SMS Regensburg

Coordinates: 47°43′32″N 3°22′09″W / 47.7255°N 3.3692°W / 47.7255; -3.3692
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Postcard depicting a sketch of Regensburg
History
German Empire
NameRegenseburg
NamesakeCity of Regensburg
BuilderAG Weser, Bremen
Laid down1912
Launched25 April 1914
Commissioned3 January 1915
Stricken10 March 1920
FateCeded to France
France
NameStrasbourg
NamesakeCity of Strasbourg
Acquired4 June 1920
Out of service14 June 1936
FateScuttled in Lorient, 1944
General characteristics
Class and typeGraudenz-class cruiser
Displacement
Length142.7 m (468 ft 2 in)
Beam13.8 m (45 ft 3 in)
Draft5.75 m (18 ft 10 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed27.5 kn (50.9 km/h)
Range5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Crew
  • 21 officers
  • 364 enlisted men
Armament
Armor

SMS Regensburg was a

Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). She had one sister ship, SMS Graudenz. The ship was built by the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, laid down in 1912, launched in April 1914, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in January 1915. She was named for the German town of Regensburg. The ship was armed with a main battery of twelve 10.5 cm SK L/45 guns and had a top speed of 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph), though in 1917 she was rearmed with seven 15 cm SK L/45
guns.

Regensburg served in the reconnaissance forces of the

U-boat pens
there.

Design

Main article: Graudenz-class cruiser
SMS Regensburg in her configuration of 1918

Regensburg was 142.7 meters (468 ft)

full load. Her propulsion system consisted of two sets of Marine steam turbines driving two 3.5-meter (11 ft) propellers. They were designed to give 26,000 shaft horsepower (19,000 kW). These were powered by ten coal-fired Marine-type water-tube boilers and two oil-fired double-ended boilers. These gave the ship a top speed of 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph). Regensburg carried 1,280 t (1,260 long tons) of coal, and an additional 375 t (369 long tons) of oil that gave her a range of approximately 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). She had a crew of 21 officers and 364 enlisted men.[1]

The ship was armed with twelve

armored belt that was 60 mm (2.4 in) thick amidships. The conning tower had 100 mm (3.9 in) thick sides, and the armor deck consisted of up to 60 mm thick armor plate.[3]

Service history

Regensburg was ordered under the contract name "

Polangen and Papensee; the operation lasted until the 24th.[1][4] Captain Hans Zenker proposed that Regensburg and the liner Cap Polonio—which was to be armed with 15 cm guns—should be sent out into the Atlantic to replace the commerce raiding cruisers that had been destroyed in the early months of the war. The fleet commander, Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, argued the ships would eventually be sunk as well, and that any possible successes for the raiders would not equal the loss of a modern light cruiser or a large passenger liner. The suggested plan was therefore abandoned.[5]

On 17–18 May, Regensburg took part in a mine-laying operation in the area of the Dogger Bank. On 25 August, she went into the Baltic to bombard Russian positions again, this time on the island of Dagö, including the lighthouse in St. Andreasberg and the signal station on Cap Ristna. On 11–12 May, Regensburg participated in another mine-laying operation, this time off Texel. In September, she took part in anti-shipping sweeps in the Skagerrak and the Kattegat. In early 1916, she continued supporting mine-laying operations and reconnaissance sweeps into the North Sea. On 23–24 April, she participated in the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, conducted by the battlecruisers of Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's I Scouting Group.[4]

Battle of Jutland

Maps showing the maneuvers of the British (blue) and German (red) fleets on 30–31 May 1916
Main article: Battle of Jutland

In May 1916, Admiral Reinhard Scheer, the fleet commander, planned to lure a portion of the British fleet away from its bases and destroy it with the entire High Seas Fleet. For the planned operation, Regensburg, commanded by Commodore Paul Heinrich, was assigned to serve as the leader of the torpedo boat flotillas that screened for the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group. The squadron left the Jade roadstead at 02:00 on 31 May, bound for the waters of the Skagerrak. The main body of the fleet followed an hour and a half later. At around 15:30, the cruiser screens of the I Scouting Group and the British 1st Battlecruiser Squadron engaged; Regensburg was on the disengaged side of the German formation, but steamed to reach the head of the line of battle. As she was moving into position, the opposing battlecruisers opened fire; Regensburg was some 2,200 yd (2,000 m) from the German battlecruisers, still on the disengaged side. Her crew noted that the British shells were falling well over their targets, which placed Regensburg in greater danger than the battlecruisers at which the British were aiming. By 17:10, Regensburg had reached the head of the line, and the battlecruiser HMS Tiger fired several salvos at her, mistaking her for a battlecruiser.[6]

As the battlecruiser squadrons closed on each other, Regensburg ordered the torpedo boats to make a general attack on the British formation. The British had similarly ordered an attack with their destroyers, which led to a hard-fought battle at close range between the opposing destroyer forces, supported by light cruisers and the battlecruisers' secondary guns. Shortly after 19:00, Regensburg led an attack with several torpedo boats on the cruiser Canterbury and four destroyers. She disabled the destroyer Shark and then shifted fire to Canterbury, which turned away into the mist. By 20:15, the British and German main fleets had engaged, and Scheer sought a withdrawal; he therefore ordered the I Scouting Group to charge the British line while the rest of the fleet turned away. This was in turn covered by a massed torpedo boat attack, which forced the British to turn away as well. Regensburg and her torpedo boats were ordered to join the attack, but the I Scouting Group had passed in front of his ships, and he realized the British had turned away, which put them out of range of his torpedoes.[7]

Having successfully disengaged, Scheer ordered Regensburg to organize three torpedo boat flotillas to make attacks on the British fleet during the night. At 21:10, Heinrich dispatched the II Flotilla and XII Half-Flotilla from the rear of the German line to attack the British formation. In the night, the High Seas Fleet successfully passed behind the British fleet and reached

Horns Reef by 04:00 on 1 June. At 09:45, Regensburg and three torpedo boats turned around to rendezvous with the torpedo boats carrying the crew of the scuttled battlecruiser Lützow. In the course of the battle, Regensburg' had fired 372 rounds of 10.5 cm ammunition and emerged completely unscathed.[8]

Subsequent operations

By 1917, Regensburg had been assigned to the IV Scouting Group, along with Stralsund and Pillau. In late October 1917, the IV Scouting Group steamed to Pillau, arriving on the 30th. They were tasked with replacing the heavy units of the fleet that had just completed Operation Albion, the conquest of the islands in the Gulf of Riga, along with the battleships of the I Battle Squadron. The risk of mines that had come loose in a recent storm, however, prompted the naval command to cancel the mission, and Regensburg and the rest of the IV Scouting Group was ordered to return to the North Sea on 31 October.[9]

By October 1918, Regensburg was serving as the

mutinied. The unrest ultimately forced Hipper and Scheer to cancel the operation.[10][11]

As the mutinies spread, Regensburg was sent to

Kaiser Wilhelm II on 9 November, however, which indicated to Rohardt that his ships could no longer fly the Imperial ensign. He therefore placed Regensburg and Brummer out of commission. A new officer arrived in Stettin to serve as Regensburg's commander, but he had few officers and no crew.[12] In December 1918, Regensburg escorted the British battleship HMS Hercules, which was carrying the Allied Armistice Commission, to Kiel.[13]

French service

The wreck of Regensburg in the River Blavet, Lorient.

Regensburg served in the newly reorganized

naval register on 10 March 1920 and placed out of service. On 4 June 1920, the ship was surrendered to the Allies in the port of Cherbourg, France and transferred under the name "J" to the French Navy. She was renamed Strasbourg and served with the French fleet.[14] After arriving in France in 1920, she received a new battery of French 75 mm (3 in) anti-aircraft guns in place of her 8.8 cm guns. The rear superfiring 15 cm gun was removed and the 75 mm guns were installed where the 15 cm gun had been. She was commissioned into the French fleet in 1922.[15]

She was initially home-ported in Brest, until she was transferred to Toulon in 1923, where she remained for the next three years.[16] Here, she served with the other ex-German cruisers Mulhouse and Metz and the ex-Austro-Hungarian Thionville in the 3rd Light Division (which was renamed the 2nd Light division in December 1926).[15] In 1925, she underwent a major overhaul, after which she made 26 kn (48 km/h; 30 mph) on speed trials.[17] Strasbourg participated in the Rif War in the mid-1920s; on 7 September 1925, she and the battleship Paris and the cruiser Metz supported a landing of French troops in North Africa. The three ships provided heavy gunfire support to the landing troops.[18] In early 1928, a major earthquake struck Corinth, Greece; Strassbourg was among the vessels sent to aid in the relief effort. The international effort provided assistance to 15,000 people.[19]

Also in 1928, she assisted in the search effort for the wrecked

Italia, which had crashed on the polar ice northeast of Svalbard.[20] In addition, Roald Amundsen, who had also joined the search effort, went missing himself. Strassbourg arrived in Tromsø, Norway, on 19 June, to search for both Italia and Amundsen's aircraft. The ship's bow was not designed to operate in an Arctic environment, and so the crew had to continually fix wood planks to the hull to protect it from the ice. While refueling from the tanker Durance, Strassbourg took on two FBA 17 seaplanes to assist in the search effort. On 30 August, Strassbourg located one of the floats from Amundsen's aircraft, confirming the loss of the plane. The search effort was called off on 17 September, and Strassbourg returned to Brest by way of Reykjavík, arriving back in France by mid October.[19]

She remained in service until 14 June 1936, when she was placed in reserve. Her name was reused for the new battleship

anti-torpedo nets to strengthen the defenses of the area. In 1944, she was scuttled in the harbor to protect the pens from torpedo attack. Her wreck remains in the harbor, and is visible at low tide.[14][21][22]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Gröner, pp. 109–110.
  2. ^ Campbell & Sieche, pp. 140, 161.
  3. ^ Gröner, p. 109.
  4. ^ a b Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 60.
  5. ^ Woodward, p. 35.
  6. ^ Tarrant, pp. 62, 75, 90, 99.
  7. ^ Tarrant, pp. 101, 130–131, 181–185.
  8. ^ Tarrant, pp. 186–187, 202, 246–247, 260, 292, 296.
  9. ^ Staff, pp. 146–147.
  10. ^ Woodward, pp. 118–119.
  11. ^ Tarrant, pp. 280–282.
  12. ^ Woodward, pp. 165–166.
  13. ^ Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz, p. 62.
  14. ^ a b Gröner, p. 110.
  15. ^ a b Dodson, p. 151.
  16. ^ Maurette & Moriceau, p. 18.
  17. ^ Smigielski, p. 201.
  18. ^ Álvarez, p. 185.
  19. ^ a b Maurette & Moriceau, p. 19.
  20. ^ The Daily News Almanac and Political Register, p. 443.
  21. ^ Dodson, pp. 151, 157.
  22. ^ Maurette & Moriceau, pp. 19–20.

References

Further reading

47°43′32″N 3°22′09″W / 47.7255°N 3.3692°W / 47.7255; -3.3692

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