The Story Of Battlecruiser TCG Yavuz / SMS Goeben

The beginning of the story : Mediterranean Sea

The keel of SMS Goeben  was  laid on 12.08.1909, at Blohm & Voss dockyard
in Hamburg, Germany. She  launched  on  28.03.1911 and  after approximately
one year, commissioned on 02.07.1912  for German  Imperial  Navy ( known as
Kaiserliche Marine ). Goeben  was  the  fourth  German battlecruiser which was
a  part  of  a  launching  programme continued  till 1911. Her class  was  Moltke
class  battlecruiser  and  was  carrying  the  name  of  General von Goeben. For
this class only the two members, SMS Moltke  and  SMS  Goeben were built &
launched. These  two  warships  were  very  powerful  and  modern  vehicles of
their time.

The heavy, powerful battlecruiser SMS Goeben was one of the faster and most
powerful ships of her date. There were  over  a  thousand  men aboard as crew
members  and  she  was  carrying  34  guns  including  ten  28 cm ( 11 in) main
guns which were capable to send a half ton shell at a distance of 23 kilometers

In the summer of 1914, just  before  the  World  War One, the  Imperial German
Navy had  only  two effective  warships  in  the  Mediterranean Sea. These  two
ships were  SMS Goeben  and  a  light  cruiser, SMS Breslau. These warships
were  operating  under  the  command of Vice Admiral Wilhelm Souchon. As a
light cruiser, SMS Breslau was of  course  smaller  and  less  powerful  warship
compared  to  the  big battlecruiser. She had 370 men aboard and 12 X 4 inch
guns as main armament.

SMS Goeben' s second funnel and a wing turret

On  01.08.1914, Admiral  Wilhelm Souchon, the  fleet  commander, received a
radio  message  from  Germany, informing  him  about that Germany had been
declared war on Russia and soon on France.

After this event, for several months, Admiral Souchon carried  some top secret
instructions which he was to execute in the case of  war  with  France. Then, he
was ordered to an attack on some French military  centers at  Algeria, with  the
battlecruiser Goeben and cruiser Breslau. After the attack, his second mission
was to join the main German High Seas Fleet in the North Atlantic Ocean.