110 years ago, on 28 August 1914, the British Harwich Force, supported by cruisers and battle cruisers from the Grand Fleet, attacked German patrols in the Heligoland Bight. Although the intervening German cruisers were able to save most of the patrol ships except one destroyer which was sunk, the uncoordinated, piecemeal actions of the German cruisers exposed them to superior British forces and three of them (Mainz, Ariadne, Cöln) were sunk.

Here, a model of one of them, SMS Mainz:


German cruiser SMS Mainz (1/700)