German & Turkish Submarines at Gallipoli

13th-27th May - Three British Battleships Lost -

On the night of the 12th/13th, the old British battleship "GOLIATH" (built 1900, 13,200 tons, 4 x 12inch guns) is at anchor off Cape Helles, providing close gunfire support for the Allied troops deadlocked on Gallipoli. The German-manned, Turkish torpedo boat "Muavenet" (or "Muavenet-I-Miliet") torpedoes and sends her to the bottom with over 500 seamen.

U21, the first German submarine in the Mediterranean, under the command of Lt-Cdr "Otto" Hersing

The first German U-boat to sail into the Mediterranean is now in the Aegean. Lt-Cdr Hersing in "U-21" left Germany in late April, reaching Cattaro in mid-May. A week later, he headed on for the Dardanelles and the Allied ships laying off Gallipoli, the larger ones protected by net defences against expected submarine attack.

On the 25th, he torpedoes British pre-dreadnought "TRIUMPH" (1904, 12,000 tons, 4 x 10inch guns) while she is firing her guns in support off Gabe Tepe, midway between Suvla Bay and Cape Helles. She capsized in a short time. 3 officers and 75 ratings were lost.

Early in WW1, Kapitan-Lt. Otto Hersing in his SM U-21, ordered the firing of the very first torpedo to be sent on its way in a time of war. Off the Firth of Forth, on Scotland's east coast, ( which he had recently penetrated ) he found the 3,000 ton, British Light Cruiser HMS Pathfinder. His torpedo ran true, and the cruiser sank in minutes, taking 259 out of 296 of the crew with her.

Two days later, on the 27th, Hersing catches the old British battleship "MAJESTIC" (1895, 14,800 tons, 4 x 12inch guns) in the same area and role as "Triumph", and torpedoes her twice.

She turned over and sank within seven minutes, with the loss of 40 crew.

"U-21" later passes through the Dardanelles and reaches Constantinople in early June.

She is joined in the Mediterranean by smaller "UB" and "UC" boats which travel overland to Pola for erection, while larger U-boats later sail directly to the Mediterranean to add to the few Austrian submarines.

Turkish Submarines at Gallipoli

Name:	Class	Builders:	Laid down:	Launched:	Commissioned:
ABDÜLHAMİD	Nordenfeld	Vickers - Armstrong	1885	6 Sep 1886	22 Mar 1888
ABDÜLMECİD	Nordenfeld	Vickers - Armstrong	1885	4 Aug 1887	22 Mar 1888

Dimensions:	30,5 x 3,6 metres
Displacement:	100 tons surfaced, 160 tons dived
Periscope depth:
Maximum depth:	30 metres
Speed, Range:	6 knots, surfaced; 12 miles dived, 150 miles surfaced
Machines:	250 H.P.
Torpedo tubes:	2
Guns:	2 x 35mm
Crew:	5

The French submarine Turquoise was captured and put into Turkish service

On 17 September 1915, during the height of the Gallipoli Campaign, the French submarine TURQUOISE managed to get through the defenses into the Sea of Marmara. On her passage back to her base, she ran aground at Aksaz in Dardanelles. Sighted by the Turkish defence, she come under fire. TURQUOISE was hit by the conning tower as she accidentally surfaced. Unable to dive, she was captured and towed to Istanbul. She was commissioned into the Ottoman Navy as MÜSTECİP ONBAŞI named after the soldier whose shot hit the submarine. Her only use during the war however was to charge the batteries of the German submarines.

Name:	Class	Builders:	Laid down:	Launched:	Commissioned:
MÜSTECİP ONBAŞI (Ex-Turquoise)		Arsenal de Toulon, France	1908	3 Mar 1908	1908

Dimensions:	50 x 4 x 3,6 metres
Displacement:	390 tons surfaced, 447 tons dived
Periscope depth:
Maximum depth:
Speed, Range:	11 knots, surfaced, 8 knots dived; 12 miles dived, 150 miles surfaced
Machines:	600 H.P.
Torpedo tubes:	4 x 18 inch.
Guns:	1 x 9 pdr
Crew:	25