SMS Preussen (1903)
 Preussen in 1907
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
  Germany | |
| Name | Preussen |
| Namesake | Prussia |
| Builder | AG Vulcan Stettin |
| Laid down | April 1902 |
| Launched | 30 October 1903 |
| Commissioned | 12 July 1905 |
| Stricken | 5 April 1929 |
| Fate | Scrapped, 1931 |
| 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 |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Range | 5,200 nautical miles (9,600 km; 6,000 mi); 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
|
| Armor | |
SMS Preussen
Preussen's peacetime career centered on squadron and fleet exercises and training cruises to foreign ports. The ship served as the flagship of II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet for the majority of her career. During World War I, she served as a guard ship in the German Bight and later in the Danish straits. She participated in a fleet sortie in December 1914 in support of the Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby during which the German fleet briefly clashed with a detachment of the British Grand Fleet. Preussen had been temporarily assigned to guard ship duties in the Baltic in May 1916, and so missed the Battle of Jutland. Due to her age, she did not rejoin the fleet, and instead continued to serve as a guard ship until 1917, when she became a tender for U-boats based in Wilhelmshaven.
After the war, Preussen was retained by the re-formed
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, less than a year and a half after Preussen entered service.[3] Dreadnought's revolutionary design rendered every capital ship of the German navy obsolete, including Preussen.[4]
Preussen was 127.7 m (419 ft)
Preussen's armament consisted of a
Service history
Construction through 1907
Preussen was
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The German fleet was occupied with extensive training exercises during the early 1900s. The ships were occupied with individual, division and squadron exercises throughout April 1906, the only interruption being in February, when Preussen carried
The fleet was back in
1908–1914
The fleet conducted training exercises in the Baltic in February 1908.
In early 1909, Preussen and the battleships
In May 1910, the fleet conducted training maneuvers in the Kattegat. These were in accordance with Holtzendorff's strategy, which envisioned drawing the Royal Navy into the narrow waters there. The annual summer cruise was to Norway, and was followed by fleet training, during which another fleet review was held in
In mid-1912, due to the
Preussen participated in ceremonies at
World War I
After the outbreak of war in August 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. Preussen 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 German navy 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 KAdm 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 Ingenohl, who was now the German fleet commander, 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] At the end of the month, Scheer was replaced by KAdm Felix Funke, Scheer going on to command III Battle Squadron.[22]
On 14 March 1915, Preussen went to Kiel for periodic maintenance, and she was replaced as the squadron flagship by the battleship Deutschland. The latter vessel held the position for the remainder of the squadron's existence, with the exceptions of 19 September to 16 October 1915, 25 February to 7 April 1916, in September that year, and from 22 January to 10 February 1917; during each of these periods, Preussen temporarily resumed the flagship role. Starting in April 1916, the ships of II Squadron were tasked with patrolling the Danish straits; each ship of the squadron was to rotate through the duty, the others remaining in the Elbe or serving with the main fleet. Preussen began her first stint on 21 April, replacing Hessen; she was accordingly absent during the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft three days later. On 4 May, Preussen was relieved and she returned to the Elbe, though she was transferred back to the straits on 21 May, remaining there until 8 June. As a result, she missed the Battle of Jutland, fought on 31 May – 1 June in the North Sea.[22] Her sister ship Lothringen also missed the battle, as she had been deemed to be in too poor a condition to participate in the fleet sortie.[27]
Jutland proved to Scheer, who was now the fleet commander, that the pre-dreadnought battleships were too vulnerable to take part in a major fleet action, and so he detached II Squadron from the High Seas Fleet.
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 under Article 181—two of which would be in reserve—for coastal defense.[30] Preussen was among those ships chosen to remain on active service with the Reichsmarine.[7] The ship 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.[31]
Preussen was commissioned with the Reichsmarine to support the minesweeping effort, though she proved to be too top-heavy to serve as an effective mothership, and she was soon replaced by the old light cruiser Arcona. Preussen was placed in reserve and was left out of service until 1929, when she was stricken from the naval register on 5 April. The Reichsmarine sold her to ship breakers on 25 February 1931 for 216,800 Reichsmarks. Preussen was subsequently broken up for scrap in Wilhelmshaven, though a 63 m (207 ft) length of her hull was retained as a testing target for underwater weapons, including torpedoes and mines. The section of hull was nicknamed "SMS Vierkant ("SMS Rectangle"). Allied bombers attacked and sank the section of Preussen's hull in April 1945. It was eventually raised and scrapped in late 1954.[7][22]
Footnotes
Notes
- Seiner Majestät Schiff" (English: His Majesty's Ship).
- eszett (ß, or "sharp S"), though there is no capital eszett and German ship names were rendered in all capitals, so the ship's name was rendered PREUSSEN.
- ^ 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 it is in diameter.[6]
Citations
- ^ Herwig, pp. 43–44.
- ^ Staff, p. 4.
- ^ Sieche, pp. 21–22.
- ^ Herwig, p. 57.
- ^ Gröner, p. 18.
- ^ Grießmer, p. 177.
- ^ a b c d Gröner, p. 20.
- ^ Dodson, p. 51.
- ^ Gröner, p. 19.
- ^ Gröner, pp. 18, 20.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 7, p. 248.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, p. 58.
- ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, p. 59.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, p. 60.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, pp. 60–61.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, p. 238.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, pp. 235, 238.
- ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, pp. 240–241.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, pp. 243–244.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 7, pp. 248–249.
- ^ Scheer, p. 8.
- ^ a b c d e f Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 7, p. 249.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 27.
- ^ Campbell & Sieche, p. 136.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 31.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 31–33.
- ^ Scheer, p. 140.
- ^ Scheer, p. 187.
- ^ Mikaelian & Wallace, pp. 57–58.
- ^ Sieche, p. 218.
- ^ Gröner, pp. 18–20.
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.
- 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 978-3-7822-0287-9.
- 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. 5. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0456-9.
- 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. 7. Ratingen: Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8364-9743-5.
- Mikaelian, Allen & Wallace, Mike (2003). Medal of Honor: Profiles of America's Military Heroes from the Civil War to the Present. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 978-0-7868-8576-3.
- Scheer, Reinhard (1920). Germany's High Seas Fleet in the World War. London: Cassell and Company. OCLC 2765294.
- Sieche, Erwin (1980). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 218–254. ISBN 978-0-87021-913-9.
- Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918 (1). Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 978-1-84603-467-1.
- 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.
- 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.