A squadron of the German Imperial Navy under the eye of a Zeppelin off the North Sea island and port of Helgoland.
Deutscher Geschwader vor HelgolandGerman squadron off HeligolandLogo, bottom left: M Dieterle, Kielbottom right: PH 125Handwritten: 1915Reverse:Verlag: M Dieterle, Kiel.
"[Admiral Hipper's] tragic hesitation at the moment of greatest danger is apparent in his inept handling of the men and his total misjudgment of the situation. Although by November 1 it was obvious that the men were out of control, Hipper informed Scheer at the Seekriegsleitung that he saw no reason why the situation should be viewed pessimistically. Aghast at this calm amidst the disaster that was overtaking the fleet, the Seekriegsleitung curtly replied, 'We cannot concur with this view. It has been established that a military operation has been ruined by the illegal will of [certain] elements within the crews.' . . .Totally lacking in defensive measures, Kiel lay at the mercy of the rebellious sailors and stokers of the Third Squadron who, from the moment they landed in the city, were determined not to allow their recently arrested comrades to be martyred. . . . At a meeting on November 1 at the Trade Union Hall attended by 250 men from the Third Squadron, it was decided to form a committee to negotiate the prisoners' immediate release. At the same time it was agreed to convene another meeting for the following day in the event that those demands were not met."
At the end of October 1918, with Germany clearly losing the war, German admirals and other naval officers planned a suicidal attack by the High Seas Fleet on the Royal Navy, the 'military operation' referred to in the first paragraph, itself an illegal mutiny by the naval officer corps. The men who 'ruined' the plan were sailors and coal stokers who refused to go ahead with the mission. Many of them were arrested and transported from the North Sea port of Cuxhaven to the Baltic port of Kiel. The Seekriegsleitung was the Maritime Warfare Command, formed in August 1918, and headed by Admiral Reinhard Scheer, the Chief of the German Admiralty Staff. He had commanded the German High Seas Fleet in the Battle of Jutland where Rear Admiral Franz Hipper had commanded a smaller battle squadron.
German Naval Mutinies of World War One by Daniel Horn, pp. 226, 236, copyright © 1969 by Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, publisher: Rutgers University Press, publication date: 1969
1918-11-01, 1918, November, Hipper, Franz Hipper, Reinhard Scheer, Scheer, High Seas Fleet, German High Seas Fleet
