August 1915: The Naval Battle of the Gulf of Riga

Russian Destroyer Novik Successfully Engages Enemy Destroyers, E-99 and E-100

The Battle of the Gulf of Riga was an August 1915 naval operation of the German High Seas Fleet against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Riga off the Baltic Sea. The operation's objective was to destroy the Russian naval forces in the Gulf and facilitate the fall of Riga to the German Army by allowing the landing of troops to outflank Russian defenses. Ultimately, however, the German fleet failed to achieve its objective and was forced to return to its bases. Riga remained in Russian hands until a remarkable amphibious assault (Operation Albion) allowed the capture of the Baltic islands and the German Army captured the city of Riga.

Background

Russia's aging Baltic Fleet consisted of five pre-dreadnoughts with four dreadnoughts under construction, six old armoured cruisers, four light or protected cruisers, destroyers, torpedo boats, and a few small submarines.

Although the German forces allocated to Baltic operations were few in number, the Imperial German Navy with its 15 dreadnoughts, five battlecruisers and other modern ships, and the ability to transfer at ease between the North Sea and Baltic via the Kiel Canal, was more than a match for the Russians.

For nearly a decade, therefore, the Russian General Staff had set the Navy the objective of defending the Russian coastline and preventing any landings aimed at capturing Petrograd. A major plank in this strategy was the laying of offensive minefields off the Russian and German coasts. These claimed many victims.

The  German Naval Attack on the Gulf of Riga

As the Germans advanced east and north into Russia, a strong naval force (Vice Adm Schmidt) complete with battleships stood ready on the 8th to break into the Gulf of Riga to destroy Russian naval forces and shipping and to lay mines. First, the minefields of the Irben Straits had to be cleared. Supporting them were eight dreadnoughts, three battlecruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers of the High Sea Fleet under the command of Vice Adm Hipper. The minefields proved a tough obstacle, and after German minesweeping torpedo-boats T-52 and T-58  were sunk by mines, the first attack was broken off.

Russian Battleship Slava

The second attempt was made on the 16th. A third German minesweeper  T-46  was also mined, but further Russian attempts to interfere with minesweeping were stopped when the old battleship Slava was driven off by German dreadnoughts Posen and Nassau, accompanied by three light cruisers and two destroyers. The main support force—the remaining six dreadnoughts and three battlecruisers—stayed in the Baltic. On the night of the 16th/17th, German destroyers V-99 and V-100 broke through the Irben Strait to look for the Slava. In a running battle with Russian destroyers, German V-99  was hit by Novik's gunfire, mined twice, and with severe battle damage and 21 men dead, scuttled on the morning of the 17th.

During the day of the 17th, as minesweeping continued, the Russian battleship Slava was hit three times by shells from dreadnoughts Posen and Nassau, and withdrew into Moon Sound. The Germans eventually cleared a passage through the dense minefields, and on the 19th, passed into the Gulf of Riga to attack Russian shipping. Late that night, a German large torpedo boat, S-31,  was mined and sunk within the Gulf of Riga off the island of Runö.

British Submarine E-1

Earlier on the 19th, out in the Baltic west of Dago, the covering German battlecruiser Moltke was torpedoed in the bow and slightly damaged by British submarine E-1 (Lt-Cdr Laurence) in her first success with the Baltic flotilla. By the 21st, with too many ships sunk and damaged, the Germans called off the attacks, and Riga was saved from bombardment from the sea. The city did not fall to the Germans for another two years.

Sources: The Wartime Memories Project; NavalHistory.net