Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: Did the SMS Gneisenau sink?
In early 1942, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. After reaching Kiel in early February, the ship went into drydock. On the night of 26 February, the British launched an air attack on the ship; one bomb penetrated her armored deck and exploded in the forward ammunition magazine, causing serious damage and a large number of casualties. The repairs necessitated by the damage were so time-consuming that it was determined to rebuild the ship to accommodate the 38cm guns as originally intended. The 28cm guns were removed and used as shore batteries. In 1943, Hitler ordered the cessation of conversion work, and on 27 March 1945, she was sunk as a blockship in Gotenhafen (Gdynia) in German-occupied Poland. She was eventually broken up for scrap in 1951.
Gneisenau was assigned to the German East Asia Squadron based in Tsingtao, China, along with Scharnhorst, in 1910. They served as the core of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee's fleet. After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the two ships, accompanied by three light cruisers and several colliers, sailed across the Pacific Ocean—in the process evading the various Allied naval forces sent to intercept them—before arriving off the southern coast of South America. On 1 November 1914, Gneisenau and the rest of the East Asia Squadron encountered and overpowered a British squadron at the Battle of Coronel. The stinging defeat prompted the British Admiralty to detach two battlecruisers to hunt down and destroy von Spee's flotilla, which they accomplished at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914.
SMS Gneisenau was an armored cruiser of the German navy, part of the two-ship Scharnhorst</i>class. She was named after August von Gneisenau, a Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars. The ship was laid down in 1904 at the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen, launched in June 1906, and completed in March 1908, at a cost of over 19million goldmarks. She was armed with a main battery of eight 21-centimetre (8.3in) guns, had a top speed of 23.6 knots (43.7km/h; 27.2mph), and displaced 12,985 metric tons (12,780 long tons; 14,314 short tons) at full combat load.
"Gneisenau" was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 18 officers and 386 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove one 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by four coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of at . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . As built, "Gneisenau" was equipped with a full ship rig, but this was later reduced.
"Gneisenau" left Zanzibar on 1 April, bound for Melbourne, Australia, where she was to meet the corvette in August, but "Augusta" sank in the Bab-el-Mandeb. "Gneisenau" instead proceeded on to Port Louis on the island of Mauritius. There, she met the cruiser squadron commanded by "Kommodore" Carl Paschen, which included her sister ship and the corvette , the frigate , and the supply ship "Ehrenfels". Paschen had been tasked to take his squadron to East Africa to settle disputes over the German protectorate with the Sultan of Zanzibar, Barghash bin Said, which he accomplished by mid-August. On 18 August, "Bismarck" arrived with Knorr, who replaced Paschen as the squadron commander. Knorr sent "Gneisenau" to Wituland, where Valois informed Bakari that the Sultan of Zanzibar had agreed to recognize the protectorate and stop interfering in the internal affairs of Wituland. After anchoring in Lamu on 28 August, "Gneisenau" sent a contingent ashore, led by the executive officer, Curt von Prittwitz und Gaffron, to hold a parade to celebrate the agreement. Three days later, Valois took three officers and twenty-nine enlisted men to the Witu capital to meet Bakari, returning to the ship on 4 September.
Gneisenau was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, Germany in 1904, under construction number 144. She was launched on 14 June 1906, and commissioned into the fleet nearly two years later on 6 March 1908. The ship cost the German government 19,243,000 goldmarks.[3] The ship had been designed for service with the High Seas Fleet,[4] though it was found to be too weak for service with the battle fleet; instead it was deployed overseas, a role in which it performed well.[5]
"Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" quickly wrecked their British counterparts, while "Leipzig" fired at "Glasgow" without success. At 18:49, "Glasgow" hit "Leipzig", but the shell was a dud and did not explode. "Leipzig" and hit "Glasgow" five times before von Spee ordered "Leipzig" to close with the stricken "Good Hope" and torpedo it. A rain squall obscured the ship, and by the time "Leipzig" reached "Good Hope"s position, the latter had sunk. Unaware of the sinking of "Good Hope", no rescue operations were mounted by "Leipzig"s crew. By 20:00, "Leipzig" encountered "Dresden" in the gathering darkness, and the two initially mistook each other for hostile warships, though they quickly established their identity. "Leipzig" emerged from the battle essentially unscathed, and with no wounded crewmen.
In 1887, "Gneisenau" began her service as a training ship, a role she held for more than a decade. During this period, she was generally occupied with training cruises and individual, squadron, and fleet training. Long-distance cruises frequently alternated between the West Indies and the Mediterranean Sea. While on one such cruise on 16 December 1900, the ship was driven into the mole outside Málaga by heavy winds and destroyed, with the loss of 41 officers and crew. Her wreck proved impossible to salvage, and so she was sold for scrap shortly after the accident.
"Gneisenau" returned to service on 13 April 1887 under the command of "KzS" August von Thomsen, now in the role of a training ship for naval cadets and four-year enlisted volunteers. In late May, she joined the Training Squadron, which was present at the ceremony marking the beginning on construction of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal on 3 June. The squadron took part in the annual fleet training exercises that began on 6 August; during the maneuvers, the squadron filled the role of the II Division of the main fleet. After the exercises concluded the following month, the Training Squadron embarked on a winter cruise to the Mediterranean. During this voyage, the squadron flagship, , caught fire and had to be docked for repairs, during which time "Gneisenau" served as the flagship from 19 November 1887 to 8 January 1888. On the way back to Germany in 1888, the ships stopped at Cape St. Vincent and in Funchal, before arriving back in Wilhelmshaven on 10 April. "Gneisenau" proceeded on to Kiel, where she underwent an overhaul. The ship embarked on individual training exercises after returning to service before rejoining the Training Squadron on 25 June. The following month, the squadron escorted Kaiser Wilhelm II on a tour of Scandinavian ports aboard the ironclad .
Upon returning to Germany, she underwent a short overhaul before joining the ships of III Division during the fleet training exercise in August and September. During the maneuvers she accidentally collided with the torpedo boat , which was badly damaged. "Gneisenau" continued in the exercises until she too was decommissioned for repairs on 30 September. On 3 April 1894, "Gneisenau" embarked on the summer training cruise, which this year just went to Christiana, Norway and concluded with the Kiel Week regatta. The ships thereafter took part in the fleet maneuvers in August and September again as III Division, with "Gneisenau"s commander now "KK" Hermann da Fonseca-Wollheim. On 1 October, "Gneisenau" began the winter training cruise to the Mediterranean, and while in La Valletta, Malta, she met the unprotected cruisers and . "Gneisenau" then visited Souda Bay, Crete from 16 November to 20 December, followed by Smyrna for three weeks. On 18 January 1895, she began the voyage back to Germany, arriving in Kiel on 27 March.
In the meantime, "Glasgow" began to shoot at both "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau", since she could no longer engage the German light cruisers. One of her shells struck "Scharnhorst" in the forecastle but failed to explode. By 18:50, "Monmouth" had been badly damaged by "Gneisenau" and she fell out of line; "Gneisenau" therefore joined "Scharnhorst" in battling "Good Hope". At the same time, "Nürnberg" closed to point-blank range of "Monmouth" and poured shells into her. At 19:23, "Good Hope"s guns fell silent following two large explosions; the German gunners ceased fire shortly thereafter. "Good Hope" disappeared into the darkness. Spee ordered his light cruisers to close with his battered opponents and finish them off with torpedoes, while he took "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" further south to get out of the way.
At the Battle of Papeete on 22 September, Gneisenau and the rest of the East Asia Squadron bombarded the colony.[22] During the bombardment, the French gunboat Zélée was sunk by gunfire from the German ships. Fear of mines in the harbor prevented von Spee from seizing the coal that lay in the harbor.[23] By 12 October, Gneisenau and the rest of the squadron had reached Easter Island. There they were joined by Dresden and Leipzig, which had sailed from American waters.[24] Dresden was stationed in the Caribbean,[13] but had been in San Francisco when von Spee issued the order to consolidate German naval forces in the Pacific.[25] After a week off Easter Island, the ships departed for the Chilean mainland.[24]
"Gneisenau" departed Lamu on 6 September and went to Kismayu, before proceeding on to Zanzibar four days later. In the meantime, Paschen had been instructed to form a second cruiser squadron, which was to consist of his flagship "Stosch", along with "Gneisenau" and "Prinz Adalbert". The squadron was to proceed to the Caroline Islands, which were at the center of a dispute between Germany and Spain. "Gneisenau" first went to Cape Town, arriving on 11 October. While there, she received new orders to proceed instead to what was now German East Africa; on 9 November she was formally reassigned back to Knorr's squadron. "Gneisenau" patrolled the coast of East Africa until 6 March 1886, when Knorr's squadron, at that time consisting of "Gneisenau", "Bismarck", and the corvette , departed for Australia. After reaching the south Pacific, the ships toured Australian ports, New Zealand, Tonga, and Samoa before "Gneisenau" was detached first to the Gazelle Peninsula on the island of New Pomerania to suppress an uprising against German colonial rule. She then went to the Palau Islands, part of the Caroline group, to retrieve a German monument, as Germany had dropped its claim to the islands in favor of Spain. On 25 July, "Gneisenau" began the journey back to Germany, reaching Kiel on 27 September. She was decommissioned there on 14 October.
SMS "Gneisenau" was a built for the German Imperial Navy ("Kaiserliche Marine") in the late 1870s. The ship was named after the Prussian Field Marshal August von Gneisenau. She was the fifth member of the class, which included five other vessels. The "Bismarck"-class corvettes were ordered as part of a major naval construction program in the early 1870s, and she was designed to serve as a fleet scout and on extended tours in Germany's colonial empire. "Gneisenau" was laid down in June 1877, launched in September 1879, and was commissioned into the fleet in October 1880. She was armed with a battery of fourteen guns and had a full ship rig to supplement her steam engine on long cruises abroad.
Gneisenau and Nürnberg, the first two ships in the German line, approached the Falklands on the same morning, with the intention of destroying the wireless transmitter there. Observers aboard Gneisenau spotted the two battlecruisers in the harbor of Port Stanley, and when 30.5cm (12.0in) shells were fired from Canopus, which had been beached as a guard ship, the Germans turned to flee.[34] The Germans took a south-easterly course at 22kn (41km/h; 25mph). Von Spee formed his line with Gneisenau and Nürnberg ahead, Scharnhorst in the center, and Dresden and Leipzig astern.[35] The fast battlecruisers quickly got up steam and sailed out of the harbor to pursue the East Asia Squadron.[34]
The six ships of the "Bismarck" class were ordered in the early 1870s to supplement Germany's fleet of cruising warships, which at that time relied on several ships that were twenty years old. "Gneisenau" and her sister ships were intended to patrol Germany's colonial empire and safeguard German economic interests around the world.
The next set of training exercises began on 6 May, and were conducted in the North Sea and concluded with ceremonies marking the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. On 21 June, "Gneisenau" joined the newly formed IV Division in the Kieler Förde, at the Baltic entrance to the canal, where the ships' bands played the national anthems of each countries' warships as they arrived for the celebration. "Gneisenau" cruised alone in the North Sea in July, and on 14 August joined III Division for the fleet maneuvers, which concluded on 17 September. During the exercises, "Gneisenau" collided with the Danish schooner "Delphin" off Horns Rev on 24 August, and could save only three men from her crew before the latter sank. On 28 September she embarked on the annual winter cruise, which again went to the West Indies. While in Charlotte Amalie, "Gneisenau" and the Danish gunboat helped to suppress a major fire in the port. She visited Havana, Cuba on 21 January 1896, where she, "Stosch", and "Stein" monitored the civil unrest on the island. On 7 February, "Gneisenau" left Cuban waters and arrived back in Kiel on 18 March. "Gneisenau" departed Kiel on 15 May, bound for Bergen for a training cruise. While in Norway, "Gneisenau" was visited by the German imperial family on 19 June and by King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway on 14 July. She returned to Kiel on 18 July, where she prepared for the annual fleet maneuvers in August and September.
By this stage of the battle, "Scharnhorst" had a slight list to port and was about a meter lower in the water. Her third funnel had been shot away. "Gneisenau" was briefly obscured by smoke, which led both battlecruisers to target "Scharnhorst". By 16:00, Spee ordered "Gneisenau" to attempt to escape while he reversed course and attempted to launch torpedoes at his pursuers. The port list had increased significantly by this point and she was well down by the bow, with only of freeboard. At 16:17, the ship finally capsized to port and sank; the British, their attention now focused on "Gneisenau", made no attempt to rescue the crew. All 860 officers and men on board, including Spee, went down with the ship. "Gneisenau", "Leipzig", and "Nürnberg" were also sunk. Only "Dresden" managed to escape, but she was eventually tracked to the Juan Fernandez Islands and sunk. The complete destruction of the squadron killed about 2,200 German sailors and officers, including two of Spee's sons.
"Glasgow" was forced to abandon "Monmouth" after 19:20 when the German light cruisers approached, before fleeing south and meeting with "Canopus". A squall prevented the Germans from discovering "Monmouth", but she eventually capsized and sank at 20:18. More than 1,600 men were killed in the sinking of the two armored cruisers, including Cradock. German losses were negligible. However, the German ships had expended over 40% of their ammunition supply. "Scharnhorst" was hit twice during the engagement, but both shells failed to explode. The second hit passed through her third funnel and did not explode; she was struck by shell splinters that damaged her wireless antenna array. She suffered no casualties and the only German injuries were two slightly wounded men aboard "Gneisenau".
"Gneisenau" was recommissioned for another tour abroad on 5 October 1884 to join the newly-formed West African Cruiser Squadron, which was commanded by "Konteradmiral" (Rear Admiral) Eduard von Knorr aboard his flagship . The ship's new commander was "KzS" Victor Valois. While en route from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven to join the rest of the squadron, "Gneisenau" ran aground off the island of Lolland in heavy fog; she had to be towed free by the ironclad , though she was undamaged in the accident. The squadron left Wilhelmshaven on 30 October, bound for West Africa. While in the Cape Verde islands, Knorr detached "Gneisenau" to Cape Town, where she arrived on 8 January 1885. There, she embarked Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs, who had been appointed consul to Zanzibar, and took him to the island on 28 January. "Gneisenau" then went to the port of Lamu to survey the coast of eastern Africa, particularly the area around Wituland. "Gneisenau"s survey of the area led the German government to instruct Rohlfs to accept the offer of the Witu Sultan, Ahmed ibn Fumo Bakari, to form a protectorate on 27 May.
These two small vessels proved to be insufficient for the task, and so on 13 August, "Gneisenau", the corvette , the aviso , and the gunboat were commissioned to reinforce them. They departed Kiel on 19 August, under the command of "Gneisenau"s captain "KzS" Max von der Goltz, who was made "Kommodore" of the squadron. The ships arrived in Port Said on 21 August, and on 13 September the British defeated 'Urabi's forces at the Battle of Tell El Kebir, effectively ending the rebellion. The German squadron remained in the area until December, when it was disbanded; "Gneisenau" arrived back in Kiel on 24 December, where she was decommissioned on 9 January 1883, though "Nymphe" and "Cyclop" remained in the eastern Mediterranean Sea as a precaution against further unrest.
"Gneisenau" was armed with a battery of fourteen 22-caliber (cal.) quick-firing guns and two 30-cal. guns. She also carried six Hotchkiss revolver cannon.
and the Captain and some crew of the German corvette SMS "Gneisenau", wrecked off Málaga in 1900.
In September 1912, Luce took command of HMS "Glasgow", a light cruiser. and was still in command at the start of the First World War. In November 1914, he took part in the Battle of Coronel in the South Atlantic. During the battle, "Glasgow" together with the cruisers HMS "Good Hope" and HMS "Monmouth" engaged the German East Asia Cruiser Squadron, including the new cruisers SMS "Scharnhorst" and SMS "Gneisenau". The German light cruisers had only guns, which had left "Glasgow" relatively unscathed, but these were now joined by the 8.2-inch guns of "Gneisenau". Luce determined that nothing was to be gained by staying and attempting to fight. It was noticed that each time he fired, the flash of his guns was used by the Germans to aim a new salvo, so he also ceased firing. One compartment of the ship was flooded, but she could still manage . He returned first to "Monmouth", which was now dark but still afloat. Nothing was to be done for the ship, which was sinking slowly but would attempt to beach on the Chilean coast. "Glasgow" turned south and departed. Having inflicted little damage on the enemy, "Glasgow" escaped with moderate damage considering that an estimated 600 shells were fired at her, although the other British cruisers were lost with all hands.
When "Nürnberg" and "Gneisenau" approached the islands early on 8 December, the old battleship "Canopus" opened fire and drove them off. The Germans were surprised to see the warships in the harbor, and Spee decided to retreat. The East Asia Squadron steamed away at in a single file line; "Nürnberg" was the second ship in the line, between "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst". Sturdee ordered his ships to raise steam and pursue the Germans. His battlecruisers caught up and opened fire at 12:50; Spee decided that he could hold off the battlecruisers with "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" to allow the three light cruisers time to escape. In response, Sturdee sent his light cruisers to chase down "Nürnberg", "Dresden", and "Leipzig".