page_title: List of avisos of Germany
section_title: Blitz class
hierarchical_section_title: List of avisos of Germany / Blitz class
caption_attribution_description: English: German aviso SMS&#160;Pfeil in 1899
context_page_description: The German navies, beginning with the Prussian Navy in the 1840s, acquired a series of avisos for use in a variety of roles, including as scouts, flagships for gunboat flotillas, and as dispatch vessels. The first such vessel, SMS Preussischer Adler, was a packet steamer requisitioned for service during the First Schleswig War in 1848, though she returned to civilian duty after the war. In 1850, the Prussians ordered a pair of small vessels—the Nix class—from Britain; like Preussicher Adler, these were both paddle steamers. The first screw-driven aviso followed in 1856: the French-built Grille. Another paddle steamer, Loreley, was laid down in 1858, the first vessel of the type built in a German shipyard. Many of these vessels served as yachts for the royal and later imperial family. During the Second Schleswig War, Loreley and Preussischer Adler saw action at the Battles of Jasmind and Heligoland, respectively.
  At the start of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the Prussians purchased Falke and requisitioned Pommerania. Grille engaged French forces in the Baltic during the war, but the rest of the fleet's avisos saw little activity in the conflict.
context_section_description: The Blitz class were the first modern avisos built for the German fleet; they were the first German vessels of any type with steel hulls, and they abandoned traditional sailing rigs. They provided the basis for future developments that ultimately produced the light cruisers of the Gazelle class. The ships were initially armed with a 12.5 cm (4.9 in) gun and a 35 cm (13.8 in) torpedo tube, though their armament was improved in the early 1890s, including the addition of two more torpedo tubes.
  The ships had extensive careers, remaining in active service for more than thirty years. Blitz spent much of her career as a flotilla leader for torpedo boats, while Pfeil served with the training squadron and the main fleet. Pfeil was deployed to German East Africa in 1889 to suppress the Abushiri revolt, returning to Germany in 1890. Throughout the 1890s, the ships served with the fleet, conducting a yearly routine of exercises and training cruises. They served in a variety of additional roles during the 1890s and 1900s, including as tenders, fishery protection vessels, and training ships. They operated as dedicated tenders to the battle squadrons of the High Seas Fleet by the mid-1900s, filling that role through the start of World War I. Blitz took part in Operation Albion in the Baltic Sea in late 1917 and Pfeil was later used as a training ship for U-boat crews. Both ships were discarded in the early 1920s.
caption: Pfeil in 1899
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