SMS Prinzregent Luitpold
SMS Prinzregent Luitpold
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History | |
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German Empire | |
Name | Prinzregent Luitpold |
Namesake | Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria |
Builder | Germaniawerft, Kiel |
Laid down | October 1910 |
Launched | 17 February 1912 |
Commissioned | 19 August 1913 |
Fate | Scuttled at Gutter Sound, Scapa Flow 21 June 1919 |
Notes | Raised in 1931 and broken up for scrapping 1933 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Kaiser-class battleship |
Displacement |
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Length | 172.4 m (565 ft 7 in) |
Beam | 29.0 m (95 ft 2 in) |
Draft | 9.1 m (29 ft 10 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 21.7 knots (40.2 km/h; 25.0 mph) |
Range | 7,900 nmi (14,600 km; 9,100 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Crew |
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Armament |
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Armor |
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SMS Prinzregent Luitpold
Prinzregent Luitpold was assigned to III Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet for the majority of her career; in December 1916, she was transferred to IV Battle Squadron. Along with her four sister ships, Kaiser, Friedrich der Grosse, Kaiserin, and König Albert, Prinzregent Luitpold participated in all of the major fleet operations of World War I, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. The ship was also involved in Operation Albion, an amphibious assault on the Russian-held islands in the Gulf of Riga, in late 1917.
After Germany's defeat in the war and the signing of the
Design
Prinzregent Luitpold was 172.4 m (565 ft 7 in) long
Prinzregent Luitpold was armed with a
Her main
Service history
Ordered under the contract name Ersatz Odin as a replacement for the obsolete
Directly after commissioning, Prinzregent Luitpold took part in the annual autumn maneuvers, which followed the fleet cruise to Norway. The exercises lasted from 31 August to 9 September. Unit drills and individual ship training were conducted in October and November.
World War I
Prinzregent Luitpold was present during the first
Prinzregent Luitpold went into the Baltic for squadron training from 23 to 29 January 1916.
Pohl's tenure as fleet commander was brief; by January 1916
Battle of Jutland
Prinzregent Luitpold was present during the fleet operation that resulted in the battle of
Shortly before 16:00, the battlecruisers of I Scouting Group encountered the British 1st Battlecruiser Squadron under the command of Vice Admiral
Prinzregent Luitpold engaged the nearest target her gunners could make out, one of the Lion-class battlecruisers, at a range of some 22,300 yd (20,400 m), though her shots fell short. Beatty's ships increased speed and at 17:51 veered away to further increase the distance to the III Squadron battleships.[22] At 18:08, Prinzregent Luitpold shifted her fire to the battleship Malaya at a range of 19,100 yd (17,500 m), though without any success.[23] By 18:38, Malaya disappeared in the haze and Prinzregent Luitpold was forced to cease fire.[24] The British destroyers Nestor and Nomad, which had been disabled earlier in the engagement, lay directly in the path of the advancing High Seas Fleet.[25] Prinzregent Luitpold and her three sisters destroyed Nomad with their secondary guns while the I Squadron battleships dispatched Nestor.[26] At around 19:00, the German battle line came into contact with the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron; Prinzregent Luitpold fired two salvos from her main battery at an unidentified four-funneled cruiser at 19:03 but made no hits.[27]
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 III Squadron to cover the stricken cruiser.[28] 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. The eight III Squadron battleships fired on the British cruisers, but even sustained fire from the battleships' main guns failed to drive off the British cruisers.[29] The armored cruisers Defence, Warrior, and Black Prince joined in the attack on the crippled Wiesbaden.[30] Between 19:14 and 19:17, several German battleships and battlecruisers opened fire on Defence and Warrior. Instead of joining the fire on the much closer cruisers, Prinzregent Luitpold engaged the leading battleships of the British line, firing a total of 21 salvos. The gunners reported ranges of 17,500 to 18,800 yd (16,000 to 17,200 m), though this was an overestimation that caused the ship's salvos to fall past their intended target.[31]
By 20:00, the German line was ordered to complete a 180-degree turn eastward to disengage from the British fleet.[32] The maneuver, conducted under heavy fire, caused disorganization in the German fleet. Kaiserin had come too close to Prinzregent Luitpold and was forced to haul out of line to starboard to avoid a collision. Prinzregent Luitpold came up alongside Kaiserin at high speed, which forced Kaiserin to remain out of line temporarily.[33] The turn reversed the order of the German line; Prinzregent Luitpold was now the eighth ship from the rear of the German line, leading III Squadron.[34][35] At around 23:30, the German fleet reorganized into the night-cruising formation. Prinzregent Luitpold was the tenth ship, in the center of the 24-ship line.[36]
After a series of night engagements between the leading battleships and British destroyers, the High Seas Fleet punched through the British light forces and reached
Subsequent operations
In early August, Prinzregent Luitpold and the rest of the operational III Squadron units conducted divisional training in the Baltic.
Another fleet advance followed on 18–20 October, though it ended without encountering any British units. Two weeks later, on 4 November, Prinzregent Luitpold took part in an expedition to the western coast of Denmark to assist two U-boats—U-20 and U-30—that had become stranded there. The fleet was reorganized on 1 December;[13] the four König-class battleships remained in III Squadron, along with the newly commissioned Bayern, while the five Kaiser-class ships, including Prinzregent Luitpold, were transferred to IV Squadron.[44] Prinzregent Luitpold became the flagship of the new squadron. In the Wilhelmshaven Roads on 20 January 1917, the ship struck a steel hawser that became entangled in the ship's starboard propeller.[13] In March, Friedrich der Grosse was replaced as the fleet flagship by the newly commissioned battleship Baden. Friedrich der Grosse in turn replaced Prinzregent Luitpold as the flagship of IV Squadron.[45] Steadily decreasing morale and discontent with rations provoked a series of small mutinies in the fleet. On 6 June and 19 July, stokers protested the low quality of the food they were given, and on 2 August, some 800 men went on a hunger strike. The ship's officers relented and agreed to form a Menagekommission, a council that gave the enlisted men a voice in their ration selection and preparation.[46] One of the ringleaders of the protests, however, was arrested and executed on 5 September.[13]
Operation Albion
In early September 1917, following the German conquest of the Russian port of
The operation began on the morning of 12 October, when Moltke and the III Squadron ships engaged Russian positions in Tagga Bay while Prinzregent Luitpold and the rest of IV Squadron shelled Russian gun batteries on the
After arriving in Kiel, Prinzregent Luitpold went into drydock for periodic maintenance, from which she emerged on 21 December. She then proceeded on to Wilhelmshaven, where she resumed guard duty in the Bight. On 17 March 1918, the ship steamed to the Baltic for training exercises, and the following day the battlecruiser Derfflinger rammed her outside Kiel. The accident caused no serious damage, however. The ship participated in the fruitless advance to Norway on 23–25 April 1918, after which she resumed guard duties in the German Bight.[53]
Fate
Prinzregent Luitpold and her four sisters were to have taken part in a
Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, most of the High Seas Fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral
The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced 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 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.[2]
- ^ 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 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.
Citations
- ^ a b c d e Gröner, p. 26.
- ^ Grießmer, p. 177.
- ^ Staff, Battleships, p. 4.
- ^ Staff, Battleships, p. 6.
- ^ Campbell & Sieche, p. 147.
- ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 54.
- ^ Staff, Battleships, pp. 21–22.
- ^ a b Staff, Battleships, pp. 14, 22.
- ^ Heyman, p. xix.
- ^ a b c d e Staff, Battleships, pp. 19, 22.
- ^ Herwig, pp. 149–150.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 31–33.
- ^ a b c d e f g Staff, Battleships, p. 22.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 43–44.
- ^ Herwig, p. 161.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 50.
- ^ Staff, Battleships, pp. 32, 35.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 286.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 94–95.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 100–101.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 110.
- ^ Campbell, p. 54.
- ^ Campbell, p. 99.
- ^ Campbell, p. 104.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 114.
- ^ Campbell, p. 101.
- ^ Campbell, p. 111.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 137.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 138.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 139.
- ^ Campbell, p. 152.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 169.
- ^ Campbell, pp. 200–201.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 172.
- ^ Campbell, p. 201.
- ^ Campbell, p. 275.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 246–247.
- ^ Campbell, p. 320.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 263.
- ^ Tarrant, p. 292.
- ^ Massie, p. 682.
- ^ Staff, Battleships, p. 15.
- ^ Massie, p. 683.
- ^ Halpern, p. 214.
- ^ Staff, Battleships, pp. 15, 22.
- ^ Herwig, p. 232.
- ^ Halpern, p. 213.
- ^ Halpern, pp. 214–215.
- ^ a b Halpern, p. 215.
- ^ Staff, Battle for the Baltic Islands, pp. 20–21.
- ^ Staff, Battle for the Baltic Islands, p. 67.
- ^ Halpern, p. 219.
- ^ a b Staff, Battleships, p. 23.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 280–281.
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 281–282.
- ^ a b Tarrant, p. 282.
- ^ Herwig, p. 252.
- ^ a b Herwig, p. 256.
- ^ Herwig, pp. 254–255.
- ^ Herwig, p. 255.
- ^ Bowman, p. 224.
References
- Bowman, Gerald (2002) [1964]. The Man Who Bought A Navy: The Story of The World's Greatest Salvage Achievement at Scapa Flow. Surbiton: Harrap. OCLC 2219189.
- 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.
- Heyman, Neil M. (1997). World War I. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-29880-6.
- 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 978-3-7822-0267-1.
- 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.
- Staff, Gary (2008) [1995]. Battle for the Baltic Islands 1917: Triumph of the Imperial German Navy. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime. ISBN 978-1-84415-787-7.
- 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.