![]() In January 1915 she laid a minefield in company with Oleg and Bogatyr between Kiel and the Mecklenburg coast that damaged the German light cruisers SMS Augsburg and SMS Gazelle. She was modified to serve as a fast minelayer with a capacity of one hundred naval mines before the war. Rossia served as the flagship of the 2nd Cruiser Brigade of the Baltic Fleet during World War I. A careful investigation failed to determine whether the cause of the disaster was accident or sabotage. One notable disaster took place under Kolchak’s watch: the dreadnought Imperatritsa Mariya exploded in port at Sevastopol on 7 October 1916. In 1916, in a model combined Army-Navy assault, the Russian Black Sea fleet aided the Russian army’s capture of the Ottoman city of Trebizond (modern Trabzon). Because there was no railroad linking the coal mines of eastern Turkey with Constantinople, the Russian fleet’s attacks on these Turkish coal ships caused the Ottoman government much hardship. Kolchak’s fleet was successful at sinking Turkish colliers. He also was tasked with countering the U-boat threat and to plan the invasion of the Bosphorus (never carried out). Kolchak’s primary mission was to support General Yudenich in his operations against the Ottoman Empire. He was promoted to vice-admiral in August 1916, the youngest man at that rank, and was made commander of the Black Sea Fleet, replacing Admiral Eberhart. Kolchak, feeling that the man responsible for planning operations should also take part in their execution, was always on board those ships which carried out the operations and at times took direct command of the destroyer flotillas. During the autumn and winter of 1914–1915, Russian destroyers and cruisers started a series of dangerous night operations, laying mines at the approaches to Kiel and Danzig. Commanding Admiral Essen was not satisfied to remain on the defensive and ordered Kolchak to prepare a scheme for attacking the approaches of the German naval bases. The onset of the First World War found him on the flagship Pogranichnik, where Kolchak oversaw the laying of extensive coastal defensive minefields and commanded the naval forces in the Gulf of Riga. Imperial Russian battleship Slava after modernization. The Imperial Russian destroyer Pogranichnik. ![]()
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