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SMS Goeben
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<p>SMS <i>Goeben</i> was the second of two <a href="/facts/Moltke-class_battlecruiser/nsxClaft"><i>Moltke</i>-class</a> <a href="/facts/Battlecruiser/jMqN0GHa">battlecruisers</a> of the <a href="/facts/Imperial_German_Navy/wNhU6Hlo">Imperial German Navy</a>, launched in 1911 and named after the German <a href="/facts/Franco-Prussian_War/DU9aBkVB">Franco-Prussian War</a> veteran General <a href="/facts/August_Karl_von_Goeben/Fk6tcKB1">August Karl von Goeben</a>. Along with her <a href="/facts/SMS_Moltke/q5hLGxo6">sister ship</a>, <i>Goeben</i> was similar to the previous German battlecruiser design, <a href="/facts/SMS_Von_der_Tann/vf7zAr05"><i>Von der Tann</i></a>, but larger, with increased armor protection and two more main guns in an additional <a href="/facts/Gun_turret/Rn5mhFdW">turret</a>. <i>Goeben</i> and <i>Moltke</i> were significantly larger and better armored than the comparable British <a href="/facts/Indefatigable-class_battlecruiser/JtTqsV5D"><i>Indefatigable</i> class</a>. </p><p>Several months after her commissioning in 1912, <i>Goeben</i>, with the <a href="/facts/Light_cruiser/SMwX2q99">light cruiser</a> <a href="/facts/SMS_Breslau/S61br7K7"><i>Breslau</i></a>, formed the German <a href="/facts/Mediterranean_Division/s5I04aGj">Mediterranean Division</a> and patrolled there during the <a href="/facts/Balkan_Wars/NzG0UlCm">Balkan Wars</a>. After the outbreak of <a href="/facts/World_War_I/vITTUanQ">World War I</a> on 28 July 1914, <i>Goeben</i> and <i>Breslau</i> bombarded French positions in North Africa and then evaded British naval forces in the Mediterranean and reached <a href="/facts/Constantinople/fLcY371n">Constantinople</a>. The two ships were transferred to the <a href="/facts/Ottoman_Empire/6QvfTRsg">Ottoman Empire</a> on 16 August 1914, and <i>Goeben</i> became the flagship of the <a href="/facts/Ottoman_Navy/aonefzyU">Ottoman Navy</a> as <i>Yavuz Sultan Selim</i>, usually shortened to <i>Yavuz</i>. By bombarding Russian facilities in the Black Sea, she brought Turkey into World War I on the German side. The ship operated primarily against Russian forces in the <a href="/facts/Black_Sea/M0rLKvge">Black Sea</a> during the war, including several inconclusive engagements with Russian <a href="/facts/Battleship/PjjTspo5">battleships</a>. She made a sortie into the <a href="/facts/Aegean_Sea/Vx4Gg5CT">Aegean</a> in January 1918 that resulted in the <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Imbros/kYKT9Vss">Battle of Imbros</a>, where <i>Yavuz</i> sank a pair of British <a href="/facts/Monitor_(warship)/6RBBEzY5">monitors</a> but was herself badly damaged by <a href="/facts/Naval_mine/jo9uVY9U">mines</a>. </p><p>In 1936 she was officially renamed TCG <i>Yavuz</i> ("Ship of the Turkish Republic <i>Yavuz</i>"); she carried the remains of <a href="/facts/Mustafa_Kemal_Atat%25C3%25BCrk/RYKRRRst">Mustafa Kemal Atatürk</a> from <a href="/facts/Istanbul/Xo1hzGWH">Istanbul</a> to <a href="/facts/%25C4%25B0zmit/DYG8z54T">İzmit</a> in 1938. <i>Yavuz</i> remained the flagship of the <a href="/facts/Turkish_Navy/DIbgnefr">Turkish Navy</a> until she was decommissioned in 1950. She was scrapped in 1973, after the <a href="/facts/West_Germany/oCydk787">West German</a> government declined an invitation to buy her back from Turkey. She was the last surviving ship built by the Imperial German Navy, and the longest-serving <a href="/facts/Dreadnought/Sf8jhx0s">dreadnought</a>-type ship in any navy. </p>