SMS Viper (1876)

Viper was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in May 1875 under the provisional designation "B",^[a] and she was launched on 21 September 1876. The second member of her class to be built, she was named after the family of venomous snakes. Work on the ship was completed early the following year, and she was commissioned into active service on 27 March 1877 to carry out her initial sea trials, after which she was placed in reserve for the next eight years.^[3][6] During this period, by 1883, the ship had been refitted with an additional 8.7 cm (3.4 in) L/24 built-up gun, a pair of 37 mm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon, and two 35 cm (14 in) torpedo tubes in her bow, both of which were below the waterline.^[7]

Viper was recommissioned on 20 August 1885 for training exercises carried out with her sister ships Wespe, Salamander, and Mücke, which were led by the screw corvette Stein. These concluded by 14 September, when Viper was decommissioned for the winter months. While she was out of service, she was allocated to the Reserve Division of the North Sea. She recommissioned on 11 May 1886 for another training period that lasted until 9 June. She exercised with Wespe, Salamander, and their sister Camaeleon at that time. Viper next returned to service on 16 August 1887, and that year, she and the rest of the gunboats in the North Sea joined the main fleet for the annual autumn exercises. These had concluded by 14 September, when the ship was decommissioned again.^[6]

On 15 August 1888, Viper was recommissioned, under command of Kapitänleutnant (KL—Captain Lieutenant) Oskar von Truppel, for another brief training period that lasted until 15 September. That year, she was moved to the newly created II Reserve Division of the North Sea. The next two years followed a similar pattern; she participated in training exercises from 13 August to 20 September 1890 and then from 4 August to 22 September 1891, the last time she would be commissioned. The last year, she was captained by KL Karl Dick.^[6] The ship was struck from the naval register on 28 June 1909 and then converted into a crane ship between 1909 and 1910. She was initially based at the island of Helgoland. The ship had a lifting capacity of 100 t (98 long tons; 110 short tons). She was later moved to Wilhelmshaven, and then other ports.^[7][8]

In May 1918, Viper was sent to the coast of Finland to assist in the salvage of the dreadnought battleship Rheinland that had run aground off the island of Åland during the German occupation of the island during the Finnish Civil War. Viper arrived on 8 May and was used to remove significant sections of armor plate and the battleship's main guns in an attempt to lighten the vessel enough that she could be pulled free. In the course of the effort, Viper removed around 6,400 t (6,300 long tons; 7,100 short tons) of material from Rheinland, and by 9 July, the ship was successfully refloated.^[9]

By 1924, Viper had been moved back to Wilhelmshaven. In 1940, during World War II, the ship was allocated to the invasion fleet for the planned invasion of Britain, Operation Sea Lion.^[10] For the planned amphibious assault, Viper was fitted with an experimental ramp to send amphibious Tauchpanzer III tanks ashore; the concept involved sending the tank into the water at a depth of around 5 m (16 ft), which would then drive onto the beach.^[11] The plan was postponed and eventually cancelled, however, after the Germans failed to secure air superiority in the Battle of Britain.^[12] The ship survived the war and was still in use as of 1970.^[10]

• Dodson, Aidan (2016). The Kaiser's Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871–1918. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-229-5.
• Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Vol. I: Major Surface Vessels. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
• Gröner, Erich (1989). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: 1815–1945 [The German Warships: 1815–1945]. Vol. VI: Hafenbetriebsfahrzeuge (II. Bagger, Bergungs- u. Taucherfahrzeuge, Eisbrecher, Schlepper, Verkehrsfahrzeuge), Yachten u. Avisos, Landungsverbände [Harbor Operating Ship (II. Dredgers, Salvage and Diving Ships, Icebreakers, Tugs, Transport Ships), Yachts and Avisos, Landing Groups]. Koblenz: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7637-4805-1.
• Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 8. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag.
• Lyon, David (1979). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 240–265. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
• Overy, Richard J. (2001). The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-02008-3.
• Schenk, Peter (1987). Landung in England: das geplante Unternehmen "Seelöwe" : der Beginn der amphibischen Grossunternehmen [Landing in England: The Planned Operation "Sea Lion", the Beginning of Large-scale Amphibious Operations] (in German). Berlin: Oberbaum. ISBN 978-3-926409-44-7.
• Sondhaus, Lawrence (1997). Preparing for Weltpolitik: German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-745-7.