patrolling German torpedo boats. The German defensive patrols around Heligoland consisted of one flotilla (I Torpedo Flotilla) of 12 modern torpedo boats forming an outer patrol line about North and West of Heligoland, with an inner line of older torpedo boats of the 3rd Minesweeping Division at about . V Torpedo boat flotilla, including
G7, together with four German light cruisers waited near Heligoland. At about 06:00 on 28 August, the torpedo boat , one of the ships of the outer screen sighted the periscope of the British submarine , one of three submarines deployed as bait to lure the German torpedo boats away from Heligoland.
G194 reported by radio her encounter with the British submarine to
Rear Admiral Leberecht Maass, the commander of the German torpedo boat forces, aboard the cruiser back at
Wilhelmshaven. As a result of this report, the 5th Torpedo Boat Flotilla was ordered out to hunt the hostile submarine. At 07:57
G194 was fired on by British warships, and the outer screen was soon retreating towards Heligoland. The torpedo boats of V Flotilla were unaware of the approaching British surface force, and the leading ship of the flotilla, came under fire by British light cruisers and destroyers. The flotilla turned south and headed for the cover of Heligoland's guns, but lagged behind and was damaged by British shells before the arrival of the German light cruiser allowed the Flotilla to escape. The torpedo boat of the outer screen did not manage to evade the British force and was sunk. The intervention of the supporting British forces resulted in the sinking of the German cruisers , and . The British light cruiser and destroyers , and were badly damaged but safely returned to base.
G7 was undamaged. On 13 October,
G7 reported being unsuccessfully attacked by a submarine off the mouth of the
Weser. On 23 January 1915, the German 1st Scouting group under Admiral
Franz von Hipper made a sortie to attack British fishing boats on the
Dogger Bank.
G7 sailed with V Flotilla as part of the German force. British Naval Intelligence was warned of the raid by radio messages decoded by
Room 40, and sent out the Battlecruiser Force from
Rosyth and the Harwich Force to intercept the German force. The British and German Forces met on the morning of 24 January in the
Battle of Dogger Bank. On sighting the British, Hipper ordered his ships to head south-east to escape the British, who set off in pursuit. The German light cruisers and torpedo boats steamed out ahead of the heavier ships, where they were not exposed to British fire, but the armoured cruiser , the oldest and slowest of Hipper's big ships, was disabled and fell back. Hipper considered sending his torpedo boats on a high risk daylight torpedo attack against the British, but an emergency turn by the British flagship, the battlecruiser to avoid a non-existent German submarine, and misinterpretation of signals caused the British battlecruisers to concentrate on
Blücher, already badly damaged and trailing well behind the other German ships, and allowing the rest of Hipper's fleet to escape, and causing Hipper to cancel the torpedo attack.
Blücher was overwhelmed by British torpedoes and shellfire and sank.
G7 was part of the 10th half-flotilla of V Flotilla, which sailed in support of the German
High Seas Fleet, at the
Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. From about 20:15
CET (19:15
GMT), the German torpedo boat flotillas launched a series of torpedo attacks against the British battle line in order to cover the German fleet's turn away from the British. First to attack were VI Flotilla and IX Flotilla, followed by III Flotilla. At 20:38, V Flotilla started an attack run, but it was unable to find the British battleline due to poor visibility caused by fog and smoke, and the attack was aborted. During the night action, V Flotilla was ordered to search for and attack the British fleet, but failed to encounter the British battleships.
G7 was undamaged.
Between the wars After the end of the First World War, the
scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet at
Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919 and the
Treaty of Versailles left Germany with a small navy of obsolete warships. The Versailles treaty limited the German Navy's torpedo forces to 16 destroyers and 16 torpedo boats, with only twelve of each in active service, with replacement of the existing ships not allowed until 15 years after they were launched. Replacements could not exceed 800 t displacement for destroyers and 200 t for torpedo boats.
G7 was retained as a destroyer under the treaty, and remained in active service in the new
Reichsmarine. Modernised in the late 1920s,
G7 remained in active service when construction of the new Type 23 and 24 torpedo boats allowed many of the older boats to be retired or moved to subsidiary duties.
G7 was part of the 1st Half Flotilla in 1932, and remained in active service in 1935. In 1936
G7 was allocated to training duties and on 23 April 1939 she was renamed
T107.
T107 was employed as a tender at the torpedo school and as a torpedo recovery vessel.
Post-war Following the end of the war,
G7 was transferred to the Soviet Union as a war prize, and was renamed
Porashayushtshiy (Поражающий). ==Notes==