SMS Pommern

SMS "Pommern" was one of the "Deutschland" class of pre-Dreadnought battleships built for the Kaiserliche Marine between 1904 and 1906. Named after the Prussian province of Pomerania, she was built at the AG Vulcan yard at Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland), where she was launched on 2 December 1905. She was commissioned into the navy on 6 August 1907. The ships of her class were already outdated by the time they entered the service, being inferior in size, armor, fire power and speed to the new post-Dreadnought battleships.

Design

Dimensions and machinery

"Pommern" was convert|413|ft|m|abbr=on at the waterline, and convert|418.66|ft|m|abbr=on overall. She had a beam of convert|73|ft|m|abbr=on and a draft of convert|27|ft|m|abbr=on, and displaced 13,993 tons fully laden. "Pommern" was powered by 3 shaft triple expansion engines, which produced 19,000 ihp, and a top speed of 18 knots.

Armament

"Pommern's" main armament was comprised of four convert|11|in|cm|abbr=on guns in twin turrets, one fore and one aft of the superstructure. Her secondary battery was composed of fourteen convert|6.7|in|cm|abbr=on guns and twenty-two convert|3.4|in|cm|abbr=on inch guns, all casemated along the length of the ship, concentrated particularly amidships. "Pommern" also mounted six convert|17.7|in|cm|abbr=on inch torpedo tubes.

Armor

" Pommern" had an armored belt that was convert|9|in|cm|abbr=on inches thick at its strongest points, those which covered the ship's vitals, and tapered to convert|4|in|cm|abbr=on inches thick in less critical areas, such as the bow and stern. The turrets had convert|11|in|cm|abbr=on inches of armor protection, a full inch thicker than the prededing "Braunschweig" class. The deck was covered by convert|3|in|cm|abbr=on inches of armor plate.

ervice history

At the Battle of Jutland on 31 May–1 June 1916, "Pommern", under the command of Kapitän zur See Bölken, was part of Rear Admiral Mauve's Second Battle Squadron. During the night action following the main battle, "Pommern" was hit at about 02:00 on 1 June 1916 by a torpedo fired by HMS "Faulknor" of the Twelfth Destroyer Flotilla. The hit was followed by a massive explosion in one of her magazines, and the ship broke apart midships and quickly sank with the loss of all 839 men aboard.

The wreck was substantially salvaged in 1957, with the armour and non-ferrous metals being removed. The bow ornament "(Bugzier)" is now in the German Naval Memorial, Laboe.