SMS Schneewittchen, SMS Dolphin

[robbie]

Hi all,

Can anyone assist with information re these two ships? I assume they both survived the war as the two other postcards I have clearly state that SM Kleiner gesch. Kreuzer Mainz and SM Kleiner Kreutzer Coln were both sunk. Michael has kindly provided information re the latter two ships.

Robbie

[robbie]

At this website: http://www.richthofen.com/scheer/

I found an on-line edition of Admiral Reinhard Scheer's World War One memoirs is based directly on the original, published in 1920.

Admiral Scheer, who assumed command of the entire German High Seas Fleet in 1916, was in favor of both an aggressive surface fleet policy and unrestricted submarine warfare. On May 31, 1916, he led the German fleet into the battle of Jutland, one of the great naval battles of this century. In the battle, the German fleet performed admirably against the Royal Navy, but it was unable to change the strategic realities of the naval blockade which continued to strangle Germany. The Germans referred to Jutland as The Battle of the Skagerrak.

Robbie

[Michael Lowrey]

Hi all,

Can anyone assist with information re these two ships? I assume they both survived the war as the two other postcards I have clearly state that SM Kleiner gesch. Kreuzer Mainz and SM Kleiner Kreutzer Coln were both sunk. Michael has kindly provided information re the latter two ships.

Robbie

Robbie,

SMS Mainz and Cöln were smong the four Kolberg class light cruisers ("Kleiner Kreuzer" in German) launched in 1908 and 1909. Designed displacement was 4,362 tons, and armament 12 105mm guns plus torpedo tubes. The engineering details varied between ships. The surving Kolberg and Augsburg were the oldest light cruisers to be used throughout the war; previous ships were withdrawn from frontline service by 1917 or 1918. Both were rearmed with six 150mm guns during the war.

I am presuming the correct spelling is SMS Delphin, the German word for dolphin. She was tender of 450 tons displacement launched in 1906.

As for Schneewittchen, the German for "Snow White", was the 87 ton torpedo boat A built at Danzig in 1888/89. By 1899, she was converted to become the Baltic stations yacht and renamed Schneewittchen.

You can see details of these vessels plus more postcards (low res) of Kaiserliche Marine ships at http://www.kaiserliche-marine.de/

More postcards are at http://mitglied.lycos.de/gvsc/kolberg-klasse.html

Also, it's not going to always be true that just because a postcard doesn't say a ship was lost that she survived the war. Ship postcards were very popular throughout the entire period, so a postcard could have been printed before the ship was lost.

Best wishes,

Michael

[robbie]

THanks Michael.

Robbie