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The Kaiserliche Marine or Imperial Navy was the German Navy created by Kaiser Wilhelm II between 1871 and 1919; it grew out of the Prussian Navy. The undefeated navy was largely destroyed at Scapa Flow in 1919 by its own officers after the loss of the land war on the Western Front of World War I. Capital ships of the Kaiserliche Marine were designated SMS, for Seiner Majestät Schiff (His Majesty's Ship).1 Achievements
The Kaiserliche Marine achieved some important organisational and technical feats: matching the post- Dreadnought battleship building programme of the Royal Navy, the world's largest navy, in both quality and volume and was able to engage them at the battle of Jutland without being defeated. It was the first navy to successfully operate submarines on a large scale at war, and also operated zeppelins.
2 History
In 1897, the new Minister of the navy, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz began the building of a large modern navy consisting of both battleships and submarines. He later became the commander of the Navy. The main fighting forcesThis is a list of ships of the German navies . The list is organized by era, type/class, and alphabetically by name. See also list of U-boats, list of reference tables Kaiserliche Marine (1872 1918) Battleships: SMS Baden SMS Bayern SMS Deutschland SMS Fr of the navy were to become the High Seas FleetThe High Seas Fleet ( German Hochseeflotte was the main battle fleet of the Kaiserliche Marine (the Imperial German Navy) during World War I. Based at Wilhelmshaven in the Jade estuary, and commanded by Admirals Friedrich von Ingenohl (1913 1915), Hugo vo, and the U-boat fleet.
Notable battles fought by the Navy were:
- Battle of CoronelThe Battle of Coronel was a World War I naval battle fought off the coast of central Chile on 1 November 1914. During the battle, a Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock was met and defeated by the superior Kaiserliche Mari (Admiral Maximilian von SpeeCount (Graf) Maximilian Johannes Maria Hubert von Spee ( 22 June 1861 8 December 1914) was a German naval officer, born in Copenhagen, Denmark, who joined the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) in 1878. In 1887 88 he commanded the Cameroon ports, a)
- Battle of Dogger BankThe Battle of Dogger Bank was a naval battle in the North Sea that took place on 24 January 1915, during the First World War, involving the Royal Navy and the Kaiserliche Marine. With the German home fleet effectively bottled up by Admiral Beatty's succes (Admiral Franz von HipperFranz Ritter von Hipper ( September 13, 1863- May 25, 1932) was a German admiral. He was born in Weilheim and joined the German Navy in 1881 as a cadet, serving on the frigates Niobe and Leipzig''. From 1884 to 1903 he was commanding German torpedo boats)
- Battle of the Falkland IslandsThe Battle of the Falkland Islands was a naval engagement of the First World War, fought between units of the Royal Navy and the Kaiserliche Marine navies on 8 December 1914. The British, reeling from the defeat at the Battle of Coronel sent a large force (Admiral von Spee)
- Battle of Heligoland BightThe First Battle of Heligoland Bight was a naval battle of the First World War, fought on 28 August 1914. The British planned to attack German patrols off the north-west German coast. The Harwich Force of two light cruisers, HMS Fearless and HMS Arethusa (Rear Admiral Mass)
- Battle of Jutland (Admiral Reinhard Scheer)
Minor engagements included the commerce raiding carried out by the Emden, Konigsberg, and the sailing ship Seeadler.
German Navy
German history
