Operation Albion

Operation Albion

Operation Albion amphibious operations 10–20 October

Date	29 September-20 October 1917
Location	Baltic Sea Coordinates: 58°30′N 23°0′E / 58.500°N 23.000°E / 58.500; 23.000
Result	German victory

Belligerents

German Empire

Russian Republic

United Kingdom

Commanders and leaders

Strength

1 Battlecruiser
10 Dreadnought battleships
9 Light cruiser
1 Mine cruisers
50 Torpedo boats
6 U-boats
19 Transport ships
6 airships
102 combat aircraft
24,500 Soldiers
8500 Horses
2400 Vehicles
150 Machine guns
54 Guns

12 Mortars and ammunition

2 Pre-dreadnought battleships
2 Cruiser
1 Protected cruiser
3 Gunboats
21 Destroyers
3 subs

about 24,000 soldiers

Casualties and losses

1 Torpedo boat
7 Minesweepers
9 Trawlers and smaller vehicles
many ships damaged by mines
5 aircraft Shot down
156 Dead and 60 wounded (Navy)

54 Killed and 141 wounded (Army)

Battleship Slava lost
Destroyer Grom lost
Submarine HMS C32 lost
20.130 Prisoners
141 Guns (47 heavy)
130 Machine guns

40 aircraft

Eastern Front

1914 East Prussia Galicia Przemyśl Osowiec Vistula River Łódź Limanowa 1915 Bolimów 2nd Masurian Lakes Gorlice-Tarnów Great Retreat Jastków Novogeorgievsk Sventiany 1916 Lake Naroch Lutsk Baranovichi Christmas 1917 July Zborov Riga Albion 1918 Faustschlag Bakhmach Naval warfare Baltic Sea Black Sea

Baltic Sea 1914–1918

British submarine flotilla in the Baltic Åland Islands Gulf of Riga Operation Albion Moon Sound Ice Cruise British campaign in the Baltic (1918–19)

Panorama of the Tagalaht Bay, Saaremaa, Estonia. This was the location of the German landing on 11 October 1917.

The gun turrets of a battleship. A gray zeppelin flies overhead

German battleship Grosser Kurfürst photographed during Operation Albion in October 1917

Operation Albion was the German land and naval operation in September–October 1917 to invade and occupy the West Estonian Archipelago, then part of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia, Russian Republic. The land campaign opened with landings at the Tagalaht, Saaremaa on 11 October 1917, after extensive naval activity to clear mines and subdue coastal artillery batteries. The Germans secured the island by 16 October. The Russian Army evacuated Muhu on 18 October.

After two failed attempts, the Germans managed to land on Hiiumaa on the 19th and captured the island on the following day. The Russian Baltic Fleet had to withdraw from the Suur Strait after major losses (see Battle of Moon Sound). The Germans claimed 20,000 prisoners and 100 guns captured during the Operation Albion from 12 October.

Strategic significance

At the beginning of World War I the islands were of little importance to either Imperial Russia or Germany. However, after the revolutionary turmoil in Russia during 1917, the German high command believed capturing the islands would outflank Russian defences and lay St. Petersburg vulnerable to attack.^[1]

Order of battle

German units

42nd Division
2nd Infanterie Cyclist Brigade
Sonderverband (Special Task force): "Vizeadmiral' Ehrhard Schmidt
- Flagship: Moltke
- III. Geschwader: Vizeadmiral Paul Behncke in command of dreadnought battleships König, Bayern, Grosser Kurfürst, Markgraf, and Kronprinz
- IV. Geschwader: Vizeadmiral Wilhelm Souchon in command of dreadnought battleships Kaiser, Friedrich der Grosse, Kaiserin, Prinzregent Luitpold, and König Albert
- II. Aufklärungsgruppe: Konteradmiral Ludwig von Reuter in command of cruisers Königsberg, Karlsruhe, Danzig, Frankfurt, and Nürnberg
- VI. Aufklärungsgruppe: Konteradmiral Albert Hopman in command of cruisers Kolberg, Strassburg, Augsburg, Nautilus, and Blitz
- Torpedoboats Flagship: Emden
- II Flottille (10 boats)
- VIII Flottille (11 boats)
- VI Flottille (11 boats)
- X Flottille (11 boats)
- 7th Half-Flottille (7 boats)
- U-Flottille Kurland (6 boats)
- Sperrbrechergruppe.
- II Minesweeper Flottille
  - 3rd Half-Flottille
  - 4th Half-Flottille
  - 8th Half-Flottille
- 3rd Such-Half-Flottille
- Such-Flottille of the Baltic
- Netbarrier Unit of the Baltic

Russian units^[2]

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

British units

Submarines: HMS C26, HMS C27, HMS C32

References

Notes

↑ Barrett (2008), p8
↑ Operation Albion: The Attack On The Baltic Islands

Bibliography

Barrett, Michael B. Operation Albion: The German Conquest of the Baltic Islands. Indiana University Press: Bloomington, IN. 2008. ISBN 978-0-253-34969-9

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Operation Albion.

World War I

Home fronts

Theatres

European	Balkans Western Front Eastern Front Italian Front

Middle Eastern	Gallipoli Sinai and Palestine Caucasus Persia Mesopotamia South Arabia

African	South-West East Kamerun Togoland North

Asian and Pacific	Tsingtao German New Guinea and Samoa

At sea	Atlantic U-boat campaign Mediterranean North Sea Baltic Southern Hemisphere Cocos & Keeling Islands Coronel Falkland Islands Más a Tierra

Principal
participants
(people)

Entente powers	Armenia Brazil China French Empire Belgium British Empire Greece Italy Japan Montenegro Portugal Romania Russia Russian Empire Russian Republic Serbia Siam United States

Central Powers	Germany Austria-Hungary Ottoman Empire Bulgaria

Timeline

Pre-War conflicts	Scramble for Africa (1880–1914) Russo-Japanese War (1905) First Moroccan (Tangier) Crisis (1905–06) Agadir Crisis (1911) Italo-Turkish War (1911–12) French conquest of Morocco (1911–12) First Balkan War (1912–13) Second Balkan War (1913)

Prelude	Origins Sarajevo assassination Anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo July Crisis

Autumn 1914	Battle of the Frontiers Battle of Cer First Battle of the Marne Siege of Tsingtao Battle of Tannenberg Battle of Galicia Battle of the Masurian Lakes Battle of Kolubara Battle of Sarikamish Race to the Sea First Battle of Ypres

1915	Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes Second Battle of Ypres Battle of Gallipoli Second Battle of Artois Battles of the Isonzo Great Retreat Second Battle of Champagne Kosovo Offensive Siege of Kut Battle of Loos

1916	Erzurum Offensive Battle of Verdun Lake Naroch Offensive Battle of Asiago Battle of Jutland Battle of the Somme Brusilov Offensive Baranovichi Offensive Battle of Romani Monastir Offensive Battle of Transylvania

1917	Capture of Baghdad First Battle of Gaza Second Battle of Arras Kerensky Offensive Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) Battle of Mărășești Battle of Caporetto Southern Palestine Offensive Battle of Cambrai Armistice of Erzincan

1918	Operation Faustschlag Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Spring Offensive Second Battle of the Marne Battle of Baku Hundred Days Offensive Vardar Offensive Battle of Megiddo Third Transjordan attack Meuse-Argonne Offensive Battle of Vittorio Veneto Battle of Aleppo Armistice of Mudros Armistice of Villa Giusti Armistice with Germany

Other conflicts	Mexican Revolution (1910–20) Somaliland Campaign (1910–20) Libyan resistance movement (1911–43) Maritz Rebellion (1914–15) Zaian War (1914–21) Indo-German Conspiracy (1914–19) Senussi Campaign (1915–16) Volta-Bani War (1915–17) Easter Rising (1916) Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition (1916) Kaocen Revolt (1916–17) Russian Revolution (1917) Finnish Civil War (1918)

Post-War conflicts	Russian Civil War (1917–21) Ukrainian–Soviet War (1917–21) Armenian–Azerbaijani War (1918–20) Georgian–Armenian War (1918) German Revolution (1918–19) Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–20) Hungarian–Romanian War (1918–19) Greater Poland Uprising (1918–19) Estonian War of Independence (1918–20) Latvian War of Independence (1918–20) Lithuanian Wars of Independence (1918–20) Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919) Egyptian Revolution (1919) Polish–Ukrainian War (1918–19) Polish–Soviet War (1919–21) Irish War of Independence (1919–21) Turkish War of Independence Greco-Turkish War (1919–23) Turkish–Armenian War (1920) Iraqi revolt (1920) Polish–Lithuanian War (1920) Vlora War (1920) Franco-Syrian War (1920) Soviet–Georgian War (1921) Irish Civil War (1922–23)

Aspects

Opposition	Pacifism Anti-war movement

Deployment	Schlieffen Plan (German) Plan XVII (French)

Warfare	Military engagements Naval warfare Convoy system Air warfare Cryptography Horse use Poison gas Railways Strategic bombing Technology Trench warfare Total war Christmas truce Last surviving veterans

Civilian impact Atrocities Prisoners	Casualties Economic history 1918 flu pandemic Destruction of Kalisz The Rape of Belgium German occupation of Belgium German occupation of Luxembourg German occupation of northeastern France Ober Ost Ottoman people (Armenian Genocide, Assyrian genocide, Pontic Greek genocide) Blockade of Germany Women (Australia) Popular culture German prisoners of war in the United States

Agreements	Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire Sykes–Picot Agreement Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne French-Armenian Agreement Damascus Protocol Paris Peace Conference Venizelos–Tittoni agreement

Treaties	Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Treaty of Lausanne Treaty of London Treaty of Neuilly Treaty of St. Germain Treaty of Sèvres Treaty of Trianon Treaty of Versailles

Consequences	Aftermath "Fourteen Points" League of Nations World War I memorials Centenary (commemorations)

Category
Portal

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WWI source texts at Wikisource
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WWI news stories at Wikinews

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