Gary Staff - Battle of the Baltic Islands 1917

On November 3rd the ‘Special Unit’ was dissolved. I am grateful for the undertaking against the Baltic Islands and now hand over command and retire as ‘Chief of the Special Unit’.

Full recognition and thanks to the leaders and men!

Honour and glory to those who lost their lives! They are with God our all merciful Warlord and our beloved Fatherland.

In the meantime, a ‘Government of the Baltic Islands’ was formed, with its seat in Arensburg. Many of the local inhabitants were descended from Germanic people and were not troubled by the appearance of the German army and navy. The first governor was Generalleutnant Freiherr von Seckendorff, who was conveyed from Libau to Arensburg aboard SMS Strassburg on 31 October.

General von Kathen and his staff departed Arensburg aboard Strassburg the following day. On 3 November, Generalleutnant von Estorff and the staff of the 42nd Infantry Division and 131 Regt followed on two transport steamers, whilst the remainder of the division, 17 Regt, departed on the following day. On 7 November, the last part of the II Transport Section, the steamers Batavia and Chemnitz , went to Arensburg, where they finished unloading and departed for Libau on 10 November. At the same time the minesweeping work continued incessantly.

After the conclusion of Operation Albion the chance of a clash with the Russian fleet appeared more remote than ever. Although the Naval Forces of the Riga Gulf had fought determinedly and resolutely, the higher Russian command remained reluctant to commit their heavier forces to a confrontation. Both Admirals Bakhirev and Razvozov had committed themselves to action with the German forces, which was characteristic of officers who were veterans of the Russo-Japanese War, but their warlike resolve was not supported by the Russian high command. Once again political ineptitude had overstepped strategic good sense.

All the German hopes and desires for a successful operation to capture the Baltic Islands had come to fruition. However, a further revolution in Russia served to muddy the waters. On 7/8 November the so-called ‘October Revolution’ (it was still October according to the old Gregorian calendar) began and Lenin’s Bolsheviks seized the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, or Petrograd as it was renamed, and formed a new revolutionary government. A civil war soon broke out across Russia between the ‘Red’ communists and the ‘White’ monarchists. Nevertheless, the Bolsheviks immediately took steps to get Russia out of the war. On 5 December 1917 a preliminary suspension of hostilities between the Central Powers and Russia was announced and on 22 December armistice discussions began in the town of Brest-Litovsk. Some of the terms were concerned with the rights of Poland and the independence of the Baltic States. Just as in 1856, the question of Finland’s autonomy and the independence of the smaller states became a sticking point in negotiations, but, nevertheless, vast quantities of German men and materiel were released to participate in the great offensive on the western front in March 1918.

Captain 2nd Rank Kosinski wrote:

The Moon Sound operation was successfully concluded by the Germans, and this had enormous significance for the further course of the war. The flank of our land army had been turned and was naked, and of necessity what they had to think about was not holding the enemy, but about their own rescue, with the possible occupation of Reval by the enemy, in our rear. The result of our being forced from Moon Sound was our further retreat and the possible abandonment of Reval.

Indeed. But not only was the gateway to Reval open, but also the gateway to the remainder of the Finnish Gulf, including Helsingfors and St Petersburg. At the beginning of February 1918 the Finnish minister Svinhufvud and his Government requested assistance from the German Government in their fight against the communist ‘Reds’, who were dominating the country. The German High Sea Fleet once again detached a ‘Special Unit’ of battleships which successfully landed troops on Aland Island, Hango and finally Helsingfors, the Finnish capital. In this way the Finnish Government was restored, the ‘Reds’ were crushed, and Finland was liberated and finally gained independence from Russia. Without control of the Baltic Islands this operation would not have been possible. Then, in late 1918, the Allies landed troops at Murmansk, in northern Russia, and began marching on St Petersburg. The German response was to again form a ‘Special Unit’ in August, which embarked troops and stood ready in Kiel. The bold objective of this force was the occupation of St Petersburg. All was in readiness to begin the operation and German small cruisers were already conducting reconnaissance deep inside the Finnish Gulf near Kronstadt. However, the deteriorating war situation did not allow this operation to be carried out; the troops were disembarked, and the battleships returned to the North Sea. Likewise, this planned operation was only conceivable because of the capture of the Baltic Islands.

Operation Albion, the conquest of the Baltic Islands, had been an unqualified success. The predictions of Grossadmiral Prinz Heinrich had come true and every objective had been achieved and even surpassed. Not only had it been a tactical and strategic success, perhaps greatly influencing the Russian desire to continue the war, but Operation Albion and subsequent operations in Finland proved that the High Sea Fleet and Imperial Navy were not only successful fighting units, but also a decisive political instrument, able to influence the future of nations and the war in accordance with the Government’s political objectives.

The Imperial Navies, both Russian and German, could indeed be proud of their respective achievements, but these came at a cost. German losses were seven minesweepers, nine trawlers and smaller boats, and one torpedoboat. The German Imperial Navy lost a total of 156 dead and 60 wounded, whilst the Army lost 54 dead and 141 wounded. The Russians and Allies lost the battleship Slava and destroyer Grom , the British submarine C32, and numerous steamers. There were 20,130 Russian prisoners and they surrendered 141 guns and 130 machine guns. Whilst cooperation between the Russian Army and Navy had been almost non existent, the Germans could be very satisfied with the cooperation between their Imperial Navy and Army, which stood them in good stead for subsequent operations. The battle for the Baltic Islands represented a particularly high point in the history of the Kaiserliche Marine.