SMS Wiesbaden

SMS "Wiesbaden" was the lead ship of the "Wiesbaden"-class of light cruisers of the German Imperial Navy in World War I, the other being the "Frankfurt"

pecifications

The keel was laid in 1913 at A.G. Vulcan in Stettin. The ship was launched on 30 January 1915 and commissioned on 20 August 1915. It displaced 5,180 tons standard and 6,601 tons battle-ready. It was 145.3 m long overall (141.7 m at the water line) and had a beam of 13.9 m and a draft of 6.06 m. Ten coal-fired and two oil-fired boilers powered two turbines with a combined Convert|31000|hp|kW|-2|abbr=on, giving her a top speed of convert|27.5|knot|km/h|1. With a bunker capacity of 1,280 tons of coal and 470 tons of oil, her radius was convert|4800|nmi|km|-1 at a cruising speed of convert|12|knot|km/h|0. Her armour was typically light, at 60 mm in the belt and 40 mm for the deck. She was armed with eight single-mounted 15-cm guns, two 8.8-cm guns and four torpedo tubes (two under water, two above water). The crew numbered 474 in peacetime, but up to 590 in combat.

Fate

Commanded by Captain Fritz Reiss, the "Wiesbaden" was part of the 2nd Scouting Group of four light cruisers under Rear Admiral Boedicker which took part in the Battle of Jutland on 30 May and 1 June 1916. At about 17:00 hours, Boedicker's squadron, in the van of the German scouting forces, engaged the British light cruiser HMS "Chester", inflicting heavy damage on her before she was relieved by Rear Admiral Hood's 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron. The "Wiesbaden" was severely damaged by heavy artillery from the battlecruiser HMS "Invincible", and a direct hit into her engine room completely disabled her engines. During a subsequent destroyer attack she received a torpedo hit into her stern, but continued to drift between the battle lines, repeatedly becoming the target of further British fire. She finally sank at about 2:45 am on the morning of 1 June, taking most of her crew with her. Only 22 men managed to climb onto three life rafts, and only one of them, a stoker named Hugo Zenne, survived. He was eventually picked up by the Norwegian freighter "Willy".

Among the 589 killed was the well-known writer of poetry and fiction dealing with the life of fishermen and sailors, Johann Kinau, known under his pseudonym of Gorch Fock, who has since then been honored by having two training windjammers of the Kriegsmarine and the German Navy, respectively, named after him.

Wreck

The wreck of the "Wiesbaden" was found in 1983 by divers of the German Navy at a depth of 52 m.

A model of the cruiser is in the city hall of Wiesbaden, capital of the German state of Hesse, where it can be viewed each year on 31 May and 1 June, the anniversary dates of the Battle of Jutland.

References

* [http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/cruisers/sms-wiesbaden.html Specs]
* [http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_wiesbaden_class_cruisers.html General Info]