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SMS Baden

1917 WORLD WAR 1

SMS Baden Stories

Before World War I (1914-1918), the German Navy attempted to keep pace with the Royal Navy with five major naval acts passed from 1898 to 1912. The fifth and final law of 1912, passed in June of that year, allowed the construction of more battleships to further expand Germany's naval power in Europe and its overseas colonies. This gave birth to the Bayern-class dreadnoughts, a team of four led by the lead ship SMS Bayern. Her three sisters - SMS Baden, SMS Sachsen and SMS Wurttemberg - will join her in a few years.

Each ship had a displacement of 35,500 short tons and was equipped with steam turbine propulsion and an 8 x 15" turret main battery. SMS Baden was laid on December 20, 1913 at the Schichau factory in the Port of Danzig under German control.

October 1915 Launched on 30 March and officially commissioned on 14 March 1917.

One day in late June 1914, the Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Principe assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, before the ship arrived in the German fleet, sparking a series of protests in Europe. war. The event sparked pent-up tensions across Europe and led to the official declaration of war by Austria-Hungary on Serbia, causing various existing alliances to come into play.

The Russian Empire mobilized to protect Serbia, forcing Germany to declare war on Russia. Since then Belgium, Britain, France, Italy and other countries joined as allies against the "Allies" Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.

At the end of July, the world was in a state of total war.

When the German Empire was on the verge of collapse in 1918, Baden's line came to an end. The war has now dragged on for three years, and morale in all German towns and military departments is at an all-time low.

Several high-profile rebellions occurred on ships large and small, threatening the collapse of the Empire from within. On 9 November, Baden fell victim to her own mutiny, ending the last major naval engagement planned by Hipper and Admirals Scheer.

The First World War ended with an armistice on November 11, 1918, which marked the end of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. The German Empire was likewise disintegrated and stripped of its ability to fight.

Under the terms of the November Armistice, SMS Baden was handed over to British authorities to replace the incomplete SMS Mackenson. Baden was under surveillance by the High Seas Fleet, which set sail for Scapa Flow on 21 November 1918. The deadline for signing the peace treaty was 12:00 pm on June 21, 1919, when Rear Admiral von Reuter ordered all German ships to be scuttled across the fleet to prevent them from falling permanently under British control.

Although Baden was rescued by British forces before she was completely lost in Gutter Sound, the scuttling succeeded in sinking many ships. Salvaged in July 1919, the Baden was towed across the English Channel to the naval base Invergordon in Scotland, where she underwent a series of tests of her guns and armor before sinking as a target on 16 August 1921.

Of the four planned Bayern-class ships, only SMS Bayern and SMS Baden were completed by the end of World War I. Both SMS Schsen and SMS Wurttemberg were incomplete at the end of the war and were eventually scrapped under the terms of the armistice. The SMS Bayern sank on June 21, 1919, was later salvaged and towed to Scotland, where it was eventually scrapped before World War II in 1935.