.gif)
SMS Preußen (1903)
Encyclopedia
SMS Preussen"SMS" stands for Seiner Majestät Schiff ([English: "His Majesty's Ship") was the fourth of five pre-dreadnought
battleships of the Braunschweig class
in the Kaiserliche Marine
(the German Imperial Navy) laid down in 1902 and commissioned 1905. She was named for the state of Prussia
Prussia
was spelled Preußen in German, using the German eszett (ß
, or "sharp S"). Her sister ships were , , , and .
Preussen served in the II Battle Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet
for the majority of her career. She participated in a fleet advance in December 1914 in support of the Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby
during which the German fleet encountered and briefly clashed with a detachment of the British Grand Fleet. She 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 fleet tender.
After the war, Preussen was retained by the re-formed Reichsmarine
and converted into a depot ship for F-type minesweepers. She was stricken in April 1929 and sold to ship breakers in 1931. A 63 metres (206.7 ft) section of her hull was retained as a target; it was bombed and sunk in 1945 by Allied bombers at the end of World War II
, and subsequently scrapped in 1954.
. Preussen was launched on 30 October 1903 and commissioned into the fleet on 12 July 1905.
The ship was 127.7 m (419 ft) long overall and had a beam
of 22.2 m (72.8 ft) and a draft
of 8.1 m (26.6 ft) forward. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by eight naval and six cylindrical boilers, all of which burned coal. Preussens powerplant was rated at 16000 ihp, which generated a top speed of 18 knots (35.3 km/h).
Preussens armament consisted of a main battery of four 28 cm (11 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turret
s, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure
. Her secondary armament consisted of fourteen 17 cm (6.7 inch) SK L/40 guns and eighteen 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/35 quick-firing guns. The armament suite was rounded out with six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, all mounted submerged in the hull.
s had entered active duty with the I Squadron; the only pre-dreadnought remaining in I Squadron was Preussens sister Elsass. Preussen and seven other Braunschweig and Deutschland class ships made up the II Squadron. Preussen was present during the fleet cruise to Norway in July 1914, which was cut short by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and subsequent rise in international tensions. On 25 July the ship's crew was made aware of Austria-Hungary
's ultimatum to Serbia
; Preussen left Norway to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet the following day.
participated was the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby
on 15–16 December 1914. The main fleet acted as distant support for 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 (18.5 km) of an isolated squadron of six British battleships. However, skirmishes between the rival destroyer
screens in the darkness convinced the German fleet commander, Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl
, that the entire Grand Fleet was deployed before him. Under orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II, von Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battlefleet back towards Germany.
Preussen, though assigned to the II Squadron, missed the Battle of Jutland
on 31 May–1 June 1916. She had been temporarily transferred to the Baltic to serve as a guard ship. Her sister, Lothringen, also missed the battle, as she had been deemed to be in too poor a condition to participate in the fleet advance. Jutland proved to Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer
, the fleet commander, that the pre-dreadnought battleships were too vulnerable to take part in a major fleet action, and so detached the II Squadron from the High Seas Fleet. As a result, Preussen remained in service as a guard ship in the Baltic. From 1917 to the end of the war, she served as a fleet tender based in Wilhelmshaven. Preussen briefly held Edouard Izac
, a US Navy sailor captured after his ship was sunk by the U-90, in June 1918; Izac would go on to escape from a German prisoner of war camp and win the Medal of Honor
.
The Treaty of Versailles
, which ended the war, specified that Germany was permitted to retain six battleships of the "Deutschland or Lothringen types." Preussen was among those ships chosen to remain on active service with the newly reformed Reichsmarine
. The ship was converted into a parent ship for F-type minesweepers
at the Kriegsmarinewerft
in Wilhelmshaven in 1919; the ship was disarmed and platforms for holding the minesweepers were installed.
Preussen served in this capacity with the newly reformed Reichsmarine
until 1929. She was stricken from the naval register on 5 April 1929; 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 (206.7 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 Preussens hull in April 1945. It was eventually raised and scrapped in late 1954.
Pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea-going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...
battleships of the Braunschweig class
Braunschweig class battleship
The Braunschweig class battleships were pre-dreadnought battleships of the Kaiserliche Marine . The class comprised five ships: , , , , and...
in the Kaiserliche Marine
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 German Imperial Navy) laid down in 1902 and commissioned 1905. She was named for the state of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
was spelled Preußen in German, using the German eszett (ß
ß
In the German alphabet, ß is a letter that originated as a ligature of ss or sz. Like double "s", it is pronounced as an , but in standard spelling, it is only used after long vowels and diphthongs, while ss is used after short vowels...
, or "sharp S"). Her sister ships were , , , and .
Preussen served in the II Battle Squadron of the German 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...
for the majority of her career. She participated in a fleet advance in December 1914 in support of the Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby
Raid 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...
during which the German fleet encountered and briefly clashed with a detachment of the British Grand Fleet. She had been temporarily assigned to guard ship duties in the Baltic in May 1916, and so missed 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...
. 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 fleet tender.
After the war, Preussen was retained by the re-formed Reichsmarine
Reichsmarine
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...
and converted into a depot ship for F-type minesweepers. She was stricken in April 1929 and sold to ship breakers in 1931. A 63 metres (206.7 ft) section of her hull was retained as a target; it was bombed and sunk in 1945 by Allied bombers at the end 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...
, and subsequently scrapped in 1954.
Construction
Preussen was laid down in 1902, at the AG Vulcan in Stettin under construction number 256. The fourth unit of her class, she was ordered under the contract name "K" as a new unit for the fleet. The ship cost 23,990,000 marksGerman gold mark
The Goldmark was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914.-History:Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver...
. Preussen was launched on 30 October 1903 and commissioned into the fleet on 12 July 1905.
The ship was 127.7 m (419 ft) long overall and had a beam
Beam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...
of 22.2 m (72.8 ft) and a draft
Draft (hull)
The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...
of 8.1 m (26.6 ft) forward. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by eight naval and six cylindrical boilers, all of which burned coal. Preussens powerplant was rated at 16000 ihp, which generated a top speed of 18 knots (35.3 km/h).
Preussens armament consisted of a main battery of four 28 cm (11 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turret
Gun turret
A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...
s, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
. Her secondary armament consisted of fourteen 17 cm (6.7 inch) SK L/40 guns and eighteen 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/35 quick-firing guns. The armament suite was rounded out with six 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, all mounted submerged in the hull.
Service history
After commissioning in 1905, Preussen was assigned to the II Battle Squadron of the German fleet. There she joined her sisters Braunschweig, Elsass, and Hessen. By the end of 1911, three of the four new dreadnoughtDreadnought
The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...
s had entered active duty with the I Squadron; the only pre-dreadnought remaining in I Squadron was Preussens sister Elsass. Preussen and seven other Braunschweig and Deutschland class ships made up the II Squadron. Preussen was present during the fleet cruise to Norway in July 1914, which was cut short by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and subsequent rise in international tensions. On 25 July the ship's crew was made aware of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
's ultimatum to Serbia
July Ultimatum
The July Crisis was a diplomatic crisis among the major powers of Europe in the summer of 1914 that led to the First World War...
; Preussen left Norway to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet the following day.
World War I
After the outbreak of war in August 1914, the High Seas Fleet conducted a series of operations designed to lure out a portion of the numerically superior British Grand Fleet and destroy it. By achieving a rough equality of forces, the German navy could then force a decisive battle in the southern portion of the North Sea. The first such operation in which the High Seas FleetHigh 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...
participated was the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby
Raid 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. The main fleet acted as distant support for Rear 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 battlecruiser squadron while it raided the coastal towns. On the evening of 15 December, the fleet came to within 10 nmi (18.5 km) of an 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 in the darkness convinced the German fleet 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 the entire Grand Fleet was deployed before him. Under orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II, von Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battlefleet back towards Germany.
Preussen, though assigned to the II Squadron, missed 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. She had been temporarily transferred to the Baltic to serve as a guard ship. Her sister, Lothringen, also missed the battle, as she had been deemed to be in too poor a condition to participate in the fleet advance. Jutland proved to Vice 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 fleet commander, that the pre-dreadnought battleships were too vulnerable to take part in a major fleet action, and so detached the II Squadron from the High Seas Fleet. As a result, Preussen remained in service as a guard ship in the Baltic. From 1917 to the end of the war, she served as a fleet tender based in Wilhelmshaven. Preussen briefly held Edouard Izac
Edouard Izac
Edouard Victor Michel Izac was a Lieutenant in the United States Navy during World War I, a Representative from California and a Medal of Honor recipient.-Biography:...
, a US Navy sailor captured after his ship was sunk by the U-90, in June 1918; Izac would go on to escape from a German prisoner of war camp and win the Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
.
Post-war career
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...
, which ended the war, specified that Germany was permitted to retain six battleships of the "Deutschland or Lothringen types." Preussen was among those ships chosen to remain on active service with the newly reformed Reichsmarine
Reichsmarine
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 ship was converted into a parent ship for F-type minesweepers
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
at the Kriegsmarinewerft
Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven
Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven was the naval shipyard in Wilhelmshaven, Prussian Hanover, between 1918 and 1945 in the German Navy's extensive base located there.-History:...
in Wilhelmshaven in 1919; the ship was disarmed and platforms for holding the minesweepers were installed.
Preussen served in this capacity with the newly reformed Reichsmarine
Reichsmarine
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...
until 1929. She was stricken from the naval register on 5 April 1929; 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 (206.7 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 Preussens hull in April 1945. It was eventually raised and scrapped in late 1954.