Battle of the Gulf of Riga. Minesweepers attempted to clear a path through the Irbe Strait, covered by Braunschweig and Elsass, while Wittelsbach and the rest of the squadron remained outside the strait. The Russian battleship attacked the Germans in the strait, forcing them to withdraw. During the action, the cruiser and the torpedo boat were damaged by mines and the torpedo boats and were mined and sunk. Schmidt withdrew his ships to re-coal and Prince Heinrich debated making another attempt, as by that time it had become clear that the German Army's advance toward Riga had stalled. Prince Heinrich attempted to force the channel a second time using two dreadnought battleships from I Squadron to cover the minesweepers and leaving Wittelsbach behind in Libau. Following the unsuccessful second attempt, Schmidt became the I Squadron commander on 26 August, being replaced as the IV Squadron commander by VAdm Friedrich Schultz, who also made Wittelsbach his flagship. Subsequent activity On 9 September, Wittelsbach and her four sisters sortied in an attempt to locate Russian warships off Gotland, but returned to port two days later without having engaged any opponents. On 7 and 8 October, she, Elsass, and four torpedo boats covered a minelaying operation. By this point in the war, the Navy was encountering difficulties in manning more important vessels. The threat from submarines in the Baltic convinced the German navy to withdraw the elderly Wittelsbach-class ships from active service. Wittelsbach and most of the other IV Squadron ships left Libau on 10 November, bound for Kiel; upon arrival the following day, they were designated the Reserve Division of the Baltic, commanded by Kommodore (Commodore) Walter Engelhardt. The ships were anchored in Schilksee in Kiel, with Wittelsbach as the divisional flagship. On 31 January 1916, the division was dissolved, and the ships were dispersed for subsidiary duties. Wittelsbach was decommissioned on 24 August, and was initially used as a training ship based in Kiel. The ship was then transferred to Wilhelmshaven for use as a fleet tender in October 1917, where she supported the battleship , which was by then being used as a training ship for engine room personnel. On 6 August 1918, the Reichsmarineamt decided to convert Wittelsbach into a target ship, but the war ended with Germany's defeat before the work could begin. Wittelsbach was reactivated for service with the newly constituted Reichsmarine on 1 June 1919, and