 A 1902 lithograph of Iltis
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | SMS Loreley |
| Succeeded by | SMS Meteor |
| Built | 1897–1903 |
| In commission | 1898–1926 |
| Completed | 6 |
| Lost | 5 |
| Scrapped | 1 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Gunboat |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 65.2 m (213 ft 11 in) o/a |
| Beam | 9.1 m (29 ft 10 in) |
| Draft | 3.59 m (11 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph) |
| Range | 3,080 nautical miles (5,700 km; 3,540 mi) at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament | |
| Armor | Conning tower: 8 mm (0.31 in) |
| Notes | [a] |
The Iltis class was a group of six gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s. The class comprised Iltis, the lead ship, Jaguar, Tiger, Luchs, Panther, and Eber. The ships were built to modernize the German gunboat force that was used to patrol the German colonial empire. They were ordered in three groups of two ships, each pair incorporating design improvements. The first pair, Iltis and Jaguar, were armed with a main battery of four 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns and had a pronounced ram bow. The next pair, Tiger and Luchs, received two 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns instead of the 8.8 cm weapons, and adopted a straight stem. Panther and Eber were similar, but had modifications to their hull form to improve handling.
The first four members of the class were deployed to China as part of the East Asia Squadron after entering service, which was based in Qingdao. They were part of the Eight Nation Alliance that responded to the Boxer Uprising in China in 1900–1901, and Iltis saw significant action at the Battle of the Taku Forts where she led the Allied attack on the forts. The other members of the class were used to guard Europeans in various ports or patrol the region and did not take part in any fighting. Their subsequent careers were largely uneventful, apart from Jaguar's suppression of uprisings in German colonial holdings in the central Pacific in 1908–1909. At the start of World War I, Iltis, Tiger, and Luchs were disarmed to convert merchant ships into auxiliary cruisers, while Jaguar remained in service and fought in the Siege of Qingdao. All four ships were scuttled over the course of the siege, between September and November.
Panther and Eber were the only members of the class not to serve in East Asian waters. Panther was sent to the American Station, where she responded to the Markomannia incident, sinking the Haitian gunboat Crête-à-Pierrot. She next saw action in the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903, including the bombardment of Fort San Carlos. Transferred to German West Africa in 1907, her next major incident came in 1911, when she triggered the Agadir Crisis by stopping in Agadir, Morocco. Eber remained in reserve from 1903 to 1910, but joined Panther in Africa that year, and she was also involved in the Agadir Crisis. Panther had returned to Germany shortly before the start of World War I, and spent the conflict patrolling the western Baltic Sea. Eber, meanwhile, was used to arm the liner Cap Trafalgar as an auxiliary cruiser and was then interned in Brazil. Her crew scuttled the ship in October 1917. Panther survived the war and served briefly as a survey ship in the postwar Reichsmarine, ultimately being broken up in 1931.
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