Sinking of the cruiser Bremen

On the evening of 17 December 1915, in the Baltic, a few nautical miles from the German-occupied port of Windau in Courland, the German light cruiser Bremen sank. The torpedo boat V 191 went down with her. The British chronology of the war states that Bremen was sunk by a British submarine. This, however, does not agree with either German or Russian sources. Both ships ran into a minefield (PL) that Russian destroyers had laid there only the day before. The mistake is understandable, since in the autumn British submarines operating from Russian bases had sunk two German cruisers in the Baltic: Prinz Adalbert off Libau and Undine off the coast of Rügen.

An old cruiser in the eastern Baltic

Bremen, launched in 1903 at the AG Weser yard in the city whose name she bore, was the first of a series of seven light cruisers. She displaced about 3,300 tons and was armed mainly with 105 mm guns. She had spent almost ten years before the war on the East American station, looking after German interests in the ports of both Americas. In the spring of 1914 she returned to Germany for a refit, which was completed only in May 1915. In the summer she was sent to the Baltic and joined the reconnaissance forces at Libau operating against the Russian Baltic Fleet. In August she took part in the fighting in the Gulf of Riga, where she covered minesweepers and shelled a Russian gunboat and positions on the island of Ösel. In the autumn she patrolled the waters around Gotland and off the coast of Courland. She was commanded by Korvettenkapitän Axel Walter.

Mines off Windau

The Russians, who after the loss of Libau and Windau could no longer defend the coast of Courland from the land, answered German control of these waters with mines. In December 1915 the modern destroyers Novik, Pobeditel and Zabiyaka laid a field of, according to Russian studies, about 150 mines on the likely routes of German ships north-east of Windau. Polish and Russian sources date this operation to the night of 15/16 December or to 16 December (3 December in the Julian calendar), that is, the day before the disaster.

On 17 December Bremen left Windau on patrol, accompanied by two torpedo boats, V 191 and V 186. A few miles from port, in the waters between Windau and Cape Lyserort, V 191 struck a mine. German lists give the time as 5.10 p.m., other studies say 5.45 p.m. The cruiser stopped and began rescuing survivors, while V 186 tried to take the damaged torpedo boat in tow. The attempt failed and V 191 sank. A dozen or so minutes later, while boats were being lowered from Bremen, the cruiser struck two mines at once. According to German data she sank at about 6.04 p.m., in darkness and in a cold December sea. About 25 men from the torpedo boat were killed.

Losses

The number of dead on Bremen varies from source to source. The German historian Erich Gröner and the studies based on him give 250 killed and 53 saved, who were picked up by V 186. The American historian Paul Halpern writes of 11 officers and 187 men killed and 110 saved. The sources agree that the captain and most of the crew of about 300 were lost. Halpern also places the disaster a day earlier, on 16 December, but most studies, including the German loss lists, give 17 December.

Bremen was one of the most painful losses of the German navy in the Baltic in 1915. After the sinking of two cruisers by British submarines it had already curtailed the sorties of its ships into eastern waters. Now it learnt that Russian mines, laid at night by fast destroyers, could also reach it right outside its own bases. Soon winter and ice brought most operations in the Baltic to a halt until the spring of 1916.