SMS Helgoland (1909)
SMS Helgoland c. 1911–1917
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History | |
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German Empire | |
Name | Helgoland |
Namesake | Heligoland |
Builder | Howaldtswerke, Kiel |
Laid down | 11 November 1908 |
Launched | 25 September 1909 |
Commissioned | 23 August 1911 |
Decommissioned | 16 December 1918 |
Stricken | 5 November 1919 |
Fate | Ceded to Great Britain in 1920. Scrapped in 1921 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Helgoland-class battleship |
Displacement |
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Length | 167.20 m (548 ft 7 in) |
Beam | 28.50 m (93 ft 6 in) |
Draft | 8.94 m (29 ft 4 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 20.8 knots (38.5 km/h; 23.9 mph) |
Range | 5,500 nautical miles (10,190 km; 6,330 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement |
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Armament |
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Armor |
SMS Helgoland,
Like most battleships of the
Design
The ship was 167.2 m (548 ft 7 in) long, had a
Helgoland was armed with a
Her main
Service history
Helgoland was ordered by the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) under the provisional name Ersatz Siegfried, as a replacement for the old
Upon commissioning, Helgoland replaced the
On 10 July 1914, Helgoland left the
World War I
At the start of World War I, Helgoland was assigned to I Division, I Battle Squadron.[14] Helgoland was stationed off the heavily fortified island of Wangerooge on 9 August. Minefields and picket lines of cruisers, torpedo boats, and submarines were also emplaced there to defend Wilhelmshaven. Helgoland's engines were kept running for the entirety of her deployment, so that she would be ready to respond at a moment's notice.[15] Four days later, on 13 August, Helgoland returned to Wilhelmshaven to refuel.[16] The following day, naval reservists began arriving to fill out the wartime complements for the German battleships.[17]
The first major naval action in the North Sea, the
Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby
The first major operation of the war in which Helgoland took part was the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 15–16 December 1914. The raid was conducted by the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group; Helgoland and the other dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet steamed in distant support of Franz von Hipper's battlecruisers. Friedrich von Ingenohl, the commander of the High Seas Fleet, decided to take up station in the middle of the North Sea, about 130 miles east of Scarborough.[24]
The
On 17 January, Ingenohl ordered Helgoland to go back to the docks for more maintenance, but she did not enter the drydock until three days later, owing to difficulties getting through the canal locks.[27] By the middle of the month, Helgoland left dock; her berth was then filled by the armored cruiser SMS Roon.[28] On 10 February, Helgoland and the rest of I Squadron sailed out of Wilhelmshaven towards Cuxhaven, but heavy fog impeded movement for two days. The ships then anchored off Brunsbüttel before proceeding through the Kiel Canal to Kiel.[29] The crews conducted gunnery training with the main and secondary guns and torpedo firing practice on 1 March.[30] The following night the crews conducted night-fighting training. On 10 March the squadron again passed through the locks to return to Wilhelmshaven.[31] Fog again slowed progress, and the ships did not reach port until 15 March.[32]
Battle of the Gulf of Riga
Helgoland, her three sister ships, and the four Nassau-class battleships were assigned to the task force that was to cover the foray into the
Battle of Jutland
Under the command of Captain von Kameke,[35] Helgoland fought at the Battle of Jutland, alongside her sister ships in I Battle Squadron. For the majority of the battle, I Battle Squadron formed the center of the line of battle, behind Rear Admiral Behncke's III Battle Squadron, and followed by Rear Admiral Mauve's elderly pre-dreadnoughts of II Battle Squadron.[14]
Helgoland and her sisters first entered direct combat shortly after 18:00. The German line was steaming northward and encountered the destroyers Nomad and Nestor, which had been disabled earlier in the battle. Nomad, which had been attacked by the Kaiser-class ships at the head of the line, exploded and sank at 18:30, followed five minutes later by the Nestor, sunk by main and secondary gunfire from Helgoland, Thüringen and several other German battleships.[36] At 19:20, Helgoland and several other battleships began firing on HMS Warspite, which, along with the other Queen Elizabeth-class battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron, had been pursuing the German battlecruiser force. The shooting stopped quickly though, as the Germans lost sight of their target; Helgoland had fired only about 20 shells from her main guns.[37]
At 20:15, during the third Gefechtskehrtwendung,
By 23:30, the High Seas Fleet had entered its night cruising formation. The order had largely been inverted, with the four Nassau-class ships in the lead, followed directly by the Helgolands, with the Kaisers and Königs astern of them. The rear was again brought up by the elderly pre-dreadnoughts; the mauled German battlecruisers were by this time scattered.[42] At around midnight on 1 June, the Helgoland- and Nassau-class ships in the center of the German line came into contact with the British 4th Destroyer Flotilla. The 4th Flotilla broke off the action temporarily to regroup, but at around 01:00, unwittingly stumbled into the German dreadnoughts a second time.[43] Helgoland and Oldenburg opened fire on the two leading British destroyers.[44] Helgoland fired six salvos from her secondary guns at the destroyer Fortune before she succumbed to the tremendous battering.[45] Shortly after, Helgoland shifted fire to an unidentified destroyer; Helgoland fired five salvos from her 15 cm guns to unknown effect.[46] The British destroyers launched torpedoes at the German ships, but they managed to successfully evade them with a turn to starboard.[47]
Following the return to German waters, Helgoland and Thüringen, along with the
Later career
After the Battle of Jutland, Admiral Scheer argued that the fleet could not break the British naval blockade, that only the resumption of unrestricted U-boat warfare would be successful. As a result, the High Seas Fleet largely remained in port, with the exception of two abortive
Helgoland and her three sisters were to have taken part in a
Early on the 30th, the crew of Helgoland, which was directly behind Thüringen in the harbor, joined in the mutiny. The I Squadron commander sent boats to Helgoland and Thüringen to take off the ships' officers, who were allowed to leave unharmed. He then informed the rebellious crews that if they failed to stand down, both ships would be torpedoed. After two torpedo boats arrived on the scene, both ships surrendered; their crews were taken ashore and incarcerated.[56] The rebellion then spread ashore; on 3 November, an estimated 20,000 sailors, dock workers, and civilians fought a battle in Kiel in an attempt to secure the release of the jailed mutineers.[57] By 5 November, the red flag of the Socialists flew above every capital ship in Wilhelmshaven save König. The following day, a sailors' council took control of the base, and a train carrying the mutineers from Helgoland and Thüringen was stopped in Cuxhaven, where the men escaped.[57]
According to the terms of the
Footnotes
Notes
- Seiner Majestät Schiff" (German: His Majesty's Ship).
- ^ 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 caliber, meaning that the gun is 50 times as long as its diameter.[3]
- ^ This translates roughly as the "battle about-turn", and was a simultaneous 16-point turn of the entire High Seas Fleet. It had never been conducted under enemy fire before the Battle of Jutland.[38]
Citations
- ^ a b c d Gröner, p. 24.
- ^ a b c d Gröner, p. 25.
- ^ Grießmer, p. 177.
- ^ Campbell & Sieche, p. 146.
- ^ Sturton, p. 31.
- ^ Herwig, p. 31.
- ^ a b c d e Staff (Battleships), p. 42.
- ^ Stumpf, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Stumpf, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Stumpf, pp. 18–20.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 22.
- ^ Stumpf, pp. 22–23.
- ^ a b Tarrant, p. 286.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 29.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 30.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 32.
- ^ Osborne, p. 41.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 38.
- ^ Stumpf, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 42.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 44.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 46.
- ^ a b Tarrant, p. 31.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 32.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 33.
- ^ Stumpf, pp. 58–59.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 63.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 67.
- ^ Stumpf, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 72.
- ^ Stumpf, p. 74.
- ^ Halpern, p. 196.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 197–198.
- ^ Scheer, p. 137.
- ^ Campbell, p. 101.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 142–143.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 153–154.
- ^ Campbell, p. 245.
- ^ Campbell, p. 246.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 173, 175.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 275–276.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 222.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 223.
- ^ Campbell, p. 289.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 290–291.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 224.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 263.
- ^ Campbell, p. 336.
- ^ Campbell, p. 348.
- ^ Campbell, p. 359.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 330–332.
- ^ Staff (Battlecruisers), p. 17.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 280–281.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 281–282.
- ^ New York Times Co., p. 440.
- ^ a b Schwartz, p. 48.
- ^ Treaty of Versailles, Article 185.
- ^ Hore, p. 68.
- ^ Miller, p. 101.
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.
- 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.
- Hore, Peter (2006). Battleships of World War I. London: Southwater Books. ISBN 978-1-84476-377-1.
- Miller, David (2001). Illustrated Directory of Warships of the World. Osceola, Wisconsin: Zenith Imprint. ISBN 978-0-7603-1127-1.
- New York Times Co. (1919). The New York Times Current History: Jan.–March, 1919. New York: The New York Times Company.
- Naval Institute Proceedings. Vol. 38. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute. 1912.
- Osborne, Eric W. (2006). The Battle of Heligoland Bight. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34742-8.
- OCLC 2765294.
- Schwartz, Stephen (1986). Brotherhood of the Sea: A History of the Sailors' Union of the Pacific, 1885–1985. San Francisco: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0-88738-121-8.
- Staff, Gary (2006). German Battlecruisers: 1914–1918. Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 978-1-84603-009-3.
- Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918. Vol. 1: Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland Classes. Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 978-1-84603-467-1.
- Stumpf, Richard (1967). Horn, Daniel (ed.). War, Mutiny and Revolution in the German Navy: The World War I Diary of Seaman Richard Stumpf. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
- Sturton, Ian, ed. (1987). Conway's All the World's Battleships: 1906 to the Present. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-448-0.
- 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.