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SMS Zähringen

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A large battleship plows through the water at high speed, thick black smoke pours from the smoke stacks
Zähringen's sistership Wittelsbach
History
KaiserGermany
NameZähringen
NamesakeHouse of Zähringen
BuilderGermaniawerft, Kiel
Laid downNovember 1899
Launched12 June 1901
Commissioned25 October 1902
FateSunk as a blockship in 1945
General characteristics
Typepre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement12,798 t (12,596 long tons)
Length126.8 m (416 ft 0 in)
Beam22.8 m (74 ft 10 in)
Draft7.95 m (26 ft 1 in)
Installed power14,000 ihp (10,440 kW)
Propulsion3 shafts, triple expansion steam engines
Speed18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range5,000 nautical miles (9,000 km); 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complementlist error: <br /> list (help)
30 officers
650 enlisted men
Armamentlist error: <br /> list (help)
4 × 24 cm (9.4 in) guns (40 cal.)
18 × 15 cm (5.9 in) guns
12 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns
5 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armorlist error: <br /> list (help)
Belt: 100 to 225 mm (3.9 to 8.9 in)
Turrets: 250 mm (9.8 in)
Deck: 50 mm (2.0 in)

SMS Zähringen ("His Majesty's Ship Zähringen") was third ship of the Wittelsbach-class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Imperial Navy. Laid down in 1899 at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel, she was launched on 12 June 1901 and commissioned on 25 October 1902. Her sisters were Wittelsbach, Wettin, Schwaben and Mecklenburg; they were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898, brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz.

Zähringen saw active duty in the I Squadron of the German fleet for the majority of her career. The ship was rapidly superseded by new "all-big-gun" warships, however, and as a result served for less than eight years before being decommissioned on 21 September 1910. After the start of World War I in August 1914, Zähringen was brought back to active duty in the IV Battle Squadron. The ship saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces, though the threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw by 1916.

Zähringen was converted into a target ship in 1917 for the remainder of the war. In the mid 1920s, Zähringen was heavily reconstructed and equipped for use as a radio-controlled target ship. She served in this capacity until 1944, when she was sunk in Gotenhafen by British bombers during World War II. The retreating Germans raised the ship and moved it to the harbor mouth where they scuttled it to block the port. Zähringen was broken up in situ in 1949–50.

Construction

Main article: Wittelsbach class battleship

Zähringen's keel was laid in November 1899, at Friedrich Krupp's Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel.[1] She was ordered under the contract name "E", as a new unit for the fleet.[2] The Wittelsbach class was the first battleship class built under the terms of the Navy Law of 1898, the chief proponent of which was Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz.[3] Zähringen was launched on 12 June 1901 and commissioned on 25 October 1902.[4]

Zähringen was 126.8 m (416 ft 0 in) long overall and had a beam of 22.8 m (74 ft 10 in) and a draft of 7.95 m (26.1 ft) forward. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by six naval and six cylindrical boilers. Zähringen's powerplant was rated at 14,000 indicated horsepower (10,000 kW), which generated a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).[5]

Zähringen's armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turrets,[Note 1] one fore and one aft of the central superstructure.[6] Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns and twelve 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/30 quick-firing guns. The armament suite was rounded out with six 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes, all in above-water swivel mounts.[2]

Service history

Imperial Navy

After she was commissioned into the German fleet in October 1902, Zähringen was assigned to the I Squadron of the Active Battle Fleet.[7] In 1905 the German fleet was reorganized into two squadrons of battleships. Zähringen was assigned to the I Division of I Squadron, alongside her sisters Wettin and Wittelsbach. The German fleet at that time consisted of another three-ship division in the I Squadron and 2 three-ship divisions in the II Squadron. This was supported by a reconnaissance division, composed of two armored cruisers and six protected cruisers.[8]

The Error: {{sclass}} invalid format code: 6. Should be 0–5, or blank (help)s—the most powerful battleships yet built in Germany—were beginning to enter service by 1907. This provided the Navy with enough ships to form two full battle squadrons of eight ships each. The fleet was then renamed the Hochseeflotte (High Seas Fleet).[7] On 21 September 1910, Zähringen was decommissioned and her crew was transferred to the new dreadnought Rheinland, which had recently been completed.[9] In 1912, Zähringen and her sisters were recommissioned as the III Squadron of the High Seas Fleet to augment the forces available for the annual summer fleet maneuvers in the North Sea. The exercises began on 2 September and were conducted in the area between Wilhelmshaven, Helgoland, and Cuxhaven.[10] While on maneuvers southwest of Helgoland on 14 September 1912, Zähringen accidentally rammed the torpedo boat G171. The torpedo boat was cut in half and quickly sank; six men drowned and a seventh died after being pulled from the sea.[11]

By 1914, Zähringen and her sisters were removed from active service and placed in the reserve squadron.[12] However, after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Zähringen and the rest of her class were mobilized to serve in the IV Battle Squadron, under the command of Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt.[13] Starting on 3 September, the IV Squadron, assisted by the armored cruiser Blücher, conducted a sweep into the Baltic. The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bring Russian naval units to battle.[14] In May 1915, IV Squadron, including Zähringen, was transferred to support the German Army in the Baltic Sea area.[15] Zähringen and her sisters were then based in Kiel.

On 6 May, the IV Squadron ships were tasked with providing support to the assault on Libau. Zähringen and the other ships stood off Gotland in order to intercept any Russian cruisers that might try to intervene in the landings, which the Russians did not attempt. On 10 May, after the invasion force had entered Libau, the British submarines HMS E1 and HMS E9 spotted the IV Squadron, but were too far away to make an attack.[16] Zähringen and her sisters were not included in the German fleet that assaulted the Gulf of Riga in August 1915, due to the scarcity of escorts. The increasingly active British submarines forced the Germans to employ more destroyers to protect the capital ships.[17]

By 1916, the increasing threat from British submarines in the Baltic convinced the German navy to withdraw the elderly Wittelsbach class ships from active service.[18] Zähringen was initially used as a training ship in Kiel. In 1917, the ship was used to train stokers but then became a target ship.[4]

Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine

As of April 1919, Zähringen lay in the harbor in Danzig; the ship had been decommissioned but retained its armament.[19] According to Article 181 of the Treaty of Versailles, Zähringen and her sisters were to be demilitarized.[20] This would permit the newly reorganized Reichsmarine to retain the vessels for auxiliary purposes.[6] Zähringen was therefore stricken from the navy list on 11 March 1920 and disarmed. She was then used as a hulk in Wilhelmshaven until 1926.[4]

In 1927–28, the Reichsmarine rebuilt the ship as a radio-controlled target vessel. The ship had its engine system overhauled; the three-shaft arrangement was replaced by a pair of vertical 3-cylinder triple expansion engines. These were supplied with steam by two naval oil-fired boilers. The system was designed to be operated remotely via wireless telegraph. The new propulsion system provided a top speed of 13.5 kn (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph). The superstructure was also cut down and the hull was filled with cork. When the conversion was completed, Zähringen displaced 11,800 metric tons (11,600 long tons; 13,000 short tons). While not in use as a target, the ship was manned by a crew of 67.[4] She served as a target vessel for the Reichsmarine and then the Kriegsmarine, together with the old battleship Hessen.[21]

On 18 December 1944, the old ship was hit by bombs during an air raid on Gotenhafen (now Gdynia) and sank in shallow water.[21] She was temporarily refloated and towed to the harbor entrance, where she was scuttled to block the port on 26 March 1945. The wreck was broken up in situ starting in 1949; work lasted until 1950.[4]

Notes

Footnotes
  1. ^ In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnellfeuerkanone) denotes that the gun quick firing, while the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 calibers, meaning that the gun is 40 as times long as it is in diameter.
Citations
  1. ^ Ships: Germany, p. 978
  2. ^ a b Gröner, p. 16
  3. ^ Herwig, p. 43
  4. ^ a b c d e Gröner, p. 17
  5. ^ Gröner, pp. 16–17
  6. ^ a b Hore, p. 67
  7. ^ a b Herwig, p. 45
  8. ^ The British and German Fleets, p. 335
  9. ^ Staff, p. 30
  10. ^ Professional Notes: Germany, p. 1636
  11. ^ Professional Notes: Germany, p. 1637
  12. ^ Effective Fighting Ships, p. 18
  13. ^ Scheer, p. 15
  14. ^ Halpern, p. 185
  15. ^ Scheer, pp. 90–91
  16. ^ Halpern, p. 192
  17. ^ Halpern, p. 197
  18. ^ Herwig, p. 168
  19. ^ Situation of German Warships, p. 72
  20. ^ Treaty of Versailles, Article 181
  21. ^ a b Ciupa, p. 106–107

References

Books
  • Ciupa, Heinz (1979). Die deutschen Kriegsschiffe 1939-45 Template:De icon. Baden Erich Pabel. OCLC 561148977.
  • Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-790-9.
  • Herwig, Holger (1980). "Luxury" Fleet: The Imperial German Navy 1888–1918. Amherst, New York: Humanity Books. ISBN 9781573922869.
  • Hore, Peter (2006). The Ironclads. London: Southwater Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84476-299-6. OCLC 70402701.
  • Scheer, Reinhard (1920). Germany's High Seas Fleet in the World War. Cassell and Company, ltd.
  • Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918 (1). Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 9781846034671.
Journals
  • "Effective Fighting Ships, Built and Building". War Gazetteer. New York, NY: New York Evening Post: 18. 1914.
  • "Professional Notes: Germany". Naval Institute Proceedings. 38. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute: 1631–1638. 1912.
  • "Ships: Germany". Journal of the American Society of Naval Engineers. 14. Washington D.C.: American Society of Naval Engineers: 971–979. 1902.
  • "Situation of German Warships in April, 1919". Information Concerning the U.S. Navy and Other Navies. 14. Washington D.C.: Office of Naval Intelligence: 72–73. 1919.
  • "The British and German Fleets". The United Service. 7. New York: Lewis R. Hamersly & Co.: 328–340 1905.

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