Operation Albion

WWI German capture of western Estonia
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58°30′N 23°0′E / 58.500°N 23.000°E / 58.500; 23.000Result German victoryBelligerents  Germany Russian Republic
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland United KingdomCommanders and leaders German Empire Oskar von Hutier
German Empire Hugo von Kathen
German Empire Ludwig von Estorff
German Empire Ehrhard Schmidt Russia Mikhail Bakhirev
Russia Vasily AltvaterStrength 1 battlecruiser
10 dreadnought battleships
9 light cruisers
1 mine cruiser
50 torpedo boats
6 U-boats
19 transports

6 airships
102 combat aircraft

24,500 soldiers
8,500 horses
2,400 vehicles
150 machine guns
54 guns
12 mortars 2 pre-dreadnought battleships
2 cruisers
1 protected cruiser
21 destroyers
3 gunboats
3 submarines

24,000 soldiersCasualties and losses 1 torpedo boat sunk (S 64)
7 minesweepers destroyed
9 trawlers & auxiliary vessels destroyed
5 aircraft shot down
156 killed
60 wounded (Navy)
54 killed
141 wounded (Army) 1 battleship sunk (Slava)
1 destroyer sunk (Grom)
1 submarine destroyed (HMS C32)
Unknown dead and wounded
20,130 captured
141 guns lost (47 heavy guns)
130 machine guns lost

40 aircraft lost
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Baltic Sea 1914–1918
Panorama of the Tagalaht Bay, Saaremaa, Estonia. This was the location of the German landing on 12 October 1917.
The gun turrets of a battleship. A grey dirigible flies overhead.
German battleship Grosser Kurfürst photographed during Operation Albion in October 1917. Above is the Schütte-Lanz company naval airship S.L.20 (Type 'f').

Operation Albion was a World War I German air, land and naval operation against the Russian forces in October 1917 to occupy the West Estonian Archipelago. The land campaign opened with German landings at the Tagalaht (Tagga) bay on the island of Saaremaa (Ösel), on 12 October, after extensive naval operations to clear mines and subdue coastal artillery batteries. German forces secured the island by 16 October and the Russian army evacuated Muhu (Moon) on 20 October.

After two failed attempts, the German army landed on Hiiumaa (Dagö) on 12 October, capturing the island on the following day. The Russian Baltic Fleet had to withdraw from the Suur Strait after its losses at the Battle of Moon Sound. The Germans claimed 20,000 prisoners and 100 guns captured during Operation Albion from 12 to 20 October 1917.

Strategic significance

At the beginning of World War I the islands were of little importance to the Russian Empire or Germany. After the revolutionary turmoil in Russia during the early part of 1917, the German high command believed capturing the islands would outflank Russian defences and lay Petrograd (St. Petersburg) vulnerable to attack.[1][2]

Order of battle

German units

  • Naval Forces[3] (Sonderverband): Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt
    • Battlecruiser: Moltke (flagship)
    • III Battle Squadron (III. Geschwader) (Vice Admiral Paul Behncke) dreadnought battleships: König (flagship), Bayern, Grosser Kurfürst, Kronprinz, Markgraf
    • IV Battle Squadron (IV. Geschwader) (Vice Admiral Wilhelm Souchon) dreadnought battleships: Friedrich der Grosse (flagship), König Albert, Kaiserin, Prinzregent Luitpold, Kaiser
    • II Cruiser Squadron (II. Aufklärungsgruppe) (Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter) light cruisers: Königsberg (flagship), Karlsruhe, Nürnberg, Frankfurt, Danzig
    • IV Cruiser Squadron (VI. Aufklärungsgruppe) (Rear Admiral Albert Hopman) light cruisers: Kolberg (flagship), Strassburg, Augsburg; minelayer: Nautilus; tender: Blitz
    • Torpedo Boats (Commodore Paul Heinrich) cruiser: Emden (flagship)
      • II Torpedo Boat Flotilla: B 98; 3rd Half-Flotilla: G 101, V 100, G 103, G 104; 4th Half-Flotilla: B 109, B 110, B 111, B 97, B 112
      • VI Torpedo Boat Flotilla: V 69; 12th Half-Flotilla: V 43, S 50, V 44, V 45, V 46; 13th Half-Flotilla: V 82, S 64 , S 61, S 63, V 74
      • VIII Torpedo Boat Flotilla: V 180; 15th Half-Flotilla: V 183, V 185, V 181, V 184, V 182; 16th Half-Flotilla: S 176, S 178, G 174, S 179, V 186
      • X Torpedo Boat Flotilla:: S 56; 19th Half-Flotilla: T 170, T 169, T 172, G 175, T 165; 20th Half-Flotilla: V 78, V 77, G 89, S 65, S 66
      • VII Half-Flotilla: T 154, T 158, T 157, T 151, T 160, T 145, T 140, T 139
    • Courland Submarine Flotilla (U-BootsFlottille Kurland): UC 56, UC 57, UC 58, UC 59, UC 60, UC 78
    • Minesweepers (Minensuchdienst)
      • II Minesweeper Flotilla: A 62; 3rd Half-Flotilla: T 136, M 67, M 68, M 75, M 76, M 77, T 59, T 65, T 68, T 82, T 85; 4th Half-Flotilla: T 104, T 53, T 54, T 55, T 56, T 60, T 61, T 62, T 66, T 67, T 69; 8th Half-Flotilla: M 64, M 11, M 31, M 32, M 39, A 35
      • III Half-Flotilla of the Search Flotilla: T 141, 15 motor-boats
      • Mine-Searcher Group of the Outpost Half-Flotilla East: 6 fishing vessels
      • I Minesweeper Division (Riga): 11 motor-boats
      • II Minesweeper Division: 12 motor-boats
      • III Minesweeper Division: 12 motor-boats
      • IV Minesweeper Division: 10 motor-boats; outpost boat O 2
      • Mine-barrage Breaker group (Sperrbrechergruppe): Rio Parbo, Lothar, Schwaben, Elass
    • Anti-Submarine Forces (U-Bootsabwehr)
      • Baltic Search Flotilla: T 144; 1st half-flotilla: T 142, A 32, A 28, A 30, 32 fishing vessels; 2nd half-flotilla: T 130, A 31, A 27, A 29, 24 fishing vessels
  • Ground Forces: Generalleutnant Ludwig von Estorff
    • 42nd Division
    • 2nd Infanterie Cyclist Brigade

Russian units

  • 425th, 426th and 472nd Infantry Regiments
  • Battleships: Tsesarevich, Slava
  • Armored cruisers: Admiral Makarov, Bayan
  • Destroyers: Desna, Novik, Pobeditel, Zabijaka, Grom, Konstantin
  • Gunboats: Chivinetz, Grozyashchi
  • Blockship: Lavwija
  • Minelayer: Pripyat[4]

British units

  • Submarines: HMS C26, HMS C27, HMS C32

See also

Citations and references

  1. ^ Barrett 2008, p. 8.
  2. ^ Buttar, Prit (2017). Russia's Last Gasp: The Eastern Front 1916–17. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 217–225. ISBN 9781472824899.
  3. ^ Ernst Freiherr von Gagern, Der Krieg zur See 1914–1918: Der Krieg in der Ostsee Bd.3 (Frankfurt: Mittler & Sohn, 1964), Beilage 3.
  4. ^ Operation Albion: The Attack On The Baltic Islands

Cited sources

  • Barrett, M. B. (2008). Operation Albion: The German Conquest of the Baltic Islands. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34969-9. Retrieved 24 March 2017.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Operation Albion.
  • 1 October entries on this site summarise Operation Albion
  • Detailed account of Operation Albion
  • "Oesel Genommen", film footage of the invasion in 1917 from the German Federal Archives
  • Gregory Thiele "Operation Albion and Joint Amphibious Doctrine" Joint Forces Quarterly October 2010
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