SMS Grosser Kurfürst (1913)
 Recognition drawing of a König-class battleship
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| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Namesake | SMS Grosser Kurfürst |
| Builder | AG Vulcan, Hamburg |
| Laid down | October 1911 |
| Launched | 5 May 1913 |
| Commissioned | 30 July 1914 |
| Fate | Scuttled 21 June 1919 in Gutter Sound, Scapa Flow, raised 29 April 1938 and sold for scrap |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | König-class battleship |
| Displacement |
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| Length | 175.4 m (575 ft 6 in) |
| Beam | 29.5 m (96 ft 9 in) |
| Draft | 9.19 m (30 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Range | 8,000 nmi (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
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| Armor |
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SMS Grosser Kurfürst
Along with her three sister ships, König, Markgraf, and Kronprinz, Grosser Kurfürst took part in most of the fleet actions during the war, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. The ship was subjected to heavy fire at Jutland, but was not seriously damaged. She shelled Russian positions during Operation Albion in September and October 1917. Grosser Kurfürst was involved in a number of accidents during her service career; she collided with König and Kronprinz, grounded several times, was torpedoed once, and hit a mine.[1]
After Germany's defeat and the signing of the
Design
The four
Grosser Kurfürst
She was armed with ten
The ship's
Service history
Grosser Kurfürst was ordered under the provisional name Ersatz Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and built at the
Her second operation, the
On 22 January 1915, she and the rest of III Squadron were detached from the fleet to conduct maneuver, gunnery, and torpedo training in the Baltic. They returned to the North Sea on 11 February, too late to assist I Scouting Group at the Battle of Dogger Bank.[13] Following the loss of SMS Blücher at the Battle of Dogger Bank, the Kaiser removed Ingenohl from his post on 2 February. Admiral Hugo von Pohl replaced him as commander of the fleet.[14] She then took part in several sorties into the North Sea. On 29 March, she sailed with the fleet out to Terschelling without any contact with the enemy. Another fleet advance occurred on 22 April, again without result. On 23 April, III Squadron returned to the Baltic for another round of exercises lasting until 10 May.[13]
She participated in a fleet advance into the North Sea from 29 until 31 May which ended without combat. The ship covered a minelaying operation on 11–12 September off
On 24–25 April, Hipper's battlecruisers conducted another bombardment of the English coast; Grosser Kurfürst and the rest of the High Seas Fleet sailed in support. The battlecruisers left the Jade Estuary at 10:55 CET,[e] and the rest of the High Seas Fleet followed at 13:40. The battlecruiser Seydlitz struck a mine while en route to the target, and had to withdraw.[15] The other battlecruisers bombarded the town of Lowestoft unopposed, but during the approach to Yarmouth, they encountered the British cruisers of the Harwich Force. A short artillery duel ensued before the Harwich Force withdrew. Reports of British submarines in the area prompted the retreat of I Scouting Group. At this point, Admiral Reinhard Scheer, who had been warned of the sortie of the Grand Fleet from its base in Scapa Flow, also withdrew to safer German waters.[16]
Battle of Jutland
Grosser Kurfürst was present during the fleet operation on 31 May and 1 June 1916 that resulted in the Battle of Jutland. The German fleet again sought to draw out and isolate a portion of the Grand Fleet and destroy it before the main British fleet could retaliate. She was the second ship in the German line, behind her sister König and followed by Markgraf and Kronprinz. The four ships made up V Division of
Shortly before 16:00 the battlecruisers of I Scouting Group encountered the British 1st Battlecruiser Squadron under the command of
Grosser Kurfürst engaged the battlecruiser HMS Princess Royal at a range of 21,000 yd (19,000 m). Simultaneously, her secondary guns fired on British destroyers attempting to make torpedo attacks against the German fleet.[21][g] The faster British ships began to pull away from their pursuers, and at 18:00 she was forced to shift fire from Princess Royal to the battleship Valiant, though by 18:16 Valiant too had moved out of range.[22] Her shells straddled Valiant four times and her gunners incorrectly claimed a hit on the British ship.[23] The ship did not escape unscathed herself though; at 18:09 she was hit by a 15 in (380 mm) shell from either the battleships Malaya or Warspite.[24] The shell struck the water some 30 to 60 ft (9.1 to 18.3 m) from the ship and either ricocheted or exploded, impacting the hull approximately 85 ft (26 m) from the bow. The hit caused no significant damage.[25] During this period, she claimed three hits from her 15 cm battery on a destroyer, which was most likely Moorsom.[26] At 18:22, the ship briefly fired her secondary guns at the destroyer HMS Moresby at extreme range, without scoring a hit.[27] At the same time, Grosser Kurfürst came back into range of the battleship Valiant, and engaged her with her two forward turrets. The ship fired for eight minutes, though her shots all fell short of their target.[28]
Shortly after 19:00, the German cruiser Wiesbaden had become disabled by a shell from the British battlecruiser Invincible; Rear Admiral Paul Behncke in König attempted to maneuver his four ships to cover the stricken cruiser.[29] Simultaneously, the British 3rd and 4th Light Cruiser Squadrons began a torpedo attack on the German line; while advancing to torpedo range, they smothered Wiesbaden with fire from their main guns. Grosser Kurfürst and her sisters fired heavily on the British cruisers, but even sustained fire from the battleships' main guns failed to drive off the British cruisers.[30] She fired a pair of salvos at extremely close range from her main guns at the armored cruiser Defence, which, under heavy fire from several German capital ships, exploded and sank at 19:19.[31] Observers aboard the ship noted that both salvos hit Defence, though did not ascribe credit for the latter's destruction to the hits.[32] She then shifted fire to the armored cruiser Warrior, which was heavily damaged and forced to withdraw. Warrior foundered on the trip back to port the following morning.[31]
By 20:00, the German line was ordered to turn eastward to disengage from the British fleet, commanded by Admiral
The heavy fire of the British fleet forced Scheer to order the fleet to turn away; this turn reversed the order of the fleet and placed her toward the end of the line.[38] After successfully withdrawing from the British, Scheer ordered the fleet to assume night cruising formation, though communication errors between Scheer, aboard Friedrich der Grosse, and Westfalen, the lead ship, caused delays. The fleet fell into formation by 23:30, with Grosser Kurfürst the 15th vessel in the line of 24 capital ships.[39] Around 02:45, several British destroyers mounted a torpedo attack against the rear half of the German line; she spotted six unidentified destroyers in the darkness. She engaged them with her 15 cm and 8.8 cm guns while turning away to avoid any torpedoes that might have been launched. She scored one 15 cm hit on the destroyer Nessus at a range of about 2,200 yd (2,000 m), disabling one of Nessus's boilers.[40] Heavy fire from the German battleships forced the British destroyers to withdraw.[41]
The High Seas Fleet managed to punch through the British light forces without drawing the attention of Jellicoe's battleships, and subsequently reached Horns Reef by 04:00 on 1 June.[42] Off Helgoland, Grosser Kurfürst had taken in so much water that she was forced to reduce speed. She fell out of formation, but later rejoined the fleet outside the Schillig roadstead. Upon reaching Wilhelmshaven, she went into harbor while several other battleships took up defensive positions in the outer roadstead.[43] The ship was transferred to Hamburg where she was repaired in AG Vulcan's large floating dock. Repair work was completed by 16 July.[44] In the course of the battle, she fired a total of 135 shells from her main battery and 216 rounds from her 15 cm guns.[45] She was hit by eight large-caliber shells, which killed fifteen men and wounded ten.[46]
Subsequent operations
Following completion of the repair work, Grosser Kurfürst conducted training maneuvers in the Baltic until 4 August.[47] Admiral Scheer attempted a repeat of the original Jutland plan on 18–19 August. The battlecruiser squadron, however, had been reduced to only two operational ships—Von der Tann and Moltke—so Grosser Kurfürst, Markgraf, and the newly commissioned Bayern were temporarily transferred to the squadron.[48] The British were aware of the German plans, and sortied the Grand Fleet to meet them. By 14:35, Scheer had been warned of the Grand Fleet's approach and, unwilling to engage the whole of the Grand Fleet just 11 weeks after the decidedly close call at Jutland, turned his forces around and retreated to German ports.[49]
Unit training with III Squadron followed from 21 October to 2 November. Two days later, the ship formally rejoined III Squadron. On the 5th, a pair of U-boats grounded on the Danish coast. Light forces were sent to recover the vessels, and III Squadron, which was in the North Sea en route to Wilhelmshaven, was ordered to cover them. The British submarine
Grosser Kurfürst rejoined the fleet on 23 April and conducted training with the rest of III Squadron in the Baltic from 17 May to 8 June. After returning to the North Sea the ship was assigned to security duties in the German Bight. Another round of exercises in the Baltic followed on 11–23 September. She then sailed to
Upon her return to service, Grosser Kurfürst resumed picket duties in the Bight. She was present during the abortive anti-convoy operation on 23–25 April 1918. While entering the lock outside Wilhelmshaven following the conclusion of the operation, the ship was damaged. She was back in dock for repairs from 27 April to 2 May. At the end of the month, Grosser Kurfürst ran aground just off the Helgoland's north harbor. The ship's port-side propeller shaft was bent, necessitating repairs at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel from 2–9 June and 21–31 July. She finally rejoined the fleet on 12 August.[47]
Fate
Grosser Kurfürst and her three sisters were to have taken part in a
Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, most of the High Seas Fleet's ships, under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, were interned in the British naval base in Scapa Flow.[53] Prior to the departure of the German fleet, Admiral Adolf von Trotha made clear to Reuter that he could not allow the Allies to seize the ships, under any conditions.[55] The fleet rendezvoused with the British light cruiser Cardiff, which led the ships to the Allied fleet that escorted the Germans to Scapa Flow. The massive flotilla consisted of some 370 British, American, and French warships.[56] Once the ships were interned, their guns were disabled through the removal of their breech blocks, and their crews were reduced to 200 officers and men.[57]
The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced the
Notes
Footnotes
- Seiner Majestät Schiff" (English: His Majesty's Ship).
- ^ This is the German "sharp S"; see ß.
- ^ In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnelladekanone) denotes that the gun is quick loading, 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 45 times as long as it is in bore diameter.[5]
- ^ German warships were ordered under provisional names. For new additions to the fleet, they were given a single letter; for those ships intended to replace older or lost vessels, they were ordered as "Ersatz (name of the ship to be replaced)."
- ^ The times mentioned in this article are in CET, which is congruent with the German perspective. This is one hour ahead of UTC, the time zone commonly used in British works.
- ^ The compass can be divided into 32 points, each corresponding to 11.25 degrees. A two-point turn to port would alter the ships' course by 22.5 degrees.
- ^ V. E. Tarrant states that Nicator and Nestor launched four torpedoes against Grosser Kurfürst and König, though all four missed their targets. John Campbell, however, states that these two ships instead targeted Derfflinger and Lützow, and it was HMS Moorsom that fired the four torpedoes, though at Grosser Kurfürst and Markgraf. See: Tarrant, p. 114, and Campbell, pp. 55–56, respectively.
Citations
- ^ Hore, p. 69.
- ^ Herwig, p. 70.
- ^ Campbell & Sieche, pp. 147–148.
- ^ a b Gröner, p. 27.
- ^ Grießmer, p. 177.
- ^ a b c d e Gröner, p. 28.
- ^ Campbell & Sieche, p. 147.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 41.
- ^ Staff, p. 31.
- ^ a b c d e Staff, p. 32.
- ^ Massie, pp. 310–312.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 31–33.
- ^ a b c Staff, p. 29.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 43–44.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 53.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 54.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 286.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 94–95.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 100–101.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 110.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 110–111.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 116.
- ^ Campbell, p. 98.
- ^ Campbell, p. 100.
- ^ Campbell, p. 144.
- ^ Campbell, p. 58.
- ^ Campbell, p. 101.
- ^ Campbell, p. 104.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 137.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 138.
- ^ a b Campbell, pp. 152–153.
- ^ Campbell, p. 181.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 169.
- ^ Campbell, p. 204.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 204–206.
- ^ Campbell, p. 237.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 237–245.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 172–174.
- ^ Campbell, p. 275.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 298–301.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 300–301.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 246–247.
- ^ Campbell, p. 320.
- ^ Campbell, p. 336.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 292.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 296, 298.
- ^ a b c d Staff, p. 34.
- ^ Massie, p. 682.
- ^ Massie, p. 683.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 280–281.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 281–282.
- ^ Staff, pp. 34–35.
- ^ a b Tarrant, p. 282.
- ^ Herwig, p. 252.
- ^ a b Herwig, p. 256.
- ^ Herwig, pp. 254–255.
- ^ Herwig, p. 255.
- ^ "Bristol garden's WW1 German battleship bell sells for £5,000". BBC News. 22 March 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
References
- Campbell, John (1998). Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-1-55821-759-1.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. 4. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8364-9743-5.
- Hore, Peter (2006). Battleships of World War I. London: Southwater Books. ISBN 978-1-84476-377-1.
- ISBN 978-0-345-40878-5.
- Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918. Vol. 2: Kaiser, König And Bayern Classes. Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 978-1-84603-468-8.
- Tarrant, V. E. (2001) [1995]. Jutland: The German Perspective. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-304-35848-9.
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.
