Crew of SMS Breslau

Provisions being distributed to the crew of the German light cruiser SMS Breslau, date unknown.

At the beginning of the First World War the Breslau was transferred to the Ottoman Navy and renamed the Midilli. Despite sailing under the Ottoman flag she retained her German crew. During the war the Breslau took part in operations in the Black Sea area until sunk by mines in January 1918 during a raid on the island of Imbros in the Aegean Sea.

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Ottmar Fiebel

Posted: 08 Dec 2010

I would like to get a copy of that photo. My father, Otto Fiebel, was one of the survivors of the Breslau and was held in Malta until the war's end. Being a pipe fitter trained in Hamburg, his duties were in the boiler room. He returned to Germany after the war, found it in ruins with most of his friends dead and headed for the United States. He had three sons, Werner, Ottmar (me) and Gunnar. I am the last of his sons surviving at age 75. Otto died in 1961.