Talk:SMS Hela

Citation
There's currently a citation to The Battle of Heligoland Bight without a page number (this specifically). The page in question is only partially viewable in Google Books; the page number is not. The book is available in my university's library; I should be able to get to it on Monday to find what page the information is on. Parsecboy (talk) 02:41, 7 March 2010 (UTC)


 * This has been fixed. Parsecboy (talk) 15:26, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Type
"Hela was lightly armed for a light cruiser", but we were told she was an aviso. I would simply re-word, but am not sure if she was lightly armed for an aviso. Srnec (talk) 17:40, 12 August 2017 (UTC)
 * She was reclassified as a light cruiser in 1899 - perhaps the easiest solution would be to move the sentence about her armament to after that line. Parsecboy (talk) 17:54, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

Max elevation and range
The text says:
 * At the maximum elevation of 30°, the guns could hit targets out to 10,500 m (11,480 yards).

The German Wikipedia mantions a 20° max elevation with a range of only 6900 m. As for NavWeaps it depends on the mounting and on the type of the projectile. Which might be right here? --Andreas (talk) 21:55, 2 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Good catch, that needs to be fixed - the 30 degree elevation was for the Ubts mounting, not the MPL C/89 mount Hela would have used. Parsecboy (talk) 14:47, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Fixed now - at some point I'll get around to overhauling this article, and Navweaps will be replaced with better sources. Parsecboy (talk) 15:34, 10 July 2018 (UTC)

Fleet training, 1902
On 31 August 1902, the annual fleet maneuvers began. The first portion of the exercise positioned Germany in a naval war against a powerful enemy that had superior forces in the North and Baltic Seas. A German squadron, consisting of the coastal defense ships SMS Hagen, SMS Heimdall, and SMS Hildebrand and a division of torpedo boats were trapped in the Kattegat by a superior enemy unit in the North Sea. The German squadron was tasked with returning to Kiel in the Baltic, where it would return to Wilhelmshaven via the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to rejoin the rest of the fleet. Hela, along with three Brandenburg-class battleships and the cruisers SMS Nymphe and SMS Amazone (1900), was positioned in one of the three main channels from the Kattegat to Kiel to act as an opposing force. Two other battle squadrons were positioned to block the advance of the isolated German squadron.

On the morning of 2 September, the operation commenced. Hela was tasked with sweeping the numerous smaller channels, inlets, and bays in the squadron's area of responsibility. At 06:00 that morning, the commander of the German squadron decided to take his ships through the channel to which Hela was assigned. The "hostile" torpedo-boat screen sighted the German flotilla, but a dense fog precluded effective pursuit by the battleships. However, Hela, the other two cruisers, and the torpedo boats were detached to engage the German torpedo-boat screen. Hela and the other ships quickly "destroyed" several of the German torpedo boats. This prompted the German squadron to retreat northward, with Hela and the other ships in pursuit. The German squadron was chased back through the Kattegat before the exercise was called off. On the night of 3 September, the entire fleet anchored off Læsø island to give the crews a rest.

The following day, 4 September, the exercise resumed. The German squadron was reinforced by several battleships and the armored cruiser SMS Prinz Heinrich; Hela was again assigned to the hostile force. The German flotilla was ordered to sail into the North Sea and attempt to reach the safety of the island fortress of Helgoland. Hela was assigned to a screening force that was intended to intercept the German squadron so it could be brought to battle. A short engagement between the hostile screen and Prinz Heinrich ensued, during which Prinz Heinrich damaged the protected cruisers SMS Freya and SMS Victoria Louise. A torpedo boat attack on the German squadron followed in the early hours of 5 September. The hostile force was unable to prevent the escape of the German squadron, however, which reached Helgoland by 12:00.

Hela and the rest of the fleet anchored off Helgoland on 8–11 September. During the day the ships conducted training with steam tactics. On 11 September the ships returned to Wilhelmshaven where on the following two days the ships replenished their coal supplies. On 14 September the final operation of the annual maneuvers began. The situation specified that the naval war had gone badly for Germany; only four battleships were still in service, along with Hela, Freya, and a division of torpedo boats. The ships were to be stationed in the mouth of the Elbe river to protect the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal and access to Hamburg. On 15 September, the hostile force blockaded the Elbe, along with other rivers and harbors on the North Sea. The torpedo boats, which had been scattered in the previous engagement, were tracked and destroyed by the hostile force. The hostile battleship squadron steamed to the mouth of the Elbe, where Hela, Freya, and the remaining torpedo boats were stationed as lookouts. Nothing happened during the day of 16 September, but that night several German torpedo boats managed to destroy one of the blockading cruisers and badly damage another. The following day, Prinz Heinrich engaged Hela and Freya briefly before forcing the two ships to retreat. The weather began to storm so the operation was postponed until the following day. That morning, the hostile fleet forced its way into the Elbe, past the fortifications at the mouth of the river. The German flotilla made a desperate attack which resulted in the sinking of two of the hostile battleships. The hostile force, however, ultimately overwhelmed the outnumbered German ships and the exercise ended with their victory.



Holborn
The Internet archive link on points to a different book, (i.e. the 1648–1840 volume by the same author).Nigel Ish (talk) 18:49, 8 March 2021 (UTC)