SMS V28
SMS "V28" was a of the Imperial German Navy that served during the First World War. The ship was built by AG Vulcan at Stettin in Prussia (now Szczecin in Poland), and was completed in September 1914. The ship took part in the Battle of Dogger Bank, the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in 1915, and the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. "V28" survived the war after which she was surrendered under the Treaty of Versailles and scrapped in 1922. Design and construction. In 1913, the Imperial German Navy placed orders for 12 high-seas  torpedo boats, with six each ordered from AG Vulcan ("V25"–"V30") and Schichau-Werke ("S31"–"S36"). While the designs built by each shipyard were broadly similar, they differed from each other in detail, and were significantly larger and more capable than the small torpedo boats built for the German Navy in the last two years. "V28" was long overall and at the waterline, with a beam of and a draft of . Displacement was normal and deep load. Three oil-fired water-tube boilers fed steam to 2 sets of AEG-Vulcan steam turbines rated at , giving a speed of . of fuel oil  was carried, giving a range of at . Armament consisted of three 8.8 cm SK L/45 naval guns in single mounts, together with six 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes with two fixed single tubes forward and 2 twin mounts aft. Up to 24 mines could be carried. The ship had a complement of 83 officers and men. "V28" was laid down as yard number 349 at AG Vulcan's Stettin shipyard, was launched on 9 May 1914 and commissioned on 22 September 1914. Service. 1914–1915. "V28" joined the 9th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, serving as the lead boat of the flotilla  in October 1914. On 15 December 1914 the German battlecruiser squadron under the command of Franz von Hipper set out on an attack on the British east coast towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby, with the intent of drawing out parts of the British Grand Fleet where it could be defeated in detail. The 9th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, including "V28", was part of the escort for Hipper's heavy ships. On 14 January 1915, the cruisers and , escorted by the 9th Torpedo boat Flotilla, led by "V28", set out to lay a minefield off the Humber. The weather  was extremely poor, with the torpedo-boats struggling in the heavy seas, which partly extinguished their boiler fires, and after the torpedo boats and collided, causing minor damage, the flotilla commander aboard "V28" ordered the torpedo boats to turn back, leaving the two cruisers to carry on unescorted. The minefield claimed a British trawler, "Windsor", on 22 January. On 21–22 April 1915, "V28" took part in a sortie by the German High Seas Fleet to the Dogger Bank. "V28" sank a single British trawler, the "Cancer", based out of Grimsby, the only German success of the operation. In August 1915 , German naval forces in the Baltic sea, supported by the High Seas Fleet including the 9th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, carried out the Battle of the Gulf of Riga. This was an attempt to enter the Gulf of Riga, destroy Russian naval forces in the Gulf and to mine the northern entrances to the Gulf in order to prevent Russian reinforcements. On 10 August, "V28" escorted the cruiser as the cruiser bombarded Utö island. The two ships encountered five Russian destroyers, with one destroyer hit before they drew away out of range of the German ships. On 20 August, in one  of the last actions of the battle, "V28" took part in an attack on Pernau, with blockships being used to block the entrance to the harbour. "V28", with , and , escorted the blockships to the harbour, engaging shore batteries in the city's citadel. Overall, German forces failed to meet their objectives, with the torpedo boats and and the minesweeper "T46" being sunk, while no major Russian warships were destroyed and the Germans failed to lay the planned minefield. 1916. On 10 February 1916, "V28" took part in a sortie by 25 torpedo boats of the 2nd, 6th and 9th Torpedo -boat Flotillas into the North Sea. The sortie led to an encounter between several German torpedo boats and British minesweepers off the Dogger Bank, which resulted in the British minesweeper being torpedoed and sunk by ships of the 2nd Flotilla. On 24 April 1916, the German battlecruisers of I Scouting Group and the light cruisers of the II Scouting Group set out from Kiel on a mission to bombard the British East-coast towns of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, with the torpedo boats of the 6th and 9th Torpedo Boat Flotillas as escorts, and "V26" as part of the 9th Flotilla . The battleships of the High Seas Fleet were deployed in support, with the hope of destroying isolated elements of the British Forces if they tried to intercept. There was a brief engagement between the German forces and the light cruisers and destroyers of the Harwich Force, which caused the German battlecruisers to break off the bombardment of Lowestoft, but rather than take the chance to destroy the outnumbered British force, the Germans chose to retire. "V28" participated in the Battle of Jutland as leader of the 9th Torpedo boat Flotilla, in support of the German battlecruisers. The 9th Flotilla, including  V28, took part in a torpedo attack on British battlecruisers from about 17:26 CET (16:26 GMT), with "V28" firing two torpedoes. The attack was disrupted by British destroyers, with being immobilised by British destroyer fire and scuttled. None of the German torpedoes found a target. Later during the afternoon, at about 19:00 CET, the 9th Flotilla attempted another torpedo attack against British battlecruisers, which was curtailed by poor visibility and an attack by British destroyers. "V28" launching one torpedo at the battlecruiser and one at the British destroyers, both of which missed. From about 20:15 CET (19:15 GMT), "V28" took  part in a large-scale torpedo attack by the 6th and 9th Torpedo Boat Flotillas on the British fleet in order to cover the outnumbered German battleships' turn away from the British line. The German torpedo boats came under heavy fire from British battleships, with "V28" being hit by a single 6-inch (152 mm) shell on the waterline forward, which reduced her speed to . "V28" launched a single torpedo at the British battle-line (with the torpedo-boat's last torpedo misfiring and remaining in its tube), before turning away. The torpedo, like all those launched in the attack , missed. In addition to "V28", , , , and were all damaged in this attack and was sunk. "V28" was part of the 9th Torpedo Boat Flotilla during the inconclusive Action of 19 August 1916, when the German High Seas Fleet sailed to cover a sortie of the battlecruisers of the 1st Scouting Group. In October 1916, the 3rd and 9th Torpedo Boat Flotillas were ordered to reinforce the German naval forces based in Flanders, in order to disrupt the Dover Barrage, a series of anti submarine minefields and nets that attempted to stop U-boats from operating in the English Channel, and  to directly attack cross-Channel shipping. The twenty torpedo boats of the two flotillas, including "V28", now part of the 18th Half Flotilla of the 9th Flotilla, left Wilhelmshaven on 23 October, reaching Belgium the next day. The 9th Flotilla took part in a large scale raid into the English Channel on the night of 26/27 October 1916, and was assigned the role of attacking Allied shipping while other torpedo boats went after the Dover Barrage, with the 18th Half Flotilla, including "V28", to operate off Calais. The 18th Half Flotilla successfully passed through the British defences of the Dover  Straits, despite twice encountering British warships on the journey through the barrage. Four British destroyers on passage to Dunkirk were spotted, but failed to see the German ships, while the old destroyer spotted the 18th Half Flotilla and challenged them, but the Germans repeated "Flirt"s signal and continued on course, with "Flirt" mistaking the ships for the "Laforey" division and not engaging or reporting the ships. The 18th Half Flotilla did not encounter any of the hoped for merchant ships, but on its return journey clashed with three British destroyers which attempted to pursue, but lost contact after German fire  caused "Mohawk"s rudder to jam. Other German units sank several drifters that were part of the Dover Barrage together with "Flirt" (which was attempting to rescue the crews of the drifters) and the merchant ship , and badly damaged the destroyer . The 9th Flotilla continued to operate from Flanders, attacking shipping off the coast of the Netherlands on 1 November. On the night of 23/24 November, "V28" was one of 13 torpedo boats that took part in an attempt to attack shipping in the Downs. While they clashed briefly with patrolling drifters, they found none of the shipping anchored on the  Downs. On the night of 26/27 November, the 9th Flotilla sortied again, stopping the Dutch merchant ship "Beijerland" and taking her pilot prisoner, and sinking the naval trawler . The torpedo boats and collided during this sortie, badly damaging both ships. The 9th Flotilla (less the two damaged torpedo boats) returned to Germany on 30 November. 1917–1918. By late April 1917, the torpedo boats of the 9th Torpedo Boat Flotilla had been fitted for minesweeping and their crews trained in that task, and became increasingly dedicated to minesweeping. On 3 October 1918, "V28" was on patrol in the North Sea off  Terschelling with , and when "S34" struck a mine and sank. The other three torpedo boats went to rescue the survivors of "S34"s crew, but these rescue operations were observed by the British submarine . "L10" torpedoed and sank "S33", but inadvertently surfaced immediately afterwards and was engaged and sunk by "V28" and "V79"."V28" remained part of the 9th Torpedo Boat Flotilla in November 1918, when the Armistice of 11 November 1918 stopped the fighting between Germany and the Allies. Post-war operations and disposal. By the terms of the Armistice, a large proportion of the Imperial German Navy, including 50  modern torpedo boats, was interned at Scapa Flow in Orkney. "V28" remained in German hands, however, forming part of the "Eisernen Flottille", a volunteer force of torpedo boats remaining in active service and used for security duties, although the ship's torpedo tubes were removed under the terms of the Armistice. On 21 June 1919, the German fleet interned at Scapa scuttled itself, and as a result, Germany was forced to hand over more warships and equipment, including "V26" to the Allies under the Treaty of Versailles to compensate for the ships scuttled at Scapa. The Allies decided to transfer  10 destroyers from the ships surrendered from the German and Austro-Hungarian to each of the French and Italian navies to replace wartime losses. Twenty of the best of the surrendered German torpedo boats, including "V28", were therefore sent to Cherbourg in France to allow France and Italy to make their selection. The unwanted ships would be scrapped by Britain. "V28" was not wanted, and was sold for scrap on 21 October 1920, and was broken up at Portishead in 1922.