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NAVAL RISE

Born in Korkenhagen in the Prussian province of Pomerania (now Budzieszowce, Poland) on November 24, 1863, Leberecht Maaß entered the Kaiserliche Marine at the age of nineteen. He commanded a torpedo boat from 1893 to 1895 and a squadron from 1898 to 1901. Between 1903 and 1906, Maaß was torpedo boat department chief.

He later served as director of the Naval School (1906-1908) and promoted to captain in March 1908. Maaß then commanded the cruiser Freya (from April 1908 to March 1909), the armored cruiser Scharnhorst (from March 1909 to June 1910), and the old battleship Weissenburg (from August to September 1910).

In October 1910, Maaß was promoted to Kommandeur. On December 9, 1913, he was promoted again to Konteradmiral (rear admiral), flying his flag on the light cruiser Cöln.

At the start of the First World War, Maaß served as leader of the torpedo boats and commander of the second scouting squadron.

BATTLE OF THE HELIGOLAND BIGHT

On August 28, 1914, the British Royal Navy’s Harwich Force (commanded by Commodore Sir Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt) made a raid on German ships near the naval base at Heligoland. Tyrwhitt’s fleet consisted of two light cruisers (the Arethusa and Fearless) and thirty-one destroyers. Providing distant cover were the battlecruisers New Zealand and Invincible of Cruiser Force K under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Archibald Gordon Moore.

In the early morning hours, the Harwich Force encountered enemy torpedo boats on patrol west of Heligoland. The Germans quickly dispatched the light cruisers Frauenlob and Stettin to the scene. They were joined shortly afterwards by three more light cruisers out of Wilhelmshaven: Rear Admiral Maaß’s flagship Cöln, the Ariadne, and the Strassburg. Yet another light cruiser entered the fight, the Mainz out of Emden.

Tyrwhitt’s Arethusa was severely damaged by the Frauenlob, but the German cruiser also suffered heavy hits and retreated to Heligoland. Tyrwhitt soon received support from Commodore Sir William Edmund Goodenough’s squadron of six modern Town-class light cruisers: the Southampton, Birmingham, Falmouth, Liverpool, Lowestoft and Nottingham. In the fog and smoke, the Mainz found herself between Tyrwhitt’s and Goodenough’s forces and was sunk by the tandem after a prolonged battle.

Called for assistance by Tyrwhitt, Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty, whose First Battlecruiser Squadron of the Lion, Queen Mary and Princess Royal had by then joined Moore’s ships, arrived in the Heligoland Bight just after mid-day. His flotilla sank the hopelessly outgunned light cruisers Cöln and Ariadne. Leberecht Maaß perished with the former ship. He was fifty years old.

AFTERMATH

Germany lost four boats: the light cruisers Cöln, Mainz, and Ariadne along with one destroyer, the V-187. The light cruisers Frauenlob, Strassburg, and Stettin had been damaged… and they returned to base with casualties.

The Imperial German Navy lost 1,242 men (with 712 of them killed), including the flotilla admiral, destroyer commodore, and Komteradmiral Leberecht Maaß.

The Royal Navy took 336 prisoners; 224 German sailors were rescued by Commodore Keyes on the destroyer Lurcher and brought to England. One of the prisoners was the son of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz!

Surprisingly, the British had lost no ships! To add to the amazement, casualties did not exceed thirty-five men killed and around forty wounded.

The Kaiser’s beloved navy had been severely damaged in its opening battle of the war. To preserve his ships, he determined that the fleet should “hold itself back and avoid actions which can lead to greater losses”. The Chief of the German Naval Staff (Admiral Hugo von Pohl) wired the Commander of the High Seas Fleet (Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl) that, “in his anxiety to preserve the fleet [William] … wished you to wire for his consent before entering a decisive action”.

REQUIEM

In honor of the fallen Konteradmiral, the post-Versailles German Navy named one of its new destroyers the Z1 Leberecht Maaß in 1935.