SMS Schleswig-Holstein

History

SMS Schleswig-Holstein was a history-making German naval ship that survived the First World War and survived most of the Second World War , then sank in 1944. At the time, the ship displayed enormous speed and firepower, which gave it a formidable quality in the unstable and unforgiving high seas. Unfortunately, the arrival of the Royal Navy's HMS dreadnoughts soon revealed the limitations of what is now known as the "pre-dreadnought" group of combat ships.

Nonetheless, SMS Schleswig-Holstein took part in several notable actions during her long sea voyage, becoming the last pre-dreadnought to be built as a result of the arrival of this famous British warship battleship.

British HMS Dreadnought changed everything

SMS Schleswig-Holstein belongs to the German class of surface battleships and is classified as a "pre-dreadnought" battleship. The former dreadnoughts replaced the old ironclad battleships in service at the time, and the former dreadnoughts themselves existed for a short period of time between the 1890s and 1905. These battleships were mainly equipped with various artillery pieces and were powered by coal. Supply the steam engine. The arrival of the HMS dreadnoughts in the Royal Navy in 1906 essentially created a new class of battleships - simply called "dreadnoughts" - as they used extensive armour protection, steel substructures, large uniform main gun armament and New steam turbine technology.

This battleship alone surpassed all other battleships of her era and gave rise to the term "pre-dreadnought" to refer to the former class of battleships. As such, HMS Dreadnought is credited with single-handedly revolutionizing naval warfare from the very beginning of her creation, and other navies have had to work hard to build ships of the same class in response.

SMS Schleswig-Holstein Building

SMS Schleswig-Holstein was commissioned to build the ship on 11 June 1904 and assigned to the Germania shipyard in Kiel, Germany. The company is known for supplying all types of warships, trading platforms and submarine submarines for the Kaiser and the German Navy. Her keel was laid on August 18, 1905, and officially launched more than a year later, on December 17, 1906.

After her test drive and evaluation phase, she was commissioned on July 6, 1908. The SMS Schleswig-Holstein, named after Germany's northernmost federal state, is the fifth of five ships in the German class, named after SMS Deutschland (also the pilot ship), SMS Hannover, SMS Pommenn and Among them are the SMS Schlesien sisters.

All were launched between 1904 and 1906. Of all her sisters, SMS Schleswig-Holstein proved to be the fastest at 19.1 knots, while her siblings were 18.5-18.7 knots.

At the time of her construction, the ship cost German taxpayers 24,972,000 marks to complete, making it the most expensive of her five sisters by a few hundred marks.

SMS Schleswig-Holstein walk

Externally, the SMS Schleswig-Holstein has a traditional shape and layout. Their bodies consist of two main parts, one at the front and one at the back. Amid the boat stood three smoke funnels, which released smoky waste from the engines below deck. The bridge was kept in its most important structural position, as were proper communications and aiming towers. The foredeck is rather featureless and is primarily controlled by the forward main battery mount. "Casement" guns were mounted on both sides of the hull.

These guns provided additional firepower but limited lateral emplacements near the waterline, which limited their practical and tactical use in combat. The second main turret was mounted aft. This armament arrangement ensured that SMS Schleswig-Holstein could use her entire large artillery for a full-scale broadside attack on enemy ships.

Her crew consisted of 35 officers and 708 men. SMS Schleswig-Holstein displayed armor throughout the design, using 100 to 240 mm thick belts, while her turret was covered with 280 mm armor plates. Your deck gets 40mm of protection.

SMS Schleswig-Holstein Original Weapons

At her final build, her armament officially consisted of 4 x 11" (28 cm) SK L/40 main guns mounted above two turrets (two guns each). 14 x 6 7" turrets, plus 22 x 3.5" turrets and 6 x 18" torpedo tubes. All of this gives the ship good protection against most enemy surface threats, although their artillery can also be used against coastal defenses if needed.

Interestingly, this German-class battleship lacked contemporary medium-range artilleryher primary armament was both long-range and short-range.

SMS Schleswig-Holstein Drive

SMS Schleswig-Holstein was powered by no less than 12 boilers which powered three triple expansion steam engines which in turn drove three propeller shafts. This enables the vessel to sail at speeds of up to 19 knots and reach distances of up to 4,800 nautical miles (at a cruising speed of 10 knots). Her overall length is 418 feet 8 inches, the beam (beam) is 72 feet 10 inches, and the draft is 26 feet 11 inches.

The displacement of SMS Schleswig-Holstein is normally 13,200 tons, but in wartime it may be increased by about 1,000 tons to achieve "full load".

SMS Schleswig-Holstein in the First World War

During the First World War, the SMS Schleswig-Holstein served with the 2nd Squadron of the High Seas Fleet. From May 31, 1916 to June 1, 1916, she participated in the famous Battle of Jutland. The battle featured the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet fighting the German High Seas Fleet in the eastern North Sea off the Danish peninsula of Jutland.

The battle was aimed at taking control of the vital Northern Sea Route, and more than a hundred ships from both sides were invited to participate. The general plan for the Germans to enter the fray was to destroy most of the participating British fleets, and then continue unrestricted submarine warfare throughout the region, at which point the threat from the limited Royal Navy would diminish.

The battle culminated in 28 Royal Navy battleships against 16 German battleships as well as "small" ships, all five German-class battleships participating. The two sides began operations, and subsequent operations resulted in more than 6,000 British deaths and more than 500 wounded, and more than 2,500 German casualties and more than 500 wounded. Sister ship SMS Pommern was hit by a British torpedo fired by HMS Onslaught (originally thought to be HMS Faulknor) - causing one of her newsstands to detonate - and sank all 839 souls on board.

SMS Schleswig-Holstein itself was slightly damaged by enemy shells, but survived and continued the fight.

Despite the great strength displayed by these two naval powers, the battle officially ended "inconclusive" and the North Sea was still fighting for the Triple Entente. While the British suffered the most numerically, the Germans failed to achieve their planned battle objectives, leading the British and Germans to tout their respective battle results as complete victories for both sides in true wartime fashion.

The naval battle went down in history as the largest naval battle of World War I, and it is interesting that none of the battleships involved were killed in close quarters combat.

After the battle, the SMS Schleswig-Holstein was in dire need of repairs before it went to sea again. She re-entered combat waters in early 1917 and held the role until May 2 of that year, only now retiring from active duty. In August 1917, she was converted into a soldier's "lodging ship" and based in Bremerhaven, before eventually being transferred to Kiel in 1918, where she served until the end of the war in November. Of her five ships, only four survived the entire war, and only three of them were allowed to continue serving in the German Navy after the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.

SMS Schleswig-Holstein joined SMS Schlesien and SMS Hannover, while SMS Deutschland was selected as the waste burner in 1922. A modernization program followed in the 1920s, during which the SMS Schleswig-Holstein was upgraded and promoted to the flagship of the rebuilt German Navy.

She held this position from 1926 to 1935.

By 1939, an armament overhaul made some changes to the SMS Schleswig-Holstein's deck in preparation for Hitler's world war with the rest of Europe. Her 4 x 11" SK L/40 guns were intact, but she lost all turrets' 6.7" guns. Of the 22 guns originally installed, only 2 x 3.5" guns remained, although these were no longer housed in airtight turrets and 4 x 1.5" guns were added.

Additional 22 x 20mm anti-aircraft guns were installed for the lethal cyber-air defense system, and her six 18-inch torpedo tubes were completely removed. Although the design itself was outdated, the remaining German-class ships still had some value due to their armament.

As such, they were operational bombing platforms and were used in WWII Polish fortifications in Danzig (now called Danzig) near the Baltic Sea. Poland).

Captain Gustav Kleikamp in command of SMS Schleswig Holstein, and she and her sister ship SMS Schlesien planned to visit Poland. The pretext was to commemorate the German sailor who died on the cruiser Magdeburg during World War I and was buried in Danzig in 1914. The Magdeburg ran aground near the Odensholm lighthouse in the Baltic Sea.

Efforts to refloat her ultimately failed, and the Russian cruisers Bogatyr and Pallada surfaced and completely destroyed her, killing most of her crew.

Schleswig-Holstein and their small fleet have moored in the port of Danzig at the mouth of the Vistula. At 4:30 a.m. on September 1, 1939, she lifted anchor and made her way down the strait, taking a position opposite the Polish fort in Westerplatte. SMS Schlesien and accompanying gunboats continued to protect the port estuary.

The plan of the German High Command was to direct SMS Schleswig Holstein to attack the fortress at close range with its 11-inch guns, while at 04.47 Hauptmann Kleikamp officially ordered to fire on Westerplatte in the name of Adolf Hitler. Germany's first shot in Europe via WWII SMS Schleswig-Holstein happened to be 20 years, 9 months, 19 days, 18 hours after the last recorded firing in World War I. World War II officially begins in Europe.

Luftwaffe dive bombers Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" joined the bombing of the fortress, and the few Polish garrison defenders were also attacked by more German ground forces. The fighting lasted 7 days before the Polish commander surrendered (though the fortress was never actually occupied by German troops).

During the first weeks of the following World War, SMS Schleswig-Holstein and SMS Schlesien bombed Gdynia, Kepa Oksywska and other Polish positions on the Hull Peninsula.

SMS Schleswig-Holstein death

After the German occupation of Norway in 1940, the remaining German-class battleships returned to training service. SMS Schleswig-Holstein became an air defense platform in 1944, stationed in Gdynia to protect the port from enemy air attacks. She would be docked there until the end of the war, as she was now a stationary target, and she was attacked by an RAF plane on 18 December 1944, killing her crew of 28.

The RAF attacked again, with several direct hits with aerial bombs, leaving a burning wreckage on the water. On March 21, 1945, she eventually sank in 39 feet of water near the harbor. The war in Europe ended in May.

After World War II, she was raised by the Soviet Union and dragged to the Russian port of Tallinn, where she is believed to have been renamed "Borodino". Sometime in 1948, the Soviet Navy sank the Borodino in shallow water near the island of Osmusal in the Baltic Sea, and she was used as a target ship until 1964.

Decades later, the wreck of the ship is known as the "Historic Wreck" because it has been named since 2006.