Deutschland class battleship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Schlesien and Schleswig-Holstein in a German port in 1934. |
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| Career (German Empire) |
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| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Deutschland class |
| Displacement: | 13,200t normal; 14,218t full load |
| Length: | 127.6 m (419 ft) |
| Beam: | 22.2 m (73 ft) |
| Draught: | 7.7 m (25 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 19,330 hp, three shafts = 19.1 knots (35 km/h) |
| Speed: | 17 knots (31 km/h) |
| Range: | 5,000 nautical miles (9,000 km); 10 knots (20 km/h) |
| Complement: | 743 |
| Armament: |
At construction:
Armament in 1939:
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| Armor: | 230 mm in belt 280 mm in turrets 76 mm in deck |
The Deutschland class battleships were the last pre-dreadnought battleships of the Kaiserliche Marine. They were all present at the Battle of Jutland where one, the Pommern, was sunk. Because of the Treaty of Versailles, two of them, the Schlesien and Schleswig-Holstein, survived to see action with the Kriegsmarine.
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[edit] Construction
Representing the final flowering of Germany’s pre-dreadnought battleships, the Deutschland class were laid down between July 1903 and November 1904, at dockyards in Kiel, Szczecin (then Stettin), Wilhelmshaven, and Danzig. They were similar in general type to the Braunschweig class immediately preceding them, although the Deutschlands were more heavily armoured. The practice of fitting a type of intermediate calibre artillery common in other powers' navies was not followed in the German Navy due to the difficulty in controlling the firing and in spotting the fall of shot from three different sizes of guns.
Germaniawerft built both the Deutschland and Schleswig-Holstein, A G Vulcan built the Pommern, the Wilhelmshaven Navy Dockyard built Hannover, and Schichau built the Schlesien. Each ship cost over 24 million marks, and took three to four years to be completed. By the time the ships of the Deutschland class entered service, they had been made obsolete by the launch of the "all big gun" HMS Dreadnought in 1906.
[edit] Service life
[edit] World War I
The ships of the Deutschland class served in the II Squadron, High Seas Fleet during World War I, and participated in the Battle of Jutland, during which the Pommern was sunk. The Schleswig-Holstein was hit once by gunfire from the British fleet, but was only minimally damaged.
By 1917, the ships were withdrawn from frontline service, and were placed in auxiliary roles. The Deutschland and Schleswig-Holstein became barracks ships, the Hannover was assigned as a guard ship for the Danish belt, and Schlesien became a training ship.
Following the German defeat in World War I, three of the Deutschland class battleships were allowed to be retained in the German Navy; the Hannover, Schleswig-Holstein and the Schlesien, along with the Braunschweig class battleship Hessen. Deutschland was instead scrapped in 1922. The four remaining pre-dreadnought battlehips were modernized in the 1920s, with the Schleswig-Holstein serving as flagship of the German Navy from 1926 to 1935.
[edit] World War II
The Schleswig-Holstein and Schlesien are credited with firing the first shots of World War II, when they shelled the Polish base in Westerplatte on 1 September 1939. The ships bombarded other Polish positions in Gdynia, Kepa Oksywska, and the Hel Peninsula.
The remaining Deutschland class battleships were returned to training duty following the occupation of Norway in 1940. The Schleswig-Holstein became an anti-aircraft ship in 1944 in Gdynia. She was hit by three bombs dropped by British bombers, caught fire, and sank in 39 feet of water. The Hannover was scrapped in 1944. The Schlesien was scuttled in Swinemünde in 1945.
[edit] External links
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