Brummer Class Cruiser - Service

Service

After their commissioning, Brummer and Bremse served with the High Seas Fleet, including on a sortie into the North Sea in October 1916. The ships laid a minefield off Norderney in January 1917 and guarded minesweepers between March and May that year. In October 1917, Admiral Reinhard Scheer sent the two ships to attack a British convoy to Norway to divert forces protecting convoys in the Atlantic. Scheer chose Brummer and Bremse because of their high speed and large radius of action. Shortly after dawn on 17 October, the two cruisers attacked the convoy, which consisted of twelve merchant ships, two destroyers, and two armed trawlers. The German ships quickly sank the escorting destroyers and nine of the twelve cargo vessels. The British Admiralty was not informed of the attack until Brummer and Bremse were safely steaming back to Germany.

Along with the most modern units of the High Seas Fleet, Brummer and Bremse were included in the ships specified for internment Scapa Flow by the victorious Allied powers. The ships steamed out of Germany on 21 November 1918 in single file, commanded by Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter. Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919, and so he ordered the ships to be sunk at the next opportunity. On the morning of 21 June, the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to scuttle his ships. Brummer sank at 13:05; she was never raised for scrapping and remains on the bottom of Scapa Flow. Bremse sank at 14:30 and was ultimately raised on 27 November 1929 and broken up for scrap in 1932–1933 in Lyness.