SMS Elsass
 Elsass underway c. 1904–1908
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
  Germany | |
| Name | Elsass |
| Namesake | Alsace |
| Builder | Danzig |
| Laid down | 26 May 1901 |
| Launched | 26 May 1903 |
| Commissioned | 29 November 1904 |
| Decommissioned | 25 February 1930 |
| Stricken | 31 March 1931 |
| Fate | Scrapped in 1936 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Braunschweig-class pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 127.7 m (419 ft) |
| Beam | 22.2 m (72 ft 10 in) |
| Draft | 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Range | 5,200 nmi (9,600 km; 6,000 mi); 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
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| Armor | |
SMS Elsass
The ship served in II Squadron of the German fleet after commissioning, and during this period, she was occupied with extensive annual training, as well as making good-will visits to foreign countries. Surpassed by new
She was retained after the war under the terms of the
Design
With the passage of the
Though the Braunschweig class marked a significant improvement over earlier German battleships, its design fell victim to the rapid pace of technological development in the early 1900s. The British battleship HMS Dreadnought—armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—was commissioned in December 1906,[3] just a year after Elsass entered service.[4] Dreadnought's revolutionary design rendered every capital ship of the German navy obsolete, including Elsass.[5]
Elsass was 127.7 m (419 ft)
Elsass's armament consisted of a
Service history
Pre-war career
Elsass was
For the next several years, Elsass and the rest of the fleet were occupied with the peacetime training regimen that consisted of squadron and fleet training in April and May and a major fleet cruise during the summer, followed by annual fall maneuvers with the whole fleet in August and September. The year would typically conclude with a winter training cruise.
On 28 April 1908, a significant accident occurred aboard Elsass, when a round of ammunition exploded. Three men were killed and another six were wounded.
On 23 March 1912, during fleet training, Elsass accidentally collided with a Swedish steamship—
World War I
On 28 July 1914, Germany's ally
Starting on 2 September, IV Squadron, assisted by Blücher, conducted a sweep into the Baltic. The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bring Russian naval units to battle.[21] From 11 to 20 September, Elsass and the rest of the division was transferred to the mouth of the Elbe to provide local defense against possible British attacks.[19] Later that month, the IV Squadron ships were transferred back to the Baltic. The army had requested that the navy make a demonstration to keep Russian reserves along the Baltic coast, instead of allowing the Russians to re-deploy them to Galicia. The older battleships of the V Battle Squadron were sent to Danzig to embark ground forces, while Braunschweig and IV Squadron steamed in advance. The operation was called off early, however, after British submarines were reportedly sighted in the Baltic. The two squadrons rendezvoused off Bornholm before proceeded on to Kiel, arriving on 26 September.[22]
Elsass returned to the Elbe from 5 December to 1 March 1915, with scheduled periodic maintenance from 24 to 28 February. After guard ship duties in the Elbe ended, she was briefly transferred to the
In August 1915, the German fleet attempted to clear the Gulf of Riga of Russian naval forces to assist the German Army then advancing on the city. IV Squadron was joined by I Squadron, which consisted of the eight Nassau and Helgoland-class battleships, from the High Seas Fleet, as well as three battlecruisers and many smaller craft. The task force was commanded by Vizeadmiral Franz von Hipper, though operational command remained with Schmidt.[25] On the morning of 8 August, the German fleet made its initial push into the Gulf. Elsass and Braunschweig were assigned to attack the Russian pre-dreadnought Slava to prevent her from disrupting the German minesweepers. The German vessels engaged Slava and the gunboat Khrabry at long range without result.[26] When it became clear that the minesweepers could not clear the minefield before nightfall, Schmidt called off the attempt.[27] A second attempt was made on 16 August. Elsass remained outside the Gulf, while the dreadnoughts Nassau and Posen dealt with Slava.[28] By 19 August, the Russian minefields had been cleared and the flotilla entered the Gulf. However, reports of Allied submarines in the area prompted the German fleet to call off the operation the following day.[29]
After the operation, Elsass remained in Libau, and IV Squadron was disbanded on 18 December. While in Libau, Elsass briefly served as the command ship for Vizeadmiral Friedrich Schultz, the Befehlshaber der Aufklärungsschiffe der Ostsee (Commander of Reconnaissance Forces in the Baltic), from January to March 1916. By that time, Braunschweig, which had been modified in Kiel to serve as Schultz's command ship, arrived to relieve Elsass. Crew shortages forced the navy to reduce both ships' crews, to the point that they were only capable of providing local defense of the harbor. On 10 July, Elsass was transferred back to Kiel, where four days later her crew was transferred to her sister Lothringen. Elsass was taken into the shipyard in Kiel for repairs before returning to service on 25 July as a stationary training ship assigned to I Marine Inspectorate. She remained in Kiel until her decommissioning on 20 June 1918. The ship underwent an overhaul and returned to training duty in October, though Germany surrendered the following month.[26]
Postwar career
The Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war, specified that Germany was permitted to retain six battleships of the older "Deutschland or Lothringen class."[30] Elsass was kept and used as a training ship in the German fleet, which was renamed the Reichsmarine.[9] In 1923, the aging ship underwent a major overhaul. Elsass was dry-docked in the Reichsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven,[6] where the conning tower was rebuilt. Work was completed the following year.[9] She was recommissioned on 15 February 1924 with a partial crew. Assigned to the Linienschiffsdivision (Battleship Division) of the Seestreitkräfte der Nordsee (Naval Forces of the North Sea) and based in Wilhelmshaven, the ship received her full crew by 1 April. In July, she joined the rest of the fleet for a major training cruise in the Atlantic, which included a stop in Vigo, Spain, from 6 to 13 July. In 1925, Elsass and the battleship Hannover visited Oslo, Norway, from 19 to 24 June, though Elsass proceeded alone to Odda, where she stayed from 26 to 30 June.[26]
On 1 October, the ship was transferred to the Seestreitkräfte der Ostsee (Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea), which was based in Kiel. The fleet went on another major cruise in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea in May and June 1926; during the trip Elsass made calls in several Spanish ports, including Mahón, Barcelona, and Vigo. Another cruise followed the next year in April and May, with stops in Vilagarcía, Spain, São Vicente, Madeira, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Santa Cruz de La Palma in the Canary Islands, Horta and Ponta Delgada in the Azores, and Lisbon, Portugal. In 1928, Elsass made visits to Ulvik and Bergen in Norway in July, and Skagen, Denmark, in September. The winter of 1928–1929 proved to be especially cold, and Elsass and the battleship Schleswig-Holstein were pressed into service as icebreakers; the two ships helped to free 65 merchant ships from the heavy ice. In March 1929, Elsass also performed icebreaking duties off Gedser, Denmark.[31]
The fleet went on another Atlantic cruise in April 1929, and Elsass made calls in Villagarcia and
Footnotes
Notes
- Seiner Majestät Schiff" (English: His Majesty's Ship).
- ^ In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnelladekanone) denotes that the gun is quick firing, while the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 calibers, meaning that the gun is 40 times as long as it is in diameter.[7]
Citations
- ^ Herwig, pp. 43–44.
- ^ Staff, p. 4.
- ^ Campbell & Sieche, pp. 21–22.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 3, p. 34.
- ^ Herwig, p. 57.
- ^ a b Gröner, p. 18.
- ^ Grießmer, p. 177.
- ^ Hore, p. 68.
- ^ a b c d Gröner, p. 20.
- ^ Dodson, p. 51.
- ^ Gröner, p. 19.
- ^ Gröner, pp. 18, 20.
- ^ a b c d e f Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 3, p. 33.
- ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, p. 113.
- ^ Staff, p. 7.
- ^ a b c Staff, p. 8.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, p. 114.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 3, pp. 34–35.
- ^ a b c d Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 3, p. 35.
- ^ Scheer, p. 15.
- ^ Halpern, p. 185.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, pp. 114–115.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 3, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Halpern, p. 195.
- ^ a b Halpern, p. 196.
- ^ a b c d Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 3, p. 36.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 196–197.
- ^ Halpern, p. 197.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 197–198.
- ^ Treaty of Versailles Section II: Naval Clauses, Article 181.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 3, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 3, p. 37.
References
- 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 978-1-59114-923-1.
- Grießmer, Axel (1999). Die Linienschiffe der Kaiserlichen Marine: 1906–1918; Konstruktionen zwischen Rüstungskonkurrenz und Flottengesetz [The Battleships of the Imperial Navy: 1906–1918; Constructions between Arms Competition and Fleet Laws] (in German). Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7637-5985-9.
- ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.
- Halpern, Paul G. (1995). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-352-7.
- Herwig, Holger (1998) [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.
- 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. 3. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0211-4.
- Hore, Peter (2006). The Ironclads. London: Southwater Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84476-299-6.
- Scheer, Reinhard (1920). Germany's High Seas Fleet in the World War. London: Cassell and Company. OCLC 2765294.
- Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918 (1). Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 978-1-84603-467-1.
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.
- Koop, Gerhard & Schmolke, Klaus-Peter (2001). Die Panzer- und Linienschiffe der Brandenburg-, Kaiser Friedrich III-, Wittlesbach-, Braunschweig- und Deutschland-Klasse [The Armored and Battleships of the Brandenburg, Kaiser Friedrich III, Wittelsbach, Braunschweig, and Deutschland Classes] (in German). Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7637-6211-8.