A British submarine flotilla operated in the Baltic Sea for three years during the First World War. [1] The squadron of nine submarines was attached to the Russian Baltic Fleet. The main task of the flotilla was to prevent the import of iron ore from Sweden to Imperial Germany. The success of the flotilla also forced the German Navy in the Baltic to keep to their bases and denied the German High Seas Fleet a training ground. The flotilla was based in Reval (Tallinn), and for most of its career commanded by Captain Francis Cromie. [2]
The flotilla originally consisted of six E-class and five C-class submarines. The smaller C-class submarines reached the Baltic Sea from the White Sea [3] [4] via northern rivers; [5] the long-range E-class submarines managed to enter the German backwaters by passing undetected through the narrow and shallow Danish Straits. Two submarines were lost to stranding and one went missing, now presumed sunk by a mine.
In 1918, the German occupation of Tallinn and the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty forced the flotilla to move to Helsinki, under the protection of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic. The German intervention in the Finnish Civil War and the landing of the 10,000-strong German Baltic Sea Division in Hanko forced the crew to scuttle the eight remaining submarines and the three support ships, Cicero, Emilie and Obsidian, outside Helsinki harbour.
A similar fate awaited the flotilla's Russian counterpart. The Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet had left four Russian Holland type submarines without support in Hanko. The arrival of German troops under Rüdiger von der Goltz on 3 April forced the Russians to hastily scuttle the submarines—including AG 12 and AG 16—in Hanko harbour.
The E-class submarines entered the Baltic Sea through the Danish Straits through waters only 10 metres (33 ft) deep. On 19 August 1915, HMS E13 was stranded in The Sound near Saltholm. In a breach of Danish neutrality, she was destroyed by German torpedo boat G132 , with a loss of 15 of her crew. [6] The other subs managed to enter the Baltic without being intercepted by the Germans. HMS E18 and E19 made the passage to Reval safely in September 1915. [7]
The last four E-class submarines—HMS E1, E8, E9, and E19—were scuttled outside Helsinki, south of the Harmaja Light, in 1918 to prevent capture by German troops who had landed nearby. [11]
Four C-class submarines were sent there in September 1915 by a tortuous route—towed around the North Cape to Archangelsk and taken by barge to Kronstadt, [3] [4] by way of the Dvina and Sukhona rivers to Vologda then via Lake Onega and Lake Ladoga to Petrograd. [5] HMS C26, C27, C32 and C35 reached Saint Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland on 9 September 1916, but due to difficulties with the batteries became fully operational only in the 1917 sealing season. [3]
Three of these boats—HMS C26, C27, and C35—were also scuttled outside Helsinki in 1918.
The crews of the scuttled submarines were evacuated by Soviet ships to Petrograd and by rail to Murmansk, to join with the Allied intervention forces in North Russia, only weeks before hostilities cut railway lines to Murmansk.
Among the officers were future admirals and commanders of the British Submarine Service, Sir Noel Laurence and Sir Max Horton and Vice Admiral Leslie Ashmore. Admiral Aksel Berg also served as Liaison Officer from the Imperial Russian Navy, before going on to become the Deputy Minister of Defence for the Soviet Union (1953–57).
In 1935, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement (AGNA) concluded between Britain and Germany, allowed Germany to increase the size of its navy to one-third the size of the Royal Navy, which would have had the effect of allowing the Kriegsmarine to dominate the Baltic.
Some Finns raised some parts of the scuttled British submarines before World War II but recognized that they were beyond feasible repair and returned them back into the sea. [12] It is believed that the remains were raised in 1953 by the German company Beckedorf Gebryder and used as scrap metal. [11] Wreck of Cicero is believed to have been located in 1995. [13]
The Finnish Navy is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for "Finnish Navy ship", but this is not used in Finnish-language contexts. The Finnish Navy also includes coastal forces and coastal artillery.
The British E-class submarines started out as improved versions of the British D-class submarine. The E class served with the Royal Navy throughout World War I as the backbone of the submarine fleet. The last surviving E class submarines were withdrawn from service by 1922.
The Baltic Fleet is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea.
The British C-class submarines were the last class of petrol engined submarines of the Royal Navy and marked the end of the development of the Holland class in the Royal Navy. Thirty-eight were constructed between 1905 and 1910 and they served through World War I.
The Baltic Sea campaigns were conducted by Axis and Allied naval forces in the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the connected lakes Ladoga and Onega on the Eastern Front of World War II. After early fighting between Polish and German forces, the main combatants were the Kriegsmarine and the Soviet Navy, with Finland supporting the Germans until 1944 and the Soviets thereafter. The Swedish Navy and merchant fleet played important roles, and the British Royal Navy planned Operation Catherine for control of the Baltic Sea and its exit choke point into the North Sea.
Operation Albion was a World War I German air, land and naval operation against the Russian forces in October 1917 to occupy the West Estonian Archipelago. The land campaign opened with German landings at the Tagalaht bay on the island of Saaremaa, on 12 October 1917, after extensive naval operations to clear mines and subdue coastal artillery batteries. The Germans secured the island by 16 October and the Russian army evacuated Muhu on 20 October.
The Holland 602 type submarine, also known as the H-class submarine, was one of the most numerous submarines of World War I. The type was designed by the Electric Boat Co. of the United States, but most of the boats were built abroad: in Canada by the subsidiary of the British Vickers company and in British shipyards.
The Battle of Moon Sound was a naval battle fought between the forces of the German Empire, and the then Russian Republic in the Baltic Sea during Operation Albion from 16 October 1917 until 3 November 1917 during World War I. The German intention was to destroy the Russian forces and occupy the West Estonian Archipelago. The Imperial German Navy had ten battleships, one battlecruiser, nine light cruisers, one mine cruiser, fifty destroyers and six submarines while the Russians had only two pre-dreadnoughts, three cruisers, three gunboats, twenty-one destroyers, and three British submarines.
HMS E18 was an E-class submarine of the Royal Navy, launched in 1915 and lost in the Baltic Sea in May 1916 while operating out of Reval. The exact circumstances surrounding the sinking remain a mystery. The wreck of the submarine was discovered in October 2009.
The AG-16 was an AG-class submarine, designed by the American Holland Torpedo Boat Company/Electric Boat Company, built for the Imperial Russian Navy during World War I. The submarine was fabricated in Canada, shipped to Russia and reassembled for service with the Baltic Fleet. The boat was originally named AG-13, but was redesignated AG-16 after AG-15 sank and later repaired in 1917. She was scuttled by the Russians at Hanko in April 1918.
HMS E1 was a British E-class submarine that was built by Chatham Dockyard and cost £101,700. E1 was laid down on 14 February 1911. She was launched on 9 November 1912 and was commissioned on 6 May 1913. During World War I she was part of the British submarine flotilla in the Baltic.
HMS E19 was an E-class submarine of the Royal Navy, commissioned in 1914 at Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness. During World War I she was part of the British submarine flotilla in the Baltic.
Acting Captain Francis Newton Allen Cromie, CB, DSO was a distinguished British Royal Navy Commander, and the de facto chief of British Intelligence operations in northern Russia for the British Naval Intelligence Division. At the outbreak of World War I he was commanding officer of the British Royal Navy China Hong Kong submarine flotilla, and from 1915 assumed command of the British submarine flotilla in the Baltic. Later during the First World War and Russian Revolution he was naval attaché to the diplomatic staff of the British Embassy in Petrograd, Russia, where he met his death, while defending the British embassy premises.
HMS E8 was a British E-class submarine built at Chatham Dockyard. She was laid down on 30 March 1912 and was commissioned on 18 June 1914. She cost £105,700. During World War I, she was part of the British submarine flotilla in the Baltic.
HMS C26 was one of 38 C-class submarines built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century.
HMS C35 was one of 38 C-class submarines built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century.
HMS C27 was one of 38 C-class submarines built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century.
The American Holland-class submarines, also AG class or A class, were Holland 602 type submarines used by the Imperial Russian and Soviet Navies in the early 20th century. The small submarines participated in the World War I Baltic Sea and Black Sea theatres and a handful of them also saw action during World War II.
The British campaign in the Baltic 1918–1919 was a part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The codename of the Royal Navy campaign was Operation Red Trek. The intervention played a key role in enabling the establishment of the independent states of Estonia and Latvia. It failed to secure the control of Petrograd by White Russian forces, which was one of the main goals of the campaign.
SMS V186 was a S-138-class large torpedo boat of the Imperial German Navy. She was built by the AG Vulcan shipyard at Stettin between 1910 and 1911 and launched on 8 February 1911.