Moltke-class battlecruiser

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Moltke-class battlecruiser
SMS Moltke
Class overview
NameMoltke class
Operators
Preceded bySMS Von der Tann
Succeeded bySMS Seydlitz
In commission1911–1950
Completed2
Lost1
Retired1
General characteristics
TypeBattlecruiser
Displacement
  • Design: 22,979 t (22,616 long tons)
  • Full load
    : 25,400 t (25,000 long tons)
Length186.6 m (612 ft 2 in)
Beam29.4 m (96 ft 5 in)
Draft9.19 m (30 ft 2 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
SpeedDesign: 25.5 knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph)
Range4,120 nmi (7,630 km; 4,740 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement
  • 43 officers
  • 1,010 men
Armament
Armor

The Moltke class was a

Imperial Navy built between 1909–1911. Named SMS Moltke and SMS Goeben,[b] they were similar to the previous battlecruiser Von der Tann
, but the newer design featured several incremental improvements. The Moltkes were slightly larger, faster, and better armored, and had an additional pair of 28 cm (11 in) guns.

Both ships served during

were scuttled on 21 June 1919 to prevent their seizure by the Allies
.

Goeben was stationed in the Mediterranean at the start of the war; she

Turkish Navy until being decommissioned on 20 December 1950; she was stricken from the Navy register on 14 November 1954. Two years earlier, when Turkey joined NATO in 1952, the ship was assigned the hull number B70.[1] The ship was unsuccessfully offered for sale to the West German government in 1963. Without a group willing to preserve her as a museum, the ship was sold to M.K.E. Seyman in 1971 for scrapping
. She was towed to the breakers on 7 June 1973, and the work was completed in February 1976.

Development

SMS Von der Tann, the basis for the Moltke design

As the German naval command considered ideas for the next design for a

dreadnought battleships of the Nassau class. The Germans had adopted a 30.5 cm (12.0 in) gun for the next class of dreadnoughts—the Helgolands—to match their British counterparts, and the officers of the General Office sought to use the same caliber for the next battlecruiser, provisionally titled "G". The Construction Office preferred keeping the caliber the same as Von der Tann, but increasing the number of guns from eight to ten.[2] The Construction Office argued that, given the numerical superiority of the British Royal Navy's reconnaissance forces, it would be more prudent to increase the number of main guns, rather than increase their caliber. The General Navy Department held that for the new design to fight in the battle line, 30.5 cm guns were necessary.[3]

Several preliminary designs were prepared with different configurations, including an eight-gun 30.5 cm ship, a ten-gun 28 cm vessel, and an alternative with eight 28 cm guns but improved armor protection. Admiral

secondary battery, the removal of four 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns from positions that were deemed to be unworkable, and planned lattice masts were replaced with lighter pole masts.[2] In addition, the citadel was revised, armor thicknesses were increased, and ammunition allotments were enlarged, which created significant increases in displacement.[3]

It was originally planned to build only one ship of the new design, but due to the strains being put on the Navy design staff, it was decided to build two ships of the new type.

fitting-out, "Cruiser H" was commissioned on 2 July 1912 as SMS Goeben.[5] The ship was named for August Karl von Goeben, a Prussian general who served during the Franco-Prussian War.[7]

Ships

Ship Builder Laid down Launched Commissioned
Moltke
Blohm + Voss,
Hamburg
 7 December 1908 7 April 1910 30 August 1911
Goeben 28 August 1909 28 March 1911 2 July 1912

Design

Goeben underway

General characteristics

The Moltke-class ships were 186.6 m (612 ft 2 in)

double bottom that ran for 78% of the keel of the ships. They had a long forecastle deck that ran most of the length of the ship, terminating at the rear superfiring gun turret. Their superstructure was fairly small, consisting of a large, armored conning tower forward and a smaller, secondary conning tower aft.[8]

Steering was controlled by two rudders placed in line.[2] The ships were considered to handle well, with gentle movement even in heavy seas. However, they were slow to answer the helm and were not particularly maneuverable. The ships lost up to 60% speed and heeled 9 degrees at full rudder. The ships had a standard crew of 43 officers and 1010 men. While Moltke served as the flagship of I Scouting Group, this increased by 13 officers and 62 men. While serving as the second command flagship, the ship carried an additional 3 officers and 25 men to the standard complement. The ships carried a number of smaller boats, including one picket boat, three barges, two launches, two yawls, and two dinghies.[9]

Propulsion

Moltke and Goeben were powered by four-shaft

standard atmospheres (240 psi). They were vented through two large funnels spaced widely apart. After 1916, the boilers were supplemented with tar-oil sprayers that were used to increase the burn rate of the low quality lignite coal available to Germany. The Parsons turbines were divided into high- and low-pressure pairs.[6] The low-pressure turbines were the inner pair, and were placed in the aft engine room. The high-pressure turbines were on either side of the low-pressure pair, and were located in the forward wing rooms. The turbines powered four propellers, 3.74 m (12 ft 3 in) in diameter.[8]

The ships' power-plants delivered a rated 52,000 metric horsepower (51,289 shp) and a top speed of 25.5 knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph). However, in trials Moltke attained 85,782 metric horsepower (84,609 shp) and a top speed of 28.4 knots (52.6 km/h; 32.7 mph); Goeben's power-plant produced only a slightly lower horsepower and top speed.

generators that delivered 1,200 kW (1,600 hp) of power at 225 volts.[6] The ships were designed to carry 1,000 tons of coal, although in practice they could store up to 3,100 tons. Fuel consumption on the six-hour forced trial was 0.667 kilogram per horsepower/hour at 76,795 metric horsepower (75,744 shp), and .712 kg per hp/hr at 71,275 metric horsepower (70,300 shp), respectively for the two ships.[8]

Armament

Goeben's forward gun turret

The main armament was ten

armor-piercing and semi-armor-piercing shells, which both weighed 302 kg (666 lb). The guns could fire at a rate of 3 rounds per minute, and had a muzzle velocity of 895 m/s (2,940 ft/s). A total of 810 of these shells were stored aboard the ship.[5]

The ships'

Flak L/45 guns.[4]

Moltke and Goeben were also armed with four 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes; one fore, one aft, and two on the broadside, with 11 torpedoes stored. The torpedoes were of the G/7 model, which weighed 1,365 kg (3,009 lb) and carried a warhead weighing 195 kg (430 lb). The torpedoes had a maximum range of 9,300 m (10,200 yd) at 27 knots (50 km/h), and 4,000 m (4,400 yd) when set at 37 knots (69 km/h).[11]

Armor

The ships were equipped with

cemented and nickel steel.[8]

Service history

Moltke

Main article: SMS Moltke
Moltke in New York City in 1912

Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht to Russia. Once the ship returned, the commander of I Scouting Group made Moltke his flagship—a role in which she served until Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper transferred his flag to the newer battlecruiser Seydlitz on 23 June 1914.[13]

Moltke participated in most of the major fleet actions conducted by the German Navy during the

First World War, including the Battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland in the North Sea, and the Battle of the Gulf of Riga and Operation Albion in the Baltic. The ship took part in several operations to bombard the English coast, including the first raid on Yarmouth, the attack on the towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby, and the second raid on Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Moltke was damaged several times during the war: the ship was hit by heavy-caliber gunfire at Jutland, and torpedoed twice by British submarines while on fleet advances.[14]

Following the end of the war in 1918, Moltke, together with most of the High Seas Fleet, was interned at

scuttled by her crew, along with the rest of the High Seas Fleet in 1919 to prevent them from being seized by the Royal Navy.[7] The wreck of Moltke was raised on 10 June 1927, and scrapped at Rosyth from 1927 to 1929.[15]

Goeben

Main article: SMS Goeben
Yavuz and two Turkish destroyers at the Bosporus strait in Istanbul, viewed from the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Leyte in 1947

Following the outbreak of the First Balkan War in October 1912, the German High Command decided to create a Mediterranean Division in an attempt to exert influence in the area. The new squadron consisted of Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau; the two ships left Kiel on 4 November and arrived off Constantinople on 15 November. The ships visited several Mediterranean ports, including Venice, Pola, and Naples. The First Balkan War ended on 30 May 1913, and there was some consideration given to withdrawing the pair to German waters. However, the conflict reignited less than a month later on 29 June, meaning the ships would have to remain in the area.[16]

Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914, Rear Admiral Wilhelm Souchon recognized the imminent outbreak of war, and so immediately sailed to Pola for repair work for Goeben. The ships were then ordered to steam to Constantinople. While en route, they were pursued by British forces, but Goeben and Breslau managed to evade them and reach Istanbul by 10 August 1914.[16] Goeben was transferred to the Ottoman Empire and renamed Yavûz Sultân Selîm after Sultan Selim I. Popularly known as Yavûz, she was designated as the flagship of the Ottoman Navy, but she retained her German crew. Goeben, flying the Ottoman flag, bombarded the Russian port of Sevastopol, captured and sank a Russian minesweeper, and damaged a destroyer on 29 October 1914. The Russian government responded by declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on 1 November; Britain and France followed suit on 5 November.[17] By acting as a fleet in being, Goeben effectively blocked a Russian advance into the Bosporus, and defended against a similar incursion of British and French pre-dreadnoughts.[18] More powerful British and French warships—which could have dealt with Goeben—could not be risked in the heavily mined and U-boat patrolled Turkish waters.[19]

In 1936 she was officially renamed Yavûz and remained the flagship of the

Izmit from 1948. In 1952, Turkey joined NATO, and the ship was assigned the hull number "B70". Yavûz was decommissioned on 20 December 1950, and removed from the navy register on 14 November 1954. The Turkish government attempted to preserve the ship as a museum, including an offer to West Germany to sell the ship back in 1963, but none of the efforts were successful. Goeben was sold for scrapping in 1971, and was eventually broken up between 1973 and 1976—the last remaining ship of the Imperial German Navy.[1]

Footnotes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moltke class battlecruiser.

Notes

  1. ^ The German navy classified the ships as Großen Kreuzer (large cruisers). These ships differed from older Großen Kreuzer, such as the Roon class, in that they carried a uniform main battery, instead of four large guns and a mixed array of smaller weapons. Ships of this type were referred to as being "all-big-gun", to distinguish them from the older ships.
  2. ^ "SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff", or "His Majesty's Ship" in German.
  3. ^ In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnelladekanone) denotes that the gun is quick firing, while the L/50 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/50 gun is 50 calibers, meaning that the gun is 50 times long as it is in diameter.[10]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Sturton, p. 147.
  2. ^ a b c d Dodson, p. 82.
  3. ^ a b c d Staff, p. 11.
  4. ^ a b c d Campbell & Sieche, p. 152.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Staff, p. 12.
  6. ^ a b c d e Staff, p. 14.
  7. ^ a b Staff, p. 17.
  8. ^ a b c d Gröner, p. 54.
  9. ^ Gröner, pp. 54–55.
  10. ^ Grießmer, p. 177.
  11. ^ Staff, pp. 12–13.
  12. ^ Staff, p. 13.
  13. ^ Staff, p. 15.
  14. ^ Staff, pp. 15–16.
  15. ^ Gröner, p. 55.
  16. ^ a b Staff, p. 18.
  17. ^ Staff, p. 19.
  18. ^ Staff, pp. 18–19.
  19. ^ Bennett, p. 275.

References

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moltke-class_battlecruiser&oldid=1212646693"