During World War I, German dirigibles bombed Liepāja in January, 1915. Liepāja was occupied by the German army on 7 May 1915; in memory of this event, a monument was constructed on Kūrmājas prospect in 1916 (destroyed in 1919). On 23 October 1915, the German cruiser SMS Prinz Adalbert was sunk by the British submarine HMS E8, 37 kilometers west of Liepāja. In 1915, Liepāja's local government issued its own money – Libava rubles.