Prince Heinrich Henning von Holtzendorff Friedrich von Ingenohl Hugo von Pohl Reinhard Scheer Franz von Hipper Ludwig von Reuter
Military unit
The High Seas Fleet (German: Hochseeflotte) was the battle fleet of the German Imperial Navy and saw action during the First World War. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet (Heimatflotte) was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to challenge the Royal Navy's predominance. Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German Emperor, championed the fleet as the instrument by which he would seize overseas possessions and make Germany a global power. By concentrating a powerful battle fleet in the North Sea while the Royal Navy was required to disperse its forces around the British Empire, Tirpitz believed Germany could achieve a balance of force that could seriously damage British naval hegemony. This was the heart of Tirpitz's "Risk Theory", which held that Britain would not challenge Germany if the latter's fleet posed such a significant threat to its own.
The primary component of the Fleet was its battleships, typically organized in eight-ship squadrons, though it also contained various other formations, including the I Scouting Group. At its creation in 1907, the High Seas Fleet consisted of two squadrons of battleships, and by 1914, a third squadron had been added. The dreadnought revolution in 1906 greatly affected the composition of the fleet; the twenty-four pre-dreadnoughts in the fleet were rendered obsolete and required replacement. Enough dreadnoughts for two full squadrons were completed by the outbreak of war in mid-1914; the eight most modern pre-dreadnoughts were used to constitute a third squadron. Two additional squadrons of older vessels were mobilized but later disbanded.
The fleet conducted a series of sorties into the North Sea during the war, designed to lure out an isolated portion of the numerically superior British Grand Fleet. These operations frequently used the fast battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group to raid the British coast as the bait for the Royal Navy. These operations culminated in the Battle of Jutland, on 31 May–1 June 1916, where the High Seas Fleet confronted the whole of the Grand Fleet. The battle was inconclusive, but the British won strategically, as it convinced Admiral Reinhard Scheer, the German fleet commander, that even a highly favorable outcome to a fleet action would not secure German victory in the war. Scheer and other leading admirals therefore advised the Kaiser to order a resumption of the unrestricted submarine warfare campaign. The primary responsibility of the High Seas Fleet in 1917 and 1918 was to secure the German naval bases in the North Sea for U-boat operations. Nevertheless, the fleet continued to conduct sorties into the North Sea and detached units for special operations in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Baltic Fleet. Following the German defeat in November 1918, the Allies interned the bulk of the High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow, where it was ultimately scuttled by its crews in June 1919, days before the belligerents signed the Treaty of Versailles.
The HighSeasFleet (German: Hochseeflotte) was the battle fleet of the German Imperial Navy and saw action during the First World War. The formation was...
Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The HighSeasFleet was interned there under the terms of the Armistice while negotiations...
was promoted to succeed Admiral Reinhard Scheer as commander of the HighSeasFleet. After the end of the war in 1918, Hipper retired from the Imperial...
he was promoted to Admiral and given control of the HighSeasFleet. Scheer led the German fleet at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, one...
February 1869 – 18 December 1943) was a German admiral who commanded the HighSeasFleet when it was interned at Scapa Flow in the north of Scotland at the...
The Black SeaFleet (Russian: Черноморский флот, romanized: Chernomorskiy flot) is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and...
1915. He commanded the German HighSeasFleet from February 1915 until January 1916. As the commander of the surface fleet, he was exceedingly cautious...
Kieler Matrosenaufstand) was a major revolt by sailors of the German HighSeasFleet, against the military command in Kiel, on 3 November 1918. The revolt...
was one of two attempts in 1916 by the German HighSeasFleet to engage elements of the British Grand Fleet, following the mixed results of the Battle of...
the HighSeasFleet, where she served for the duration of the conflict. As part of this force, she took part in numerous operations in the North Sea, including...
provoke a decisive battle between the German HighSeasFleet and the British Grand Fleet in the southern North Sea. When the order to prepare for the sortie...
between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's HighSeasFleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer...
and commissioned in May 1913, the fourth battlecruiser built for the HighSeasFleet. She was named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, a Prussian general...
German HighSeasFleet rarely ventured out of its bases at Wilhelmshaven and Kiel in the last two years of the war to engage with the British fleet. Following...
Shipbreaking Co. successfully raised 35 ships of the German Imperial Navy HighSeasFleet that had been scuttled at Gutter Sound, Scapa Flow, in 1919. A tough...
German admiral from Neuwied best known for his command of the German HighSeasFleet at the beginning of World War I. He was the son of a tradesman. He...
Cdr Dashwood Fowler Moir HMS Lapwing: Lt Cdr Alexander Hugh Gye The HighSeasFleet was the main body of the German surface navy, principally based at...
British submarines while on fleet advances. Following the end of the war in 1918, Moltke, along with most of the HighSeasFleet, was interned at Scapa Flow...
Global Information
German Empire
Imperial German Navy