German battleship Schleswig-Holstein
Encyclopedia
SMS Schleswig-Holstein, one of the five s, was the last pre-dreadnought battleship built by the German Kaiserliche Marine
. The ship was laid down in the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel
in August 1905 and commissioned into the fleet nearly three years later in July 1908. The ships of her class were already outdated by the time they entered service, being inferior in size, armor, firepower and speed to the new post- battleships. The ship was named for the province of Schleswig-Holstein
.
The ship fought in both World Wars. During World War I
, she saw front-line service in the II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet
, which culminated in the Battle of Jutland
on 31 May – 1 June 1916. After the battle, Schleswig-Holstein was relegated to guard duties in the mouth of the Elbe River before being decommissioned in late 1917. As one of the few battleships permitted for Germany by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
, Schleswig-Holstein was again pressed into fleet service in the 1920s. In the early 1930s, the old battleship was converted into a training ship for naval cadets.
Schleswig-Holstein holds the distinction of firing the first shots of World War II
when she fired at the Polish base
at Westerplatte
on in the early morning hours of 1 September 1939. The ship was used as a training vessel for the majority of the war, and was sunk by British bombers in December 1944. Schleswig-Holstein was briefly used in the Soviet Navy
before being broken up for scrap metal. The ship's bell is on display in the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden
.
with the other battleships of the High Seas Fleet
. She was laid down on 18 August 1905 at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel
. She was launched on 17 December 1906, the last pre-dreadnought battleship of the German navy. However, the British battleship —armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—had already been commissioned nearly two years prior, in December 1906. Dreadnoughts revolutionary design rendered every ship of the German navy obsolete, including Schleswig-Holstein.
Schleswig-Holstein was 127.6 metre long, had a beam of 22.2 metre, and a draft of 8.21 metre. She had a full-load displacement of 14218 tonnes (13,993.4 LT). She was equipped with triple expansion engines that produced a rated 16000 ihp and a top speed of 19.1 kn (10.4 m/s). In addition to being the fastest ship of her class, Schleswig-Holstein was the second most fuel efficient. At a cruising speed of 10 kn (5.4 m/s), she could steam for 5720 nautical miles (10,593.4 km).
The ship's primary armament consisted of four 28 cm SK L/40 gun
s in two twin turrets.In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnelladekanone) denotes that the gun is quick loading, while the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 calibers, meaning that the gun is 40 times as long as it is in diameter. She was also equipped with fourteen 17 cm (6.7 in) guns mounted in casemates and twenty 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns in pivot mounts. The ship was also armed with six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, all submerged in the hull.
s on 6 July 1908. Her crew largely came from her sistership . On 21 September the ship was assigned to the II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet
, alongside her sister ships. In November, fleet and unit exercises were conducted in the Baltic Sea
. The training regimen in which Schleswig-Holstein participated followed a similar pattern over the next five years. This included another cruise into the Atlantic, which was conducted from 7 July to 1 August 1909. Fleet maneuvers were conducted in the spring, followed by a summer cruise to Norway
, and additional fleet training in the fall. On 3 October 1911, the ship was transferred back to the II Squadron. Due to the Agadir Crisis
in July, the summer cruise only went into the Baltic. On 14 July 1914, the annual summer cruise to Norway began, but the threat of war in Europe caused the excursion to be cut short; within two weeks Schleswig-Holstein and the rest of the II Squadron had returned to Wilhelmshaven.
on 15–16 December 1914. During the operation, the German battle fleet of some 12 dreadnoughts and 8 pre-dreadnoughts came to within 10 nmi (18.5 km) of a isolated squadron of six British battleships. However, skirmishes between the rival destroyer
screens convinced the German commander, Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl
, that he was confronted with the entire Grand Fleet, and so he broke off the engagement and turned for home. In April 1916, the ship had two of her 8.8 cm guns removed and replaced with 8.8 cm Flak guns.
Schleswig-Holstein then participated in a fleet advance to the Dogger Bank
on 21–22 April 1915. On 11–12 September, the II Reconnaissance Group conducted a minelaying operation off the Swarte Bank with the II Squadron in support. This was followed by another sweep by the fleet on 23–24 October that ended without result. The II and III Battle Squadron dreadnoughts conducted an advance into the North Sea on 5–7 March 1916; Schleswig-Holstein and the rest of II Squadron remained in the German Bight
, ready to sail in support. They then rejoined the fleet during the operation to bombard Yarmouth and Lowestoft
on 24–25 April. During this operation, the battlecruiser was damaged by a British mine and had to return to port prematurely. Visibility was poor, so the operation was quickly called off before the British fleet could intervene.
, immediately planned another advance into the North Sea, but the damage to Seydlitz delayed the operation until the end of May. Schleswig-Holstein was the last ship assigned to the IV Division of the II Battle Squadron, which was positioned at the rear of the German line. As a result, Schleswig-Holstein was the rearmost battleship in the line. The II Battle Squadron was commanded by Rear Admiral Franz Mauve. During the "Run to the North," Admiral Reinhard Scheer
, the commander of the fleet, ordered the fleet to pursue the retreating battleships of the British 5th Battle Squadron at top speed. Schleswig-Holstein and her sisters, being significantly slower than the dreadnoughts, quickly fell behind. During this period, Admiral Scheer directed to place herself behind Schleswig-Holstein so he would have a flagship on either end of the formation. By 19:30, the Grand Fleet had arrived on the scene and confronted Admiral Scheer with significant numerical superiority. The German fleet was severely hampered by the presence of the slower Deutschland class ships; if Scheer ordered an immediate turn towards Germany, he would have to sacrifice the slower ships to make his escape.
Admiral Scheer decided to reverse the course of the fleet with the Gefechtskehrtwendung, a maneuver that required every unit in the German line to turn 180° simultaneously.Gefechtskehrtwendung 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. See: Tarrant, pp. 153–154 As a result of their having fallen behind, the ships of the II Battle Squadron could not conform to the new course following the turn. Schleswig-Holstein and the other five ships of the squadron therefore were located on the disengaged side of the German line. Admiral Mauve considered moving his ships to the rear of the line, astern of the III Battle Squadron dreadnoughts, but decided against it when he realized the movement would interfere with the maneuvering of Admiral Franz von Hipper
's battlecruisers. Instead, he attempted to place his ships at the head of the line.
Later on the first day of the battle, Hipper's badly damaged battlecruisers were being engaged by their British rivals. Schleswig-Holstein and the other so-called "five-minute ships" came to their aid by steaming in between the opposing battlecruiser squadrons.The men of the German navy referred to ships as "five-minute ships" because that was the length of time they were expected to survive if confronted by a dreadnought. See: Tarrant, p. 62 The ships were very briefly engaged, owing in large part to the poor visibility. Indeed, the visibility was so bad, the gunners aboard Schleswig-Holstein could not make out a target; as a result, Schleswig-Holstein did not fire her main guns. However, at 21:35 a heavy caliber shell struck Schleswig-Holstein on the port side.Sources disagree on the caliber of shell and the ship that fired it; John Campbell states that it was a 12 inches (30.5 cm) shell from , while V. E. Tarrant suggests it was a 13.5 inches (34.3 cm) shell, probably from . See: Campbell, p. 254 and Tarrant, p. 195, respectively. The shell punched a hole approximately 40 cm (16 in) wide in the side of the ship before exploding against the inner casemate armor. The explosion tore apart 4.5 m (14.8 ft) of the superstructure deck and disabled one of the port side casemate guns. Admiral Mauve decided it would be inadvisable to continue the fight against the much more powerful battlecruisers, and so therefore ordered an 8-point turn to starboard.
Late on the 31st, the fleet organized for the night voyage back to Germany; Schleswig-Holstein was situated towards the rear of the line, ahead of , Hannover, and the battlecruisers and . At around 03:00, British destroyers conducted a series of attacks against the fleet, some of which were directed towards Schleswig-Holstein. Shortly thereafter, Pommern was struck by at least one torpedo from the destroyer ; the hit detonated an ammunition magazine which destroyed the ship in a tremendous explosion. During the attack, Schleswig-Holstein was forced to turn away by torpedoes. Shortly after 05:00, Hannover and several other ships fired repeatedly at imaginary submarines.
Despite the ferocity of the night fighting, the High Seas Fleet punched through the British destroyer forces and reached Horns Reef
by 4:00 on 1 June. The German fleet reached Wilhelmshaven a few hours later, where the undamaged dreadnoughts of the and es took up defensive positions. Over the course of the battle, Schleswig-Holstein had fired only twenty 17 cm rounds. The ship suffered three men killed and nine wounded.
. In 1918 the ship was moved to Kiel, where she remained for the rest of the war.
. The new navy was permitted to retain eight pre-dreadnought battleships—two of which would be in reserve—for coastal defense. Schleswig-Holstein was among the ships that were retained, along with her sisters Hannover and Schlesien and several of the Braunschweig class battleships. Schleswig-Holstein and Schlesien were modernized in the 1920s, which included the replacement of the ships' 17 cm guns with 15 centimetres (5.9 in) pieces and the trunking of their two forward funnels into a single stack.
Schleswig-Holstein served with the fleet until 1932 when she was taken in for another reconstruction that converted the ship into a training vessel. Among the modifications were the installation of additional anti-aircraft guns and replacement of the ship's boilers. The newer boilers were more efficient, which allowed fewer of them to be used; the additional space this created was used as crew compartments for the cadets and a classroom. Schleswig-Holstein also had her torpedo tubes removed. The ship's complement was also altered; the standard crew had been 35 officers and 708 enlisted men; after the conversion, this was reduced to 31 officers and 565 sailors. The crew was supplemented by 175 cadets. In May 1935, the Reichsmarine was reorganized as the Kriegsmarine
after Adolf Hitler
and the Nazi party came to power.
In the mid-1930s, Hitler began pursuing an increasingly aggressive foreign policy; in 1936 he re-militarized the Rhineland
, completed the Anschluss
of Austria and the annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938. This culminated in a demand for the city of Danzig
, which had become a free city
after World War I.
Early on 1 September 1939, Germany launched an attack against Poland. Schleswig-Holstein had been positioned in the port of Danzig on what had been called a ceremonial visit in August. The ship was moored close to the Polish fortress at Westerplatte
; at 04:47 on 1 September, Schleswig-Holstein opened fire with her main battery at the Polish positions on the Westerplatte, and in doing so fired the first shots of World War II. A force of German marines was landed to take the fortress. The Poles managed to hold off the Germans for seven days, but were forced to surrender on 8 September at 10:30.
The German military then turned its attention westward, and in April 1940, invaded Denmark
. Schleswig-Holstein was assigned to the naval component of the invasion force. During the invasion, Schleswig-Holstein was briefly grounded off the Danish coast. Following the operation, Schleswig-Holstein was transferred back to training duties, as the flagship of the Chief of Training Units. She continued in this role until mid-1944 when her anti-aircraft armament was significantly strengthened. The ship was moved to Gdynia
(Gotenhafen) to be used as an anti-aircraft ship. However, Schleswig-Holstein was hit three times by RAF bombers there on 18 December 1944, and although she was sunk in shallow water, her weapons could still be used. After a fire permanently disabled the ship, her crew was sent ashore to assist in the defense of Marienburg
.
Following the Soviet capture of Marienburg, the remaining crew scuttled
the ship. After the end of the war, the ship was raised between 1945–1946 by the Soviet Navy
and transferred to Kronstadt
. Here she was briefly used as a training hulk, possibly under the name Borodino. The ship was eventually broken up in Tallinn
. Her bell now resides in the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden
.
Kaiserliche Marine
The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...
. The ship was laid down in the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
in August 1905 and commissioned into the fleet nearly three years later in July 1908. The ships of her class were already outdated by the time they entered service, being inferior in size, armor, firepower and speed to the new post- battleships. The ship was named for the province of Schleswig-Holstein
Province of Schleswig-Holstein
The Province of Schleswig-Holstein was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946. It was created from the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which had been conquered by Prussia and the Austrian Empire from Denmark in the Second War of Schleswig in 1864...
.
The ship fought in both World Wars. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, she saw front-line service in the II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet
High Seas Fleet
The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...
, which culminated in the Battle of Jutland
Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...
on 31 May – 1 June 1916. After the battle, Schleswig-Holstein was relegated to guard duties in the mouth of the Elbe River before being decommissioned in late 1917. As one of the few battleships permitted for Germany by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, Schleswig-Holstein was again pressed into fleet service in the 1920s. In the early 1930s, the old battleship was converted into a training ship for naval cadets.
Schleswig-Holstein holds the distinction of firing the first shots of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
when she fired at the Polish base
Battle of Westerplatte
The Battle of Westerplatte was the very first battle that took place after Germany invaded Poland and World War II began in Europe. During the first week of September 1939, a Military Transit Depot on the peninsula of Westerplatte, manned by fewer than 200 Polish soldiers, held out for seven days...
at Westerplatte
Westerplatte
Westerplatte is a peninsula in Gdańsk, Poland, located on the Baltic Sea coast mouth of the Dead Vistula , in the Gdańsk harbour channel...
on in the early morning hours of 1 September 1939. The ship was used as a training vessel for the majority of the war, and was sunk by British bombers in December 1944. Schleswig-Holstein was briefly used in the Soviet Navy
Soviet Navy
The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...
before being broken up for scrap metal. The ship's bell is on display in the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
.
Construction
Schleswig-Holstein was intended to fight in the line of battleLine of battle
In naval warfare, the line of battle is a tactic in which the ships of the fleet form a line end to end. A primitive form had been used by the Portuguese under Vasco Da Gama in 1502 near Malabar against a Muslim fleet.,Maarten Tromp used it in the Action of 18 September 1639 while its first use in...
with the other battleships of the High Seas Fleet
High Seas Fleet
The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...
. She was laid down on 18 August 1905 at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
. She was launched on 17 December 1906, the last pre-dreadnought battleship of the German navy. However, the British battleship —armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—had already been commissioned nearly two years prior, in December 1906. Dreadnoughts revolutionary design rendered every ship of the German navy obsolete, including Schleswig-Holstein.
Schleswig-Holstein was 127.6 metre long, had a beam of 22.2 metre, and a draft of 8.21 metre. She had a full-load displacement of 14218 tonnes (13,993.4 LT). She was equipped with triple expansion engines that produced a rated 16000 ihp and a top speed of 19.1 kn (10.4 m/s). In addition to being the fastest ship of her class, Schleswig-Holstein was the second most fuel efficient. At a cruising speed of 10 kn (5.4 m/s), she could steam for 5720 nautical miles (10,593.4 km).
The ship's primary armament consisted of four 28 cm SK L/40 gun
28 cm SK L/40 gun
The 28 cm SK L/40 was a German naval gun that was used in World War I and World War II by all German pre-dreadnought battleships...
s in two twin turrets.In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnelladekanone) denotes that the gun is quick loading, while the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 calibers, meaning that the gun is 40 times as long as it is in diameter. She was also equipped with fourteen 17 cm (6.7 in) guns mounted in casemates and twenty 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns in pivot mounts. The ship was also armed with six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, all submerged in the hull.
Service history
Upon completion, Schleswig-Holstein was commissioned for sea trialSea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft . It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and can last from a few hours to many days.Sea trials are conducted to measure a vessel’s...
s on 6 July 1908. Her crew largely came from her sistership . On 21 September the ship was assigned to the II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet
High Seas Fleet
The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...
, alongside her sister ships. In November, fleet and unit exercises were conducted in the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
. The training regimen in which Schleswig-Holstein participated followed a similar pattern over the next five years. This included another cruise into the Atlantic, which was conducted from 7 July to 1 August 1909. Fleet maneuvers were conducted in the spring, followed by a summer cruise to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and additional fleet training in the fall. On 3 October 1911, the ship was transferred back to the II Squadron. Due to the Agadir Crisis
Agadir Crisis
The Agadir Crisis, also called the Second Moroccan Crisis, or the Panthersprung, was the international tension sparked by the deployment of the German gunboat Panther, to the Moroccan port of Agadir on July 1, 1911.-Background:...
in July, the summer cruise only went into the Baltic. On 14 July 1914, the annual summer cruise to Norway began, but the threat of war in Europe caused the excursion to be cut short; within two weeks Schleswig-Holstein and the rest of the II Squadron had returned to Wilhelmshaven.
World War I
At the outbreak of war in July 1914, Schleswig-Holstein was assigned to guard duty in the mouth of the Elbe River while the rest of the fleet mobilized. In late October, Schleswig-Holstein and her sisters were sent to Kiel to have improvements made to their underwater protection system to make them more resistant to torpedoes and mines. Schleswig-Holstein and the other units of the II Battle Squadron then rejoined the fleet. They constituted part of the battleship support for the battlecruisers that bombarded Scarborough, Hartlepool, and WhitbyRaid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby
The raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, which took place on 16 December 1914, was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British seaport towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool, and Whitby. The attack resulted in 137 fatalities and 592 casualties, many of which were civilians...
on 15–16 December 1914. During the operation, the German battle fleet of some 12 dreadnoughts and 8 pre-dreadnoughts came to within 10 nmi (18.5 km) of a isolated squadron of six British battleships. However, skirmishes between the rival destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
screens convinced the German commander, Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl
Friedrich von Ingenohl
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Friedrich von Ingenohl was a German admiral from Neuwied best known for his command of the German High Seas Fleet at the beginning of World War I....
, that he was confronted with the entire Grand Fleet, and so he broke off the engagement and turned for home. In April 1916, the ship had two of her 8.8 cm guns removed and replaced with 8.8 cm Flak guns.
Schleswig-Holstein then participated in a fleet advance to the Dogger Bank
Dogger Bank
Dogger Bank is a large sandbank in a shallow area of the North Sea about off the east coast of England. It extends over approximately , with its dimensions being about long and up to broad. The water depth ranges from 15 to 36 metres , about shallower than the surrounding sea. It is a...
on 21–22 April 1915. On 11–12 September, the II Reconnaissance Group conducted a minelaying operation off the Swarte Bank with the II Squadron in support. This was followed by another sweep by the fleet on 23–24 October that ended without result. The II and III Battle Squadron dreadnoughts conducted an advance into the North Sea on 5–7 March 1916; Schleswig-Holstein and the rest of II Squadron remained in the German Bight
German Bight
German Bight is the southeastern bight of the North Sea bounded by the Netherlands and Germany to the south, and Denmark and Germany to the east . To the north and west it is limited by the Dogger Bank. The Bight contains the Frisian and Danish Islands. The Wadden Sea is approximately ten to...
, ready to sail in support. They then rejoined the fleet during the operation to bombard Yarmouth and Lowestoft
Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft
The Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft was a naval battle fought during the First World War between the German Empire and the British Empire in the North Sea....
on 24–25 April. During this operation, the battlecruiser was damaged by a British mine and had to return to port prematurely. Visibility was poor, so the operation was quickly called off before the British fleet could intervene.
Battle of Jutland
The commander of the High Seas Fleet, Admiral Reinhard ScheerReinhard Scheer
Reinhard Scheer was an Admiral in the German Kaiserliche Marine. Scheer joined the navy in 1879 as an officer cadet; he progressed through the ranks, commanding cruisers and battleships, as well as major staff positions on land. At the outbreak of World War I, Scheer was the commander of the II...
, immediately planned another advance into the North Sea, but the damage to Seydlitz delayed the operation until the end of May. Schleswig-Holstein was the last ship assigned to the IV Division of the II Battle Squadron, which was positioned at the rear of the German line. As a result, Schleswig-Holstein was the rearmost battleship in the line. The II Battle Squadron was commanded by Rear Admiral Franz Mauve. During the "Run to the North," Admiral Reinhard Scheer
Reinhard Scheer
Reinhard Scheer was an Admiral in the German Kaiserliche Marine. Scheer joined the navy in 1879 as an officer cadet; he progressed through the ranks, commanding cruisers and battleships, as well as major staff positions on land. At the outbreak of World War I, Scheer was the commander of the II...
, the commander of the fleet, ordered the fleet to pursue the retreating battleships of the British 5th Battle Squadron at top speed. Schleswig-Holstein and her sisters, being significantly slower than the dreadnoughts, quickly fell behind. During this period, Admiral Scheer directed to place herself behind Schleswig-Holstein so he would have a flagship on either end of the formation. By 19:30, the Grand Fleet had arrived on the scene and confronted Admiral Scheer with significant numerical superiority. The German fleet was severely hampered by the presence of the slower Deutschland class ships; if Scheer ordered an immediate turn towards Germany, he would have to sacrifice the slower ships to make his escape.
Admiral Scheer decided to reverse the course of the fleet with the Gefechtskehrtwendung, a maneuver that required every unit in the German line to turn 180° simultaneously.Gefechtskehrtwendung translates roughly as the "battle about-turn", and was a simultaneous 16-point turn of the entire High Seas Fleet
High Seas Fleet
The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...
. It had never been conducted under enemy fire before the Battle of Jutland. See: Tarrant, pp. 153–154 As a result of their having fallen behind, the ships of the II Battle Squadron could not conform to the new course following the turn. Schleswig-Holstein and the other five ships of the squadron therefore were located on the disengaged side of the German line. Admiral Mauve considered moving his ships to the rear of the line, astern of the III Battle Squadron dreadnoughts, but decided against it when he realized the movement would interfere with the maneuvering of Admiral Franz von Hipper
Franz von Hipper
Franz Ritter von Hipper was an admiral in the German Imperial Navy . Franz von Hipper joined the German Navy in 1881 as an officer cadet. He commanded several torpedo boat units and served as watch officer aboard several warships, as well as Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht Hohenzollern...
's battlecruisers. Instead, he attempted to place his ships at the head of the line.
Later on the first day of the battle, Hipper's badly damaged battlecruisers were being engaged by their British rivals. Schleswig-Holstein and the other so-called "five-minute ships" came to their aid by steaming in between the opposing battlecruiser squadrons.The men of the German navy referred to ships as "five-minute ships" because that was the length of time they were expected to survive if confronted by a dreadnought. See: Tarrant, p. 62 The ships were very briefly engaged, owing in large part to the poor visibility. Indeed, the visibility was so bad, the gunners aboard Schleswig-Holstein could not make out a target; as a result, Schleswig-Holstein did not fire her main guns. However, at 21:35 a heavy caliber shell struck Schleswig-Holstein on the port side.Sources disagree on the caliber of shell and the ship that fired it; John Campbell states that it was a 12 inches (30.5 cm) shell from , while V. E. Tarrant suggests it was a 13.5 inches (34.3 cm) shell, probably from . See: Campbell, p. 254 and Tarrant, p. 195, respectively. The shell punched a hole approximately 40 cm (16 in) wide in the side of the ship before exploding against the inner casemate armor. The explosion tore apart 4.5 m (14.8 ft) of the superstructure deck and disabled one of the port side casemate guns. Admiral Mauve decided it would be inadvisable to continue the fight against the much more powerful battlecruisers, and so therefore ordered an 8-point turn to starboard.
Late on the 31st, the fleet organized for the night voyage back to Germany; Schleswig-Holstein was situated towards the rear of the line, ahead of , Hannover, and the battlecruisers and . At around 03:00, British destroyers conducted a series of attacks against the fleet, some of which were directed towards Schleswig-Holstein. Shortly thereafter, Pommern was struck by at least one torpedo from the destroyer ; the hit detonated an ammunition magazine which destroyed the ship in a tremendous explosion. During the attack, Schleswig-Holstein was forced to turn away by torpedoes. Shortly after 05:00, Hannover and several other ships fired repeatedly at imaginary submarines.
Despite the ferocity of the night fighting, the High Seas Fleet punched through the British destroyer forces and reached Horns Reef
Horns Reef
Horns Rev is a shallow area in the eastern North Sea, about 15 km / 10 miles off the westernmost point of Denmark, Blåvands Huk...
by 4:00 on 1 June. The German fleet reached Wilhelmshaven a few hours later, where the undamaged dreadnoughts of the and es took up defensive positions. Over the course of the battle, Schleswig-Holstein had fired only twenty 17 cm rounds. The ship suffered three men killed and nine wounded.
Later actions
Schleswig-Holstein was put into dock for repairs, which lasted from 10–25 June 1916. After repairs were completed, the ship was used as a target for U-boats. This was briefly interrupted from 12–23 February 1917 when the ship was used as a guard ship. In April Schleswig-Holstein was sent to Altenbruch at the mouth of the Elbe; here she was decommissioned on 2 May. Schleswig-Holstein was then disarmed and assigned to the 5th U-boat Flotilla to be used as a barracks ship in BremerhavenBremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
. In 1918 the ship was moved to Kiel, where she remained for the rest of the war.
Inter-war years
Following the German defeat in World War I, the German navy was reorganized as the ReichsmarineReichsmarine
The Reichsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the Reichswehr, existing from 1918 to 1935...
. The new navy was permitted to retain eight pre-dreadnought battleships—two of which would be in reserve—for coastal defense. Schleswig-Holstein was among the ships that were retained, along with her sisters Hannover and Schlesien and several of the Braunschweig class battleships. Schleswig-Holstein and Schlesien were modernized in the 1920s, which included the replacement of the ships' 17 cm guns with 15 centimetres (5.9 in) pieces and the trunking of their two forward funnels into a single stack.
Schleswig-Holstein served with the fleet until 1932 when she was taken in for another reconstruction that converted the ship into a training vessel. Among the modifications were the installation of additional anti-aircraft guns and replacement of the ship's boilers. The newer boilers were more efficient, which allowed fewer of them to be used; the additional space this created was used as crew compartments for the cadets and a classroom. Schleswig-Holstein also had her torpedo tubes removed. The ship's complement was also altered; the standard crew had been 35 officers and 708 enlisted men; after the conversion, this was reduced to 31 officers and 565 sailors. The crew was supplemented by 175 cadets. In May 1935, the Reichsmarine was reorganized as the Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
after Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the Nazi party came to power.
In the mid-1930s, Hitler began pursuing an increasingly aggressive foreign policy; in 1936 he re-militarized the Rhineland
Remilitarization of the Rhineland
The Remilitarization of the Rhineland by the German Army took place on 7 March 1936 when German military forces entered the Rhineland. This was significant because it violated the terms of the Locarno Treaties and was the first time since the end of World War I that German troops had been in this...
, completed the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
of Austria and the annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938. This culminated in a demand for the city of Danzig
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, which had become a free city
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....
after World War I.
World War II
Westerplatte
Westerplatte is a peninsula in Gdańsk, Poland, located on the Baltic Sea coast mouth of the Dead Vistula , in the Gdańsk harbour channel...
; at 04:47 on 1 September, Schleswig-Holstein opened fire with her main battery at the Polish positions on the Westerplatte, and in doing so fired the first shots of World War II. A force of German marines was landed to take the fortress. The Poles managed to hold off the Germans for seven days, but were forced to surrender on 8 September at 10:30.
The German military then turned its attention westward, and in April 1940, invaded Denmark
Battle of Denmark
The Battle of Denmark was the fighting that followed the German army crossing the Danish border on 9 April 1940 by land, sea and air. The German ground campaign against Denmark was the briefest on record in military history.-Motivation for invading Denmark:...
. Schleswig-Holstein was assigned to the naval component of the invasion force. During the invasion, Schleswig-Holstein was briefly grounded off the Danish coast. Following the operation, Schleswig-Holstein was transferred back to training duties, as the flagship of the Chief of Training Units. She continued in this role until mid-1944 when her anti-aircraft armament was significantly strengthened. The ship was moved to Gdynia
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together...
(Gotenhafen) to be used as an anti-aircraft ship. However, Schleswig-Holstein was hit three times by RAF bombers there on 18 December 1944, and although she was sunk in shallow water, her weapons could still be used. After a fire permanently disabled the ship, her crew was sent ashore to assist in the defense of Marienburg
Malbork
Malbork is a town in northern Poland in the Żuławy region , with 38,478 inhabitants . Situated in the Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, it was previously assigned to Elbląg Voivodeship...
.
Following the Soviet capture of Marienburg, the remaining crew scuttled
Scuttling
Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...
the ship. After the end of the war, the ship was raised between 1945–1946 by the Soviet Navy
Soviet Navy
The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...
and transferred to Kronstadt
Kronstadt
Kronstadt , also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt |crown]]" and Stadt for "city"); is a municipal town in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg proper near the head of the Gulf of Finland. Population: It is also...
. Here she was briefly used as a training hulk, possibly under the name Borodino. The ship was eventually broken up in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
. Her bell now resides in the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
.