As 1917 entered its final months,
the once proud Russian nation was being torn apart from both the inside and the outside.
A series of dramatic social upheavals were shaking the political structure of
the Russian Republic to its core, and they would soon reach their climax in the October revolution.
Meanwhile, the war raged on, and Germany was not interested in showing leniency to Russia.
Soon, Germany decided to unleash its High Seas Fleet, a force that
had been kept primarily dormant as it was considered inferior to the almighty Royal
Navy but more than powerful enough to devastate the Russian fleets.
During Operation Albion, the High Seas Fleet moved to conquer the West Estonian Archipelago
and trap as many enemy ships as possible within the confines of the Gulf of Riga.
The amphibious operation was a massive success, and most of the islands fell to the Germans.
Amidst the chaos, a small group of Russian warships and three British
submarines were now trapped, encircled by an overwhelmingly larger force.
With Petrograd about to witness the Socialist uprising and the
fires of revolution burning inside the vowels of the trapped Russian warships,
the crews sent a desperate radio communication and prepared to fight to the last man.
The Battle of Moon Sound was about to begin…
Lethal Trap
By October of 1917, the Germans were well aware of the internal turmoil inside Russia and knew that
if they could deliver a powerful enough military blow, they might force them out of the war.
With a large part of their force already engaged against the Western Allies,
Germany realized they could use their naval superiority to overpower the Russian Navy.
As such, the Germans became determined to seize control of the West Estonian Archipelago,
known as Moonsund in Estonia. The group of islands was a crucial strategic region they had already
attempted to conquer unsuccessfully in 1915. However, the times had changed, Russia was weaker
than ever, and the German Empire still commanded some of the most powerful militaries on Earth.
Operation Albion was then concocted, and it aimed to swiftly capture the many islands in
the West Estonian Archipelago and trap as many enemy vessels inside the gulf,
where they would be sitting ducks. With less than a month to prepare,
the operation was launched in September, sweeping through every Russian defense.
Germany successfully captured the archipelago, including the main islands of Saaremaa, Hiiumaa,
and Muhu. They also secured the gaps between the islands,
leaving a Russian naval squadron stranded in the Gulf of Riga.
It included the battleships Grazhdanin and Slava, as well as several cruisers and destroyers.
The Russian authorities had been severely degraded by the social uprisings inside the nation,
and they could not provide the stranded sailors with support as they faced utter annihilation.
A fractured Russian government then called for immediate peace talks, eager to avoid additional
violence. However, their authority floundered, and the sailors had to make their own decisions.
Ultimately, they decided to defend Petrograd and prevent
it from falling into German hands even if they faced unfathomable odds.
Fueled by revolutionary ideals and passionate patriotism,
the sailors aboard the trapped vessels released a last epic radio message: (QUOTE)
“Attacked by superior German forces our fleet will go down in unequal battle. Not one of our ships
will decline the fight. In the hour when the waves of the Baltic are stained with the blood of our
brothers...we raise our voice...Oppressed people of the whole world! Lift the banner of revolt!”
Opposing Forces
The Russian warships were not just completely outnumbered by the German fleet,
but they were also abysmally outclassed, as the few vessels
they had were older and much less capable than their High Seas Fleet counterparts.
The Russian squadron’s most potent vessels were two pre-dreadnought battleships.
By 1917, these types of warships were mostly obsolete as their design advantages
had been entirely undone by the engineering achievements of the mighty HMS Dreadnought,
whose incursion into the maritime warfare scene in 1906 revolutionized warship design forever.
HMS Dreadnought was a groundbreaking battleship that overhauled naval design.
It was equipped with ten powerful 12-inch guns arranged in an “all-big-gun” configuration, and
its innovative steam turbine engines allowed it to reach high speeds that were previously impossible.
These features made Dreadnought significantly more advanced than the battleships that came before it.
As such, all future battleships were known as dreadnoughts,
while the older ships were referred to as pre-dreadnoughts.
The two Russian pre-dreadnoughts were escorted by three cruisers, three gunboats, and 21 destroyers.
Additionally, three British submarines had also been trapped inside the contested Gulf of Riga.
They would fight along the outstripped Russians against a force at least five times stronger.
On the other side of the Gulf, the Germans had ten dreadnought battleships,
one battlecruiser, nine light cruisers, one mine cruiser, six U-boats, and 50 destroyers.
The clashing forces were the precise definition of an uneven encounter.
Even so, the Russians were determined to fight to the end…
The Battle
Germany had previously sunk a Russian warship off the coast of Muhu, otherwise known as Moon island.
Inside the wreck, they had found maps depicting
the areas the Russians had prepared around the entrance to the gulf.
As such, the primary objective for Germany before hunting down the trapped Russian
vessels was to clear the mines so that the bulk of its force could safely operate in the region.
The battle was started by the three British submarines,
which executed a series of torpedo strikes on the German battleships.
Two of the torpedoes missed, but two more struck true and damaged two German dreadnoughts.
Soon after, one of the British submarines was discovered, and she was immediately bombed.
Aware that the mines were the only thing protecting them,
the Russian sailors realized their only shot at crippling the German incursion into the region
was to attack the 3rd M.S.H.F., the German force tasked with clearing the mines in the Suur Strait.
Despite their almost ludicrous numerical disadvantage,
the Russians took the initiative and began delivering a fierce hailstorm of
salvo over the German task force attempting to clear the mines.
The German dreadnoughts König and Kronprinz were then sent forward to contain the Russian attack,
and at 10:17am, König opened fire on the pre-dreadnought
Slava with Kronprinz doing the same on the other Russian battleship Grazhdanin.
Against all odds, the Russians were effective at delaying the
mine-clearing operation led by Germany, but Slava was taking severe damage,
and her fighting capability was decreasing by the minute.
The Germans stopped the attack at 10:30am after a devastating exchange of fire,
but Slava was now damaged beyond repair. Even so, the Russians were determined to
use the impaired ship to their advantage and scuttled the pre-dreadnought in the entrance
to the channel in a desperate attempt to make the passing of German vessels impossible.
Then, with one of their two battleships out of the fight, the Russians continued their intense
effort to shift the tides of the battle and resumed their attacks on the German warships.
Meanwhile, smaller Russian boats scrambled to lay mines in the area as quickly as possible.
Aftershock
Several German ships were also engaged by coastal batteries from the Island of Võilaid,
and as the hours passed, the opposing fleets would clash on several occasions. However, the Russians
were always on the move and stayed as far away from the most prominent German ships as possible.
As the sun fell over the horizon, the Russian forces continued their heroic
attempt to slow down the incursion of the German High Seas Fleet,
scuttling all their damaged boats to create obstacles. Likewise,
the Russian destroyers continued to lay mines, only moving when they came under German fire.
Despite their valiant efforts, the might of the German Navy could not be shaken,
and little by little, they took control of the remaining islands as well as the Suur Strait,
the Matsalu Bay, and the Väike Strait. However, the Russian ships were able to
escape from the besieged gulf through the Suur Strait before the area was utterly overwhelmed.
In the end, the Russians suffered considerable casualties,
lost one pre-dreadnought, had one destroyer sunk, and one British submarine destroyed.
However, it could have been much worse, and they came out to the other side in excellent condition.
Moreover, they could escape thanks to the mines they were dropping as they withdrew.
Meanwhile, the Germans lost seven minesweepers and one torpedo boat,
and had two dreadnoughts and several other ships severely damaged.
With such dramatic results, many consider the battle a victory for the outnumbered
Russian vessels, as they performed way better than the odds indicated.
In addition, although the number of Russian sailors lost is unknown,
the Germans are reported to have suffered more human casualties.
In a heroic show of determination and bravery, the Russian sailors proved to the world they
were a force to be reckoned with and that no power, however large, should underestimate them.
Even so, Operation Albion was a decisive success for Germany.
The Russian defeat triggered the Russian military to cease any further operations, and on
November 7, the Bolsheviks overthrew the interim government, putting Russia out of World War 1.
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