Interned in Port Said, Egypt at the start of the war, the German Gutenfels was taken over by the British. First named the Polavon, in 1916 she was renamed the Turritella.  The Raider Wolf captured her in the Arabian Sea on 27 January 1917. In one of the ironies of war, at the time of her interment, she was owned by Deutche Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellshaft, who had also owned the Wolf.

She was converted at sea into a minelayer/raider by the addition of a single 5.2cm gun and 25-mines transferred from the Wolf. Renamed the Iltis, she was dispatched under the command of Kapitänleutnant Brandes to lay her mines off the Port of Aden.

After laying her mines, she was approached on 5 March 1917 by the British Sloop HMS Odin. To prevent her from again falling into British hands, she was immediately scuttled.