SMS Goeben 1916 Photos

[Guest Rick Research]

Either the case for this disassembled mountain howitzer fell off of one of the... ponies... and broke on the dock, or maybe they rolled in and are being disassembled for transport:

Typical though-- 2 guys doing all the work while 6 "interested spectators" look on!

Scurrying to get loaded and away:

Notice that the mountains of deck crates here mean that the main turret guns are literally buried under "stuff" and thus could not be used in action!

[Guest Rick Research]

And now, especially for David and "perspective views"--

A partially disasembled "Turkish" airplane being lifted by those multi-task Goeben gun barrels:

And how do I know it was "Turkish?"

Here's the same plane being lifted, seen from the OTHER side of the turret:

Note the Ottoman square black tail marking.

[Guest Rick Research]

Ottoman troops, standing room only on Goeben's deck:

Notice that this is exactly the same place as the review by Mackensen photo was taken from-- I assume at the bottom of whatever ladders led up to Böning's duty-lookout perch.

And, to conclude Böning's Goeben service, his view of Trebizond and the snow capped mountains beyond, as Goeben reached its goal:

He would then spend a year in idle luxury-- literally-- quartered aboard a cruise ship docked at Constantinople, then another year in the middle of the Iraqi desert (exactly where one would expect the Imperial German Navy and would end THIS war as paymaster of the "Turkish" Submarine service.

[Guest Rick Research]

Notice that the visiting celebrities stopped at the SAME spot... the hatches in the deck behind the same starboard turret gun, back by the second smokestack searchlight platforms?

Same spot "loading coal," "swabbing the deck." same spot (either side) lifting the airplanes. same spot (from up above) going into the Black Sea on the steamer-sinking voyage.

Dramatic variations in image and print quality... but I'll bet that they WERE all taken by Böning... and the "Bildstelle" was given credit for negatives that came from HIM.

By comparison, here's a commercial postcard of SMS "Kaiser Wilhelm II" mailed to a cousin?/brother? when Böning was Ship's Paymaster there 5 August 1914 to 6 February 1915:

Note his top-of-the-world action station on the forward crow's nest. I like the "my room" porthole notation too.

[Leah]

Excuse my ignorance but what ships made up the Tigris-Euphrates Flotilla?How many sailors?

Leah

[Guest Rick Research]

No "ships" at all. Motor launches (ironically enough built by Thornycroft) armed with machine guns or a "pom-pom" type light gun. ? 1919 "Jane's Fighting Ships"--

Total personnel unknown to me. They were commanded by a Korvettenkapitän and a Kapitänleutnant at different times. With a dozen or so "canoes," I doubt there were ever more than 200 German sailors involved at any one time.

[Tosun Saral]

Those photos shows Yavuz at Istinye Docks on the European side of Bosphorus.The name "Yavuz Sultan Selim" was given to the ship after her registration to Turkish Ottoman Navy. Yavuz Sultan Selim was a Turkish Sultan ( father of Soliman the Magnificent) Sultan Selim anexed Egypt into Turkish Territory in 1517. He fought againts Persians and defeated them in two battles. He took the Holy cities Damascus, Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina into Turkish possesion and became the first Turkish Califf. He was given the nickname "Yavuz" the Grim because of his hard manner.

In Turkey people name her as "glorious" The only glorious event in her life is that she carried the mortal body of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk from Istanbul to Izmit where he was carried to Ankara with train in 1938.

Turks love her dearly. Many songs were sunk for her:

"Yavuz geliyor Yavuz

Suları yara yara

Kız ben seni alacagım

Başına vura vura"

(Yavuz is coming, cutting the wawes)

Hey Girl I will marry you)

Turks gave her name to new borned boys:

My late brothers name was "Yavuz"

In 1964 or 1965 she was still ancored from the back to the quai of Naval HQ at Golcuk/Izmit. I was one of the happy Turks who set foot on her wooden deck. There were only a sentry guarding her. He permitted me and my late father to enter the ship. We visited her cabins.

Poor Yavuz was made shaving razor.

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php...highlight=yavuz

Turkish Naval Officers with German Matrosen on the deck of Yavuz.

[Ulsterman]

woaw!! Who is that on the right?

See this "allied" thread:

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=13343

According to this thread below, Mackensen was in Turkey in January, 1916:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=120531

Edited June 12, 2007 by Ulsterman

[eitze]

Hi,

a little bit off topic, but all who are interested in the Turkish navy before and in WW 1 I can recommend these two books:

- The Ottoman Steam Navy 1828-1928

by Bernd Langensiepen and Ahmet G?lery?z, Convay Press 1995, 201 pages with photos

- Halbmond und Kaiseradler

Breslau und Goeben am Bosporus 1914-1918

by Langensiepen - Nottelmann - Kr?smann, Mittler & Sohn 1999, 271 pages with photos

One of the latter authors, Jochen Kr?smann was a colleague of me, when we together attended the "Beamtenschule" in the German State of Nordrhein-Westfalen back in 1993

[eitze]

And the second and sorry for the blurry pictures.

greetings

eitze

[4711]

First of all,it is anytime nice to see photos of the MMD. The `` unidentified High Level Visitor `` on one of the photos is Ludwig Ganghoffer. The photo is also shown in `Halbmond + Kaiseradler` The photo of v.d.Goltz was taken in Dez.1914 .The photos in the topic are mostly well known, beside photos of doges and other which made private. The MMD had her own `photoshop`and so you can found most of the photos in every album. The larges collection of MMD photos is possible the so-called `Ackermann-Sammlung` . I was able to copy this album as well those of Firle ( his son dead in 2001) , Kettner , Pfeiffer , v.Arnim ( a very interesting family with an own famlily archives!) and others. I`m just in talk with the grand-daughter of Busse. Souchon is a problem, because his family keep his photos `secret`. This diary or better hundreds of letters sending home are at BA/MA Freiburg.

Mfg

Edited June 16, 2007 by 4711

[4711]

The photo of the so-called `Goeben-Landungsabteilung ` shown anything but not the MMD Landungsabteilung of 1915 , which was a combination of Soko,Midilli, Flottille and Goeben personal. The `` Landungsabteilung`on the photo is a pre-war one.

Edited June 17, 2007 by 4711

[Tosun Saral]

Field Marshall Mustafa Fevzi ?akmak tells about transport of men and material in his book "Birinci D?nya Savaşında Doğu Cephesi" (East Front During WW1)

p.113:

It was not possible for us to send the troops from Gallipoli Front after the evaculation of the earea by British to Trabzon by sea in winter time due to weakness of our Navy. We had no control and rule at Black Sea. For that reason we send our troops to Iraq Front.

p.262

On 6th Nov. 1914 6 battleships, 13 destroyers and torpedo boats of the Russian Fleet sailed to Black Sea at 07:45 and entered to the port of Zonguldak. Bombed Kozlu coal mines and Zonguldak, sunk a greek cargoship. During that time 3 Turkish cargo vessels Mithatpaşa, Bezk-i Alem and Karadeniz were sailing towards to the shores of Georgia with a corgo opf airplanes, pilots and circassian volunteers. Their task was to begin a circassian revolt againts ruling Russians. The vessels had no protection. They were all sunk by Russians.

p.263

On 6th Nov.1914 Battleships Midilli(Breslau) and Hamidiye landed 3000n troops of the 89th Regt. pon Trabzon whom they took from Giresun.

On Nov. 10th 1914 Midilli and Hamidiye took 93th Regt. from the ports of Unye and Ordu and anded then on Trabzon.

p. 264

Towards the end of Nov. several cargo ships with a corgo of artillary guns, war material, wagons, provisions sailed from Istanbul under protection of Hamidiye, Mecidiye and Midilli battleships.

p.265

At the beginning of Dec. Stange Bey with 2 battalions of 8th Regt., a mountain battary, and 100 horsemen sailed towards Trabzon under the protection of Mecidiye, Berk-i Satvet and Pek-i Şevket. But due to Russian mines covering the enterence of Trabzon port they landed on Rize.

p.266

On Dec. 21st 1914 some cargo ships carring ammunition and some troops sailed for Trabzon under protection of Yavuz and Midilli.

p.268

After the defeat at Sarıkamış Enver Pasha ordered the transport of 5th AC by sea on Jan. 1915. He insisted a prompt transport of the AC. But von Sanders and Admiral Souchon refused his order. Souchon insisted that Yavuz was wounded.

p.275

Erzurum was in danger. To support Erzurum with new troops and material Yavuz sailed from Istanbul on Feb. 4th 1916 to Trabzon with a mountain battary, 8 MG detachments (32 MGs), a plane detachment, 1000 rifles, 300 boxes of ammunition, 29 officers, 400 troops on her deck. They landed safely on Trabzon on Feb. 6th 1916.

p.276

Enver Pasha ordered a regiment to be transported by sea to Trabzon promply. But Souchon refused his order. The situation is very serious and hopeless againts clear superiority of the enemy war ships

p.277

On April 1st 1916 Midilli sailed from Istanbul to Trabzon carring 150 troops, 794 boxes of ammu, 5000 rifles, 4 MGs. They landed on April 3rd.

p.279

On April 25th Midilli sailed to Samsun from Istanbul carring 200 troops, ammu and material.

p.280

Between May 30th and June 2 Midilli carried ammu and material to Sinop and Samsun to support 3rd Army.

[Guest Rick Research]

Great information-- THANKS!