Brandenburg class battleship

Brandenburg class battleship

The four "Brandenburg" class pre-dreadnought battleships were Germany's first ocean-going battleships and the first to be fitted with wireless communications. Their names were "Brandenburg", "Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm", "Weißenburg", and "Wörth". All were laid down in 1890 and completed by 1893, except for "Weißenburg", which was completed in 1894. The lead ship, "Brandenburg", was built at the cost of 9.3 million Marks and "Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm" cost 11.23 million Marks.Citation
last = Weir
first = Gary E.
title = Building the Kaiser's Navy
publisher = United States Naval Institute
year = 1992
isbn =1557509298
] The British Royal Navy derisively referred to the ships as the "whalers" Citation
last = Hore
first = Peter
title = The Ironclads
publisher = Southwater
year = 2006
isbn =1844762998
]

Design

Dimensions and machinery

The ships of the "Brandenburg" class displaced 10,500 tons, was 115.7 m long, 19.5 m wide, and had a draught of 7.9 m. ] She was powered by 12 boilers, which drove a 2-shaft triple expansion engine that produced convert|10000|ihp and a top speed of convert|17|kn|km/h. ] The crew numbered 568.

Armament

The vessels were unusual for their time in possessing a broadside of six heavy guns, rather than the four guns typical of contemporary battleships. They also possessed a lighter than usual secondary battery which has caused some naval historians to view them as an early expression of the Dreadnought concept. However, despite their unique mix of weaponry, the ships were designed to fight at short ranges and the secondary battery was considered part of the offensive armament, making the "Brandenburg"s a variation on the Pre-dreadnought theme rather than being a form of "proto-dreadnought".

While a novel concept, the midships turret caused prohibitive blast damage when fired to the surrounding superstructure, which led to the idea being abandoned. ]

The "Brandenburg" class's secondary armament initially consisted of seven 10.5 cm guns in casemates and another eight 8.8 cm guns, also casemated. Between 1902 and 1904, the ships of the "Brandenburg" class were modernized, during which another 10.5 cm gun was added. ] This was considered weak by the standards of the period. The ships were also armed with six 45 cm torpedo tubes, although one of these was removed during the modernization. ]

Armor

"Weißenburg" and "Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm" were armored with Krupp nickel steel armor, but due to delivery problems, the "Brandenburg" and "Wörth" were armored with a composite armor. The Krupp armor effectively provided twice the amount of protection afforded by the composite armor.

The ships of the class had an armored belt twelve to sixteen inches (406 mm) thick, at its strongest point. The turrets were protected by convert|9|in|mm of armor plate, and the deck was covered by convert|3|in|mm of armor.

ervice history

"Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm" and "Weißenburg" were sold to the Ottoman Empire in 1910 and renamed "Haireddin Barbarossa" and "Torgut Reis" respectively . "Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm" was sunk by the British submarine "E 11" on 8 August 1915, while "Weißenburg" survived the war and was eventually scrapped in 1938. The two others remained in German naval service, initially used for coast defense, until being relegated to the auxiliary role of barracks ship by 1915. "Wörth" was scrapped in 1919 and "Brandenburg" in 1920.

References

External links

* [http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/pre-dreadnought/sms-brandenburg.html World War 1 Naval Combat]


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