Battle of Åland Islands

The Battle of Aland Islands, or the Battle of Gotland, which occurred in July 1915, was a naval battle of World War I between the German Empire and the Russian Empire, assisted by a submarine of the British Baltic Flotilla. It took place in the Baltic Sea off the shores of Gotland, Sweden, a country neutral in World War I.

The German mine-laying cruiser SMS Albatross (1907)— screened by the armored cruiser SMS Roon, the light cruisers SMS Augsburg and SMS Lübeck, and seven torpedo boats, under Kommodore Johannes von Karpf—was laying mines off the Åland Islands. On the morning of 2 July, they were intercepted by a Russian squadron consisting of the armored cruisers RUSSIAN CRUISER Admiral Makarov and RUSSIAN CRUISER Bayan with the light cruisers RUSSIAN CRUISER Oleg and RUSSIAN CRUISER Bogatyr, under Rear Admiral Mikhail Bakhirev.

In the artillery duel that followed, Albatross was badly damaged and beached on the Swedish coast. In the second phase of the battle, German armoured cruiser Roon and Russian Bayan fought each other at distance without damaging seriously. Reinforcements on both sides sailed to join the engagement. The Russian armored cruiser RUSSIAN CRUISER Rurik joined the fight as the German force retreated and was encountered by the old light cruiser Lübeck, which took her for the destroyer Novik. Lübeck managed to escape in the short but fierce fighting when Roon intercepted Rurik. Both sides duelled each other at far distance, but there was no harm inflicted by any side. As the German armored cruisers SMS Prinz Adalbert (1901) and SMS Prinz Heinrich sailed to reinforce the German squadron, Prinz Adalbert was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS E9 and limped to shore.