SMS Gneisenau[a] was an armored cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), part of the two-ship Scharnhorst class. Named for the earlier screw corvette of the same name, the ship was laid down in June 1904 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, launched in June 1906, and commissioned in March 1908. She was armed with a main battery of eight 21 cm (8.3 in) guns, a significant increase in firepower over earlier German armored cruisers, and she had a top speed of 22.5 knots (42 km/h; 26 mph). Gneisenau initially served with the German fleet in I Scouting Group, though her service there was limited owing to the British development of the battlecruiser by 1909, which the less powerful armored cruisers could not effectively combat.
Accordingly, Gneisenau was assigned to the German East Asia Squadron, where she joined her sister ship Scharnhorst. The two cruisers formed the core of the squadron, which included several light cruisers. Over the next four years, Gneisenau patrolled Germany's colonial possessions in Asia and the Pacific Ocean. She also toured foreign ports to show the flag and monitored events in China during the Xinhai Revolution in 1911. Following the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, the East Asia Squadron, under the command of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee, crossed the Pacific to the western coast of South America, stopping for Gneisenau and Scharnhorst to attack French Polynesia in the Bombardment of Papeete in September.
After arriving off the coast of Chile, the East Asia Squadron encountered and defeated a British squadron at the Battle of Coronel; during the action, Gneisenau disabled the British armored cruiser HMS Monmouth, which was then sunk by the German light cruiser Nürnberg. The defeat prompted the British Admiralty to detach two battlecruisers to hunt down and destroy Spee's squadron, which they accomplished at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914. Gneisenau was sunk with heavy loss of life, though 187 of her crew were rescued by the British.
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SMSGneisenau was an armored cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), part of the two-ship Scharnhorst class. Named for the earlier screw...
ships named after August von Gneisenau: SMSGneisenau (1879), iron-hulled three-masted frigate, wrecked in 1900 SMSGneisenau, World War I armoured cruiser...
Hamburg, Germany. She was the lead ship of her class, which included SMSGneisenau. Scharnhorst and her sister were enlarged versions of the preceding...
commanding the German squadron of two armoured cruisers, SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the light cruisers SMS Nürnberg, Dresden and Leipzig, and the colliers...
August Wilhelm Antonius Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau (27 October 1760 – 23 August 1831) was a Prussian field marshal. He was a prominent figure in the...
commanding the armoured cruisers SMSGneisenau and SMS Scharnhorst and three light cruisers SMS Emden, SMS Nürnberg, and SMS Leipzig won the battle by defeating...
in 1905 and 1906, at costs around 17 million marks each. SMS Scharnhorst and SMSGneisenau followed, between 1904 and 1908, and cost an estimated for...
Invincible and Inflexible sank the German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMSGneisenau almost without damage to themselves, despite numerous hits...
occupation and hastened to Samoa with the armored cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMSGneisenau, arriving off Apia on 14 September 1914. He determined however...
"Imperial Captains." On 6 March 1908, Hipper took command of the new cruiser Gneisenau. He was tasked with conducting the shakedown cruise, after which the ship...
a stoker and later as a pump specialist on board the armoured cruiser Gneisenau of the German East-Asia fleet in Qingdao (Tsingtau). He became a contemporary...
Knorr. The squadron was composed of the corvettes SMS Bismarck (flagship), SMSGneisenau, SMS Ariadne, SMS Olga and the steam tender Adler. The squadron departed...
by the Imperial Navy. The class comprised two ships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. They were larger than the Roon class that preceded them; the extra size...
needed] At the Battle of Coronel, the German armored cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMSGneisenau scored a resounding victory over British naval forces from...
to attack British and Allied shipping. He had with him SMS Scharnhorst, SMSGneisenau and SMS Emden and was quickly joined by Nurnberg and two auxiliary...
aboard the cruiser SMSGneisenau. He was promoted to Korvettenkapitän on 16 October 1909. He served as first officer of the battleship SMS Schlesien for a...
in the Battle of Coronel by the German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMSGneisenau. Her entire complement of 900 was lost. 900 Navy 1918 Italy...
von Spee's East Asia Squadron with its armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMSGneisenau. Therefore, it was arranged that the convoy would liaise at...
SMS Emden ("His Majesty's Ship Emden") was the second and final member of the Dresden class of light cruisers built for the German Kaiserliche Marine...
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