SMS Goeben 1916 Photos

[Guest Rick Research]

These are from the album of then-Paymaster Warrant Officer August Böning (1891-1964), who served as Assistant Paymaster of the "Goeben" from 20 January to 6 April 1916.

Four photos of the crew parade on the Kaiser's birthday, 27 January 1916:

1) the crew parades at the Stenia Dockyard. Taken from the Goeben's deck alongside. Admiral Souchon at right alone saluting, Captain Richard Ackermann facing him with drawn sword:

2) Admiral Souchon addressing the ship's company. Captain Ackermann at right with sword. Note the female visitors on board and the large floral decorations admidships:

3) Admiral Souchon and Captain Ackermann passing in review. Note the large Turkish flag:

[Guest Rick Research]

4) Parade march past, again taken from the deck of the Goeben 27 January 1916:

Undated: running the crew after a meal, from the deck of the Goeben--

[Guest Rick Research]

Clearing to take on coal along the dock at Stenia:

Free time:

[Guest Rick Research]

Anti-torpedo nets and the inspection boat checking them out:

Shell-hole punched next to one of the broadside casement guns:

Swabbing the decks:

What looks like a massive firing squad (aimed at the shabby warehouse work buildings seen abvove) is actually recruit rifle training. Hopefully dry-firing!

[Guest Rick Research]

Musketry drill may seem a waste of time for crewmen from a heavy cruiser, but Goeben's sailors were often dispatched to the far ends of the Ottoman Empire. Böning himself would become the most highly combat decorated Paymaster in the German navy during a year's service 1917-18 with the "Canoe Navy" of the Tigris-Euphrates Flotilla deep in the Iraqi desert!

Here is a Goeben landing party. Note naval Luger holsters and blatant lack of security with wandering civilians!

Admiral Souchon with an unidentified High Level Visitor (freakish Soviet style cap, no shoulder boards or armband, Prussian Crown Order 2nd at his neck and a combatant EK2!), and the "Breslau" behind them. No sign of then- Leutnant zS Karl Dönitz aboard the latter.

In 1935, Böning would be the first member of the revived Ubootswaffe as its Chief Administrative Officer.... under Captain Karl Dnitz.

[Guest Rick Research]

A Catholic monk preaching Mass (it must have been "pot luck" and they took whoever they could get) from the deck of the Goeben during the same visit-- note the weird semi-civilian fellow left foreground:

That's it for now. Next time: commerce raiding in the Black sea and... the world's most heavily armed mule transport vessel.

[bob lembke]

Rick;

Great photos! Can I assume that you have the album?

Is the shipyard up in the Golden Horn? Would have been the safest place to berth valuable ships.

The Naval Museum in the European shore of the Bosporus about a mile north (toward the Black Sea) of the Golden Horn is quite nice and worth visiting. They have quite a collection of very old torpedoes. I believe that Whitehead established a torpedo factory at Istanbul about 1885.

Just ate yesterday in a Turkish restaurant in Philadelphia, and discussed with the owners which train station my father must have arrived at when he arrived at Istanbul in 1915. Quite a scene at the station.

Bob Lembke

[nesredep]

Hi

Great photos ,I like it a lot.

nesredep

[Guest Rick Research]

Yes, my pride and joy is the Konteradmiral (V) Böning group.

The main railway station/ferry terminal in Constantinople was called Haidar Pasha-- here it is behind the bushwhacked steamer "Ispahan," torpedoed at the jetty by a British submarine. (Most unsporting, wot?). The railway station burned to the ground under "suspicious" circumstances on 13 September 1917

Here is the Goeben's mascot, "Treff"

[Guest Rick Research]

Goeben under way in the Bosporus, seen from an escort:

The ever-present civilian smallcraft must have been a spy's dream come true!!!

approaching the mouth of the Bosporus, headed into the Black Sea

Full speed ahead!

Torpedo boat escort circling warily

[Guest Rick Research]

That shot and this taken from Böning's duty station as a lookout:

But apparently he got to wander around.

From the bow back

and from the stern forward

[Guest Rick Research]

The sea-eagle reports:

You saw a WHAT? WHERE?

Permission to come aboard... granted.

(This must have been fun!!!! )

[Guest Rick Research]

And the mighty Leviathan, running amok in Russia's warm water pond, strikes its prey!

As seen from Böning's lookout position:

Yup. They risked a capital ship ... to sink a straggling Russian tramp steamer by gunfire!

The crew rows over to go into captivity:

Next voyage: the muleteers afloat!

[Guest Rick Research]

But in the meantime, It's Always SOMETHING!

Getting out the water-tight welding chamber to fasten around the propellor screw, pump the water out, and see just what the heck is going on down there:

[Guest Rick Research]

Of course, other people had their own problems:

"Breslau" in dry dock--

Is that Lt zS Dönitz casting a skeptical eye over that row of suspiciously interested seagulls?

And this torpedoboat had itself a NASTY midships collision... no mention of who was at fault.

[David S]

Absolutely Stunning photos ! ! !

I like that in pic 1 you can see where pic 2 was taken from, and visa versa. Things like that fascinate me.

Dumb question - In pic 4 (lower right) what are those things that look like large bookends??

Edited May 19, 2007 by David S

[Guest Rick Research]

"bookends?"

Here is Himself, standing outside a side gate at Stenia. Oddly enough, in some of his photos, while still only a "Deckoffizier" (as here) he is wearing the OFFICERS's cap badge.

And while we are waiting for the next voyage of the Goeben, here is the German navy's Turkish Station ship, the yacht SMS "Loreley" coming and going

Oddly enough, for all his later Uboat joyriding days, there are NO photos of his Tigris-Euphrates Flotilla service. From the way he racked up decorations, there must have been no safe time for shutter-snapping... or he got sand in his camera.

[Guest Rick Research]

And imagine the reaction he got after lining the entire crew up shoulder to shoulder on the stern of the Goeben for an All Inclusive group shot, when THIS is what came out!

Maybe this was when Captain Ackermann transferred him over to the Coal Bureau of the Ottoman Navy!

But that's another narrative thread.

Meanwhile, another Celebrity On Board--

cheerful little Grampa type with the fancy cords and weird lace-up boots is Generalfeldmarschall Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, who would die in Baghdad on 19 April 1916-- so this might be one of the last photos ever taken of him.

[David S]

Oooooops !!!

Dumb question - In pic 4 (lower right) what are those things that look like large bookends??

Pick, Pick, Pick . . . . In Post 3, 2nd one labeled 'Free Time', lower right.

Am afflicted with CRS

Apologies

[Guest Rick Research]

Oh, you mean the things that Idle Hands Böning inked in blue, like a couple of the sailor's hats?

1) 1916 laptops

2) record players

3) hatches/ventilators: as seen SHUT in Post 5's 2nd photo in front of the group but lid open with louvered inner lid down to their left as viewed, and OPEN in profile in Post 11's 3rd scan from stern foreward, in foreground.

[David S]

D'oh !

Thanks !!!

AND I am glad you mentioned the BLUE because I really thought I was seeing things !!! My eyes are bad enough as it is !

[Leah]

Hello,

Great pics.

What role did Böning play in Irak?

Leah

[Guest Rick Research]

He was the Flotilla Paymaster of the Tigris-Euphrates Flotilla 1 July 1917 to 30 June 1918. Might sound boring, but he was decorated 4 times there, including the extremely rare Medjidie Order 5th Class with Sabers.

But here he is as Marine-Zahlmeisteraspirant in his cabin on the Goeben, attempting to calculate the air speed of a fully laden African swallow....

And him (attempting a mustache left) with his Goeben pal Lt zS dR Claus von Redern (1890-after 1931)

Von Redern was apparently the Mascot Master of the Goeben: on the left faded sepia original and right, as best as I can "tweak" it:

[Guest Rick Research]

One more celebrity visit aboard Goeben. I have no idea if Field Marshal von Mackensen's wartime itinerary is known that would place him there on a specific day, but Böning was only aboard Goeben for 4 months. This exact photo is creditted to the Bildstelle and appeared in the final issue of the "Orient Rundschau" before the Nazis shut down independent veterans groups like the BdAK.

6th from left Goeben's Captain Richard Ackermann, 9th from left Enver Pasha, in the middle August von Mackensen. 9th from right Admiral Souchon, 6th from right in (oddly) his German naval uniform Admiral Guido von Usedom (who was then a Field Marshal in the Turkish ARMY), and 3rd from right Captain Wilhelm Tägert, Chief of staff of the Turkish fleet (and dachshund fancier in another Böning photo appearance).

Receiving line greeting Goeben officers:

And reviewing the crew, with the Breslau alongside to the right:

Notice that photos are taken several times from exactly this vantage point--notice the smoke stacks of the mored Breslau in both photos? Though this one is great quality and the equally nice group shot above was creditted to the official "Bildstelle," I think these were actually taken by Böning, over and over, at the base of his assigned lookout action station.

Interesting that these are among the last "pre-air power" photos taken. Imagine two capital ships tied up along the same wharf, uncamouflaged, in the SECOND war!!!

[Guest Rick Research]

And now, what everyone has been waiting for: mules on a battlecruiser!

The hush before the "storm," Goeben with Breslau in their customary spots, preparing to serve as the world's most heavily armed transports:

Many Turks and pack mules on the Stenia dock, taken from the deck of Goeben:

By popular demand a closeup of the mules:

OK, so they're Anatolian ponies. So sue me. Nobody would have read this far if it wasn't for the lure of donkey pix.

Apparently the intention was to travel full-out. There were NO transport vessels. The Goeben itself was used as a transport ship.

Maybe there is some account which will date the exact dates of this trip to Trebizond?