SMS Lothringen

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SMS Lothringen in the Kiel Canal passing under the Levensau High Bridge
History
Germany
NameLothringen
Namesake
Lorraine
("Lothringen" in German)
Builder
Danzig
Laid down1 December 1902
Launched27 May 1904
Commissioned18 May 1906
Out of service2 March 1920
Stricken31 March 1931
FateScrapped in 1931
General characteristics
Class and typeBraunschweig-class pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement
Length127.7 m (419 ft) (loa)
Beam22.2 m (73 ft)
Draft8.1 m (27 ft)
Installed power
Propulsion
  • 3 ×
    triple-expansion steam engines
  • 3 × screw propellers
Speed18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range5,200 nautical miles (9,600 km; 6,000 mi); 10 knots (20 km/h; 10 mph)
Complement
  • 35 officers
  • 708 enlisted men
Armament
Armor
  • Belt: 110 to 250 mm (4.3 to 9.8 in)
  • Turrets: 250 mm (9.8 in)
  • Deck: 40 mm (1.6 in)

SMS Lothringen

Lothringen (now Lorraine). The ship was armed with a battery of four 28 cm (11 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Like all other pre-dreadnoughts built around the turn of the century, Lothringen was quickly made obsolete by the launching of the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought
in 1906; as a result, her career as a front-line battleship was cut short.

Lothringen's peacetime career centered on squadron and fleet exercises and training cruises with

raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby in December 1914. In poor condition by 1916, she was withdrawn from fleet service in February. She thereafter patrolled the Danish straits until she was replaced by the battleship Hannover in September 1917. She spent the rest of the war as a disarmed training ship
.

After the war, Lothringen was retained by the re-formed

ship breakers
later that year.

Design

Main article: Braunschweig-class battleship
Plan and profile drawing of the Braunschweig class

With the passage of the

Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office) adopted these guns for the new battleships, along with an increase from 15 cm (5.9 in) to 17 cm (6.7 in) for the secondary battery, owing to the increased threat from torpedo boats as torpedoes became more effective.[1][2]

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, just six months after Lothringen entered service.[3] Dreadnought's revolutionary design rendered every capital ship of the German navy obsolete, including Lothringen.[4]

Lothringen was 127.7 m (419 ft)

kW), which generated a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). She could steam 5,200 nautical miles (9,600 km; 6,000 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[5]

Lothringen's armament consisted of a

armored belt was 110 to 250 millimeters (4.3 to 9.8 in) thick, with the heavier armor in the central citadel that protected her magazines and propulsion machinery spaces, and the thinner plating at either end of the hull. Her deck was 40 mm (1.6 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 250 mm of armor plating.[10]

Service history

Construction through 1907

Lothringen, sometime before World War I

Lothringen was

sea trials. The ship formally joined II Battle Squadron on 1 July.[11][12]

The German fleet was occupied with extensive training exercises and cruises abroad during the early 1900s. The fleet, including Lothringen, began its usual summer cruise to Norway in mid-July, and it was present for the birthday of Norwegian King

Helgoland, to join exercises being conducted there. The fleet was back in Kiel by 15 August, where preparations for the autumn maneuvers began. On 22–24 August, the fleet took part in landing exercises in Eckernförde Bay outside Kiel. The maneuvers were paused from 31 August to 3 September when the fleet hosted vessels from Denmark and Sweden, along with a Russian squadron from 3 to 9 September, in Kiel. The maneuvers resumed on 8 September and lasted five more days.[13]

The ship participated in the uneventful winter cruise into the

Schleswig with IX Corps.[15] Lothringen won the Kaiser's Schießpreis (shooting prize) for excellence in gunnery in II Squadron that year.[11]

1908–1914

Lothringen in port, c. 1908

The fleet conducted training exercises in the Baltic in February 1908. In July, Lothringen and the rest of the fleet sailed into the Atlantic Ocean to conduct a major training cruise.

Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to the North Sea, and continued to the Atlantic through the English Channel. The fleet returned to Germany on 13 August. The autumn maneuvers followed from 27 August to 12 September. Later that year, the fleet toured coastal German cities as part of an effort to increase public support for naval expenditure.[16] Another cruise into the Atlantic was conducted from 7 July to 1 August 1909. On the way back to Germany, the High Seas Fleet was received by the British Royal Navy in Spithead.[17]

Later that year, Admiral

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Admiral Rudolf Montecuccoli.[18]

Lothringen was sent into the

dreadnought battleships. Further training exercises were conducted in November.[11][19][20]

Lothringen participated in ceremonies at

ultimatum to Serbia; Lothringen left Norway to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet the following day.[21] The ship had been scheduled to be removed from service on 30 July, but the outbreak of war interrupted that plan and she remained in service.[11]

World War I

Map of the North and Baltic Seas in 1911

After the outbreak of war in July 1914, the German command deployed II Squadron in the German Bight to defend Germany's coast from a major attack from the Royal Navy that the Germans presumed was imminent. Lothringen and her squadron mates were stationed in the mouth of the Elbe to support the vessels on patrol duty in the Bight.[22] Once it became clear that the British would not attack the High Seas Fleet, the Germans began a series of operations designed to lure out a portion of the numerically superior British Grand Fleet and destroy it.[23] By achieving a rough equality of forces, the Germans hoped that their fleet could then force a decisive battle in the southern portion of the North Sea.[24]

The first such operation in which the High Seas Fleet participated was the

raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby on 15–16 December 1914.[25] The main fleet acted as distant support for Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Franz von Hipper's battlecruiser squadron while it raided the coastal towns. On the evening of 15 December, the fleet came to within 10 nmi (19 km; 12 mi) of an isolated squadron of six British battleships. However, skirmishes between the rival destroyer screens in the darkness convinced the German fleet commander, VAdm Friedrich von Ingenohl, that the entire Grand Fleet was deployed before him. Under orders from Wilhelm II to avoid battle if victory was not certain, Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battlefleet back towards Germany.[26]

In February 1916, the

anti-torpedo nets installed to protect her from submarines in the confined waters of the Danish straits. Additionally, she was in poor condition by that time and required extensive repairs. After these were completed, she returned to service on 14 July and replaced Hessen in the straits in late August.[11][27]

Lothringen served in a guard ship role in the straits until September 1917, when she was replaced by the battleship Hannover. Lothringen proceeded to Wilhelmshaven, where she was decommissioned on 15 September. Over the next month, she was disarmed and converted into a training ship. She began service in this role on 16 October with a reduced crew. In addition to training new crews, she was used to train engine-room personnel. Lothringen remained in service until the end of the war on 11 November 1918. From 17 November to 16 December, she served as a headquarters ship for IV Battle Squadron.[8][11]

Post-war career

Following the German defeat in World War I, the German Navy was reorganized as the Reichsmarine according to the Treaty of Versailles. The new navy was permitted to retain eight pre-dreadnought battleships for coastal defense under Article 181, two of which would be in reserve.[28] Lothringen was among those ships chosen to remain on active service with the newly reformed Reichsmarine.[8] Like her sister Preussen, Lothringen was converted into a parent ship for F-type minesweepers at the Reichsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven in 1919; the ship was disarmed and platforms for holding the minesweepers were installed.[29]

Lothringen served in this capacity, carrying fourteen of the F-boats from the 10th Half-Flotilla, until the minesweeping work required by the Treaty of Versailles was completed. On 2 March 1920, the ship was placed in reserve and remained out of service until 24 March 1931, when

Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, but the historians Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz state that she was broken up in Wilhelmshaven.[8][11]

Footnotes

Notes

  1. Seiner Majestät Schiff
    " (English: His Majesty's Ship).
  2. ^ 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 caliber, meaning that the gun is 40 times as long as its bore is.[6]
  3. Ersatz [Name of the ship to be replaced]", or as additions to the fleet's authorized strength, denoted by a single letter. For example, the five Braunschweig-class ships were ordered under the 1900 Naval Law that had doubled the number of battleships authorized for the fleet, and thus their contracts were awarded under single letters.[5]

Citations

  1. ^ Herwig, pp. 43–44.
  2. ^ Staff, p. 4.
  3. ^ Campbell & Sieche, pp. 21–22.
  4. ^ Herwig, p. 57.
  5. ^ a b Gröner, p. 18.
  6. ^ Grießmer, p. 177.
  7. ^ Hore, p. 68.
  8. ^ a b c d Gröner, p. 20.
  9. ^ Dodson, p. 51.
  10. ^ Gröner, p. 19.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, p. 235.
  12. ^ Gröner, pp. 18, 20.
  13. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, pp. 59–60.
  14. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, p. 60.
  15. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, pp. 60–61.
  16. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, p. 238.
  17. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, pp. 235, 238.
  18. ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, pp. 240–241.
  19. ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 7, pp. 248–249.
  20. ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, pp. 243–244.
  21. ^ Scheer, p. 8.
  22. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 7, p. 249.
  23. ^ Tarrant, p. 27.
  24. ^ Campbell & Sieche, p. 136.
  25. ^ Tarrant, p. 31.
  26. ^ Tarrant, pp. 31–33.
  27. ^ Scheer, p. 140.
  28. ^ Sieche, p. 218.
  29. ^ Gröner, pp. 18–20.

References

Further reading

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