SMS Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein in 1926.
Career (German Empire)
Name:	Schleswig-Holstein
Namesake:	Schleswig-Holstein
Ordered:	11 June 1904
Builder:	Germaniawerft, Kiel
Laid down:	18 August 1905
Launched:	17 December 1906
Commissioned:	6 July 1908
Fate:	Destroyed by bombs and Sunk 1944
General characteristics
Class and type:	Deutschland-class battleship
Type:	Pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement:	13,200 t (13,000 long tons) normal 14,218 t (13,993 long tons) full load
Length:	127.6 m (418 ft 8 in)
Beam:	22.2 m (72 ft 10 in)
Draft:	8.21 m (26 ft 11 in)
Propulsion:	three shafts, three triple expansion steam engines, 12 boilers
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h)
Range:	4,800 nautical miles (9,000 km); 10 knots (20 km/h)
Complement:	35 officers 708 enlisted men
Armament:	At construction: 2 × 2 – 28 cm SK L/40 guns 14 × 17 cm (6.7 in) guns (casemated) 22 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) (casemated) 6 × 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes Armament in 1939: 2 × 2 – 28 cm SK L/40 guns 2 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns 4 × 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns (2×2) 22 × 2.0 cm (0.8 in) cannon
Armor:	Belt: 100 to 240 mm (3.9 to 9.4 in) Turrets: 280 mm (11 in) Deck: 40 mm (1.6 in)
Service record
Commanders:	Gustav Kieseritzky Walter Hennecke

SMS Schleswig-Holstein, one of the five Deutschland-class battleships, 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 The ships of her class were already outdated by the time they entered service, being inferior in size, armor, firepower and speed to the new post-Dreadnought battleships.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.

Construction

Main article: Deutschland class battleship

Schleswig-Holstein was intended to fight in the line of battle with the other battleships of the High Seas Fleet.^[1] She was laid down on 18 August 1905 at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel.^[2] She was launched on 17 December 1906, the last pre-dreadnought battleship of the German navy.^[3] However, the British battleship HMS Dreadnought—armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—had already been commissioned nearly two years prior, in December 1906.^[4] Dreadnought's revolutionary design rendered every ship of the German navy obsolete, including Schleswig-Holstein.^[5]

Schleswig-Holstein was 127.6 m (418 ft 8 in) long, had a beam of 22.2 m (72 ft 10 in), and a draft of 8.21 m (26 ft 11 in). She had a full-load displacement of 14,218 metric tons (13,993 long tons; 15,673 short tons). She was equipped with triple expansion engines that produced a rated 16,000 indicated horsepower (12,000 kW) and a top speed of 19.1 kn (35.4 km/h; 22.0 mph). 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 (19 km/h; 12 mph), she could steam for 5,720 nautical miles (10,590 km; 6,580 mi).^[2]

The ship's primary armament consisted of four 28 cm SK L/40 guns in two twin turrets.^{[Note 1]} 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 (18 in) torpedo tubes, all submerged in the hull.^[6]

Service history

Upon completion, Schleswig-Holstein was commissioned for sea trials on 6 July 1908. Her crew largely came from her sistership Schlesien. On 21 September the ship was assigned to the II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet, alongside her sister ships.^[3] In November, fleet and unit exercises were conducted in the Baltic Sea.^[7] 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.^[8]

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.^[3] 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.^[7] 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 Whitby on 15–16 December 1914.^[3] During the operation, the German battle fleet of some 12 dreadnoughts and 8 pre-dreadnoughts came to within 10 nmi (19 km; 12 mi) 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.^[9] In April 1916, the ship had two of her 8.8 cm guns removed and replaced with 8.8 cm Flak guns.^[3]

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.^[7] During this operation, the battlecruiser Seydlitz 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.^[10]

Battle of Jutland

The commander of the High Seas Fleet, Admiral Reinhard Scheer, immediately planned another advance into the North Sea, but the damage to Seydlitz delayed the operation until the end of May.^[11] 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.^[12] 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.^[13] During this period, Admiral Scheer directed Hannover to place herself behind Schleswig-Holstein so he would have a flagship on either end of the formation.^[14] By 19:30, the Grand Fleet had arrived on the scene and confronted Admiral Scheer with significant numerical superiority.^[15] 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.^[16]

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.^{[17][Note 2]} 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.^[18] 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.^[19]

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.^{[20][Note 3]} 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.^{[20][Note 4]} 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 (15 ft) of the superstructure deck and disabled one of the port side casemate guns.^[21] 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.^[22]

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 Hessen, Hannover, and the battlecruisers Von der Tann and Derfflinger.^[23] At around 03:00, British destroyers conducted a series of attacks against the fleet, some of which were directed towards Schleswig-Holstein.^[24] Shortly thereafter, Pommern was struck by at least one torpedo from the destroyer Horns Reef by 4:00 on 1 June.^[27] The German fleet reached Wilhelmshaven a few hours later, where the undamaged dreadnoughts of the Nassau and Helgoland classes took up defensive positions.^[28] Over the course of the battle, Schleswig-Holstein had fired only twenty 17 cm rounds.^[29] The ship suffered three men killed and nine wounded.^[30]

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 Bremerhaven. In 1918 the ship was moved to Kiel, where she remained for the rest of the war.^[3]

Inter-war years

Schleswig-Holstein with her crew in 1939

Following the German defeat in World War I, the German navy was reorganized as the Reichsmarine. The new navy was permitted to retain eight pre-dreadnought battleships—two of which would be in reserve—for coastal defense.^[31] Schleswig-Holstein was among the ships that were retained, along with her sisters Hannover and Schlesien and several of the Braunschweig class battleships.^[32] Schleswig-Holstein and Schlesien were modernized in the 1920s, which included the replacement of the ships' 17 cm guns with 15-centimeter (5.9 in) pieces and the trunking of their two forward funnels into a single stack.^[33]

Schleswig-Holstein served with the fleet until 1932 when she was taken in for another reconstruction that converted the ship into a training vessel.^[34] 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.^[34][35] 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.^[35] In May 1935, the Reichsmarine was reorganized as the Kriegsmarine after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party came to power.^[36]

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.^[37] This culminated in a demand for the city of Danzig, which had become a free city after World War I.^[38]

World War II

Map of the Westerplatte with Schleswig-Holstein's position marked

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.^[39] 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.^[40]

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.^[40] During the invasion, Schleswig-Holstein was briefly grounded off the Danish coast.^[41] 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,^[42] 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.^[40]

Following the Soviet capture of Marienburg, the remaining crew scuttled the ship.^[43] 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.^[43]

Footnotes

Notes

1. ^ 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.
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Sources disagree on the caliber of shell and the ship that fired it; John Campbell states that it was a 12-inch (30 cm) shell from HMS New Zealand, while V. E. Tarrant suggests it was a 13.5-inch (34 cm) shell, probably from HMS Princess Royal. See: Campbell, p. 254 and Tarrant, p. 195, respectively.

Citations

1. ^ Herwig, p. 45
2. ^ ^{a b} Staff, p. 5
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Staff, p. 15
4. ^ Gardiner & Gray, pp. 21–22
5. ^ Herwig, p. 57
6. ^ Gröner, pp. 20–21
7. ^ ^{a b c} Staff, p. 11
8. ^ Staff, pp. 8–15
9. ^ Tarrant, pp. 31–33
10. ^ Tarrant, pp. 52–54
11. ^ Tarrant, p. 58
12. ^ Tarrant, p. 286
13. ^ London, p. 73
14. ^ Tarrant, p. 84
15. ^ Tarrant, p. 150
16. ^ Tarrant, pp. 150–152
17. ^ Tarrant, p. 152–153
18. ^ Tarrant, p. 154
19. ^ Tarrant, p. 155
20. ^ ^{a b} Tarrant, p. 195
21. ^ Campbell, pp. 270–271
22. ^ Tarrant, pp. 195–196
23. ^ Campbell, p. 275
24. ^ Tarrant, p. 242
25. ^ Campbell, p. 300
26. ^ Campbell, p. 314
27. ^ Tarrant, pp. 246–7
28. ^ Tarrant, p. 263
29. ^ Tarrant, p. 292
30. ^ Tarrant, p. 298
31. ^ Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 218
32. ^ Williamson, pp. 5–6
33. ^ Williamson, pp. 4–5
34. ^ ^{a b} Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 222
35. ^ ^{a b} Gröner, p. 21
36. ^ Williamson, p. 4
37. ^ Murray & Millet, pp. 5–12
38. ^ Bullock, p. 288
39. ^ Williamson, pp. 5–6
40. ^ ^{a b c} Williamson, p. 6
41. ^ Evans, p. 119
42. ^ Nauck, p. 304
43. ^ ^{a b} Gröner, p. 22

References

Battleships portal

• Bullock, Alan (1991). Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. Harper Collins. ISBN 9780060920203. 
• Campbell, John (1998). Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 1-55821-759-2. 
• Evans, Richard J. (2009). The Third Reich at War. Penguin Group. ISBN 9781594202063. 
• Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds (1984). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1922. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870219073. OCLC 12119866. http://books.google.com/books?id=V2r_TBjR2TYC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger, eds (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922–1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870-2-1913-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=bJBMBvyQ83EC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-790-9. 
• Herwig, Holger (1980). "Luxury" Fleet: The Imperial German Navy 1888–1918. Amherst, New York: Humanity Books. ISBN 9781573922869. 
• Murray, Williamson; Millet, Allan R. (2000). A War to be Won. Harvard College. ISBN 0-674-00163-X. 
• Nauck, Hans E. (1997). "Damage to German Warships at the End of WW II". Warship International (Toledo, OH: International Naval Research Organization) XXXIV (3): 304. ISSN 0043-0374. 
• Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918 (1). Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 9781846034671. 
• Tarrant, V. E. (1995). Jutland: The German Perspective. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. ISBN 0-304-35848-7. 
• Williamson, Gordon (2003). German Battleships 1939-45. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781841764986.