Bremen-class cruiser
SMS Bremen in 1907
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Class overview | |
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Operators | |
Preceded by | Gazelle class |
Succeeded by | Königsberg class |
In commission | 1904–1936 |
Completed | 7 |
Lost | 2 |
Scrapped | 5 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Light cruiser |
Displacement |
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Length | Length overall: 111.1 meters (364 ft 6 in) |
Beam | 13.3 m (43 ft 8 in) |
Draft | 5.53 m (18 ft 2 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) |
Range | 4,270 nmi (7,910 km; 4,910 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Complement |
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Armament |
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Armor | Deck: 80 mm (3.1 in) |
The Bremen class was a group of seven light cruisers built for the Imperial German Navy in the early 1900s. The seven ships, Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, Lübeck, München, Leipzig, and Danzig, were an improvement upon the previous Gazelle class. They were significantly larger than the earlier class, and were faster and better armored. Like the Gazelles, they were armed with a main battery of ten 10.5 cm SK L/40 guns and a pair of torpedo tubes.
The ships of the Bremen class served in a variety of roles, from overseas cruiser to fleet scout to training ship. Bremen and Leipzig were deployed to the American and Asian stations, respectively, while the other five ships remained in German waters with the High Seas Fleet. At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Leipzig was in the Pacific Ocean in the East Asia Squadron; she saw action at the Battle of Coronel in November and was sunk a month later at the Battle of the Falkland Islands. Bremen was sunk by a Russian mine in December 1915, but the other five ships of the class survived the war.
Three of the surviving ships, Lübeck, München, and Danzig, were seized by Britain as
Design
The
The
The Bremen class marked a change in German cruiser naming conventions;
General characteristics
The Bremen-class ships were 110.6 meters (362 ft 10 in)
All seven ships were good sea boats, but they were crank and rolled up to twenty degrees. They were also very wet at high speeds and suffered from a slight weather helm. Nevertheless, the ships turned tightly and were very maneuverable. In a hard turn, their speed fell up to 35 percent. They had a transverse metacentric height of 0.58 to 0.61 m (23 to 24 in). The ships had a standard crew of fourteen officers and between 274 and 287 enlisted men, though later in their careers, these figures increased to 19 and 330, respectively. The Bremen-class ships carried a number of smaller boats, including one picket boat, one pinnace, two cutters, two yawls, and one dinghy.[8]
Machinery
With the exception of Lübeck, the ships' propulsion system consisted of two triple-expansion steam engines, which drove a pair of
The triple-expansion engines were designed to give 10,000
Armament and armor
The ships of the class were armed with ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 guns in single mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle, six were located amidships, three on either side, and two were placed side by side aft. The guns could engage targets out to 12,200 m (40,026 ft 3 in). For defense against torpedo boats, they were armed with ten 3.7 cm (1.5 in) Maxim guns. They were supplied with 1,500 rounds of ammunition, for 150 shells per gun. All seven ships were also equipped with two 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes with five torpedoes. These tubes were submerged in the hull on the broadside.[8]
Later in their careers, Bremen and Lübeck had two 15 cm SK L/45 guns installed in place of the two forward and two rear 10.5 cm guns. They retained the six broadside 10.5 cm guns. Lübeck later had a pair of 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes installed in deck mounts, with four torpedoes.[8]
Armor protection for the members of the class consisted of two layers of steel with one layer of
Construction
Name | Builder[9] | Laid down[9] | Launched[10] | Commissioned[10] |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bremen | AG Weser, Bremen | 1902 | 9 July 1903 | 19 May 1904 |
Hamburg | Stettin
|
1902 | 25 July 1903 | 8 March 1904 |
Berlin | Kaiserliche Werft Danzig | 1902 | 22 September 1903 | 4 April 1905 |
Lübeck | AG Vulcan, Stettin | 1903 | 26 March 1904 | 26 April 1905 |
München | AG Weser, Bremen | 1903 | 30 April 1904 | 10 January 1905 |
Leipzig | AG Weser, Bremen | 1904 | 21 March 1905 | 20 April 1906 |
Danzig | Kaiserliche Werft Danzig | 1904 | 23 September 1905 | 1 December 1907 |
Service history
The ships of the Bremen class served in a variety of roles throughout their careers. Bremen and Leipzig served abroad from 1905 to 1914; the former returned to Germany shortly before the outbreak of
Danzig was present during the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914, but did not directly engage the British ships. She did, however, rescue survivors from the sinking cruiser Ariadne.[11] Hamburg was present for the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914, where she briefly encountered—but did not engage—British light forces.[12] Only one ship, München, saw action at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916,[13] where she was hit by five medium-caliber shells and moderately damaged.[14] Three of the ships, Bremen, Lübeck, and Danzig, saw action against Imperial Russian forces in the Baltic Sea during the war, including during the assault on Libau and the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in 1915 and during Operation Albion in 1917.[15][16] Bremen struck Russian mines in December 1915 and sank with the majority of her crew going down with her.[17] Leipzig, still overseas at the start of the war, saw action at the Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands in late 1914. At the former, she engaged the British cruiser HMS Glasgow, and at the latter, was sunk by Glasgow and HMS Cornwall.[18]
Berlin was withdrawn from service in 1916 and disarmed. München was badly damaged by a British mine in October 1916, and thereafter decommissioned for use as a
Notes
- ^ Herwig, p. 42.
- ^ Nottelmann, pp. 108–110.
- ^ Gardiner, p. 259.
- ^ a b Nottelmann, p. 111.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, p. 124.
- ^ Campbell & Sieche, p. 157.
- ^ a b c Gröner, pp. 102–103.
- ^ a b c Gröner, p. 103.
- ^ a b c Gröner, p. 102.
- ^ a b c d e Gröner, pp. 103–104.
- ^ Staff 2011, p. 24.
- ^ Massie, pp. 340–341.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 62.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 296.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 191–192, 197.
- ^ Staff 2008, p. 4.
- ^ Halpern, p. 205.
- ^ Staff 2011, pp. 34–37, 74–76.
- ^ Rohwer, p. 264.
References
- Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
- Campbell, N. J. M. & Sieche, Erwin (1986). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 134–189. ISBN 978-0-85177-245-5.
- ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
- Halpern, Paul G. (1995). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-352-4.
- Herwig, Holger (1980). "Luxury" Fleet: The Imperial German Navy 1888–1918. Amherst: Humanity Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-286-9.
- Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe: Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships: Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 2. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8364-9743-5.
- ISBN 0-345-40878-0.
- Nottelmann, Dirk (2020). "The Development of the Small Cruiser in the Imperial German Navy". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2020. Oxford: Osprey. pp. 102–118. ISBN 978-1-4728-4071-4.
- ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
- Staff, Gary (2008). Battle for the Baltic Islands. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime. ISBN 978-1-84415-787-7.
- Staff, Gary (2011). Battle on the Seven Seas. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime. ISBN 978-1-84884-182-6.
- Tarrant, V. E. (1995). Jutland: The German Perspective. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. ISBN 0-304-35848-7.
Further reading
- Dodson, Aidan; Cant, Serena (2020). Spoils of War: The Fate of Enemy Fleets after the Two World Wars. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4198-1.
- ISBN 978-1-68247-745-8.
- Koop, Gerhard & Schmolke, Klaus-Peter (2004). Kleine Kreuzer 1903–1918: Bremen bis Cöln-Klasse [Small Cruisers 1903–1918: The Bremen Through Cöln Classes] (in German). München: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. ISBN 3-7637-6252-3.