SMS was the second of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the in the German Imperial Navy. She was laid down in May 1901, launched in May 1903, and commissioned in November 1904, though an accident during sea trials delayed her completion until May 1905. She was named for the German province of Elsass, now the French region of Alsace. Her sister ships were , , and . The ship was armed with a battery of four guns and had a top speed of . Like all other pre-dreadnoughts built at the turn of the century, was quickly made obsolete by the launching of the revolutionary in 1906; as a result, her career as a frontline battleship was cut short.
The ship served in II Squadron of the German fleet after commissioning, and during this period, she was occupied with extensive annual training, as well as making good-will visits to foreign countries. Surpassed by new dreadnought battleships, was decommissioned in 1913, though she was reactivated a year later following the outbreak of World War I and assigned to IV Battle Squadron. saw action in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. In August 1915, she participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, during which she engaged the Russian battleship . In 1916, she was placed in reserve because of crew shortages and the threat of British submarines operating in the Baltic, and she spent the remainder of the war as a training ship.
She was retained after the war under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and was modernized in 1923–1924. served in the with the surface fleet until 1930, conducting training operations and visits to foreign ports as she had earlier in her career. In 1930, she was again placed in reserve, and the following year she was stricken from the naval register. was used for a short time as a hulk in Wilhelmshaven. The outdated battleship was sold to Norddeutscher Lloyd in late 1935 and was broken up for scrap the following year.
Design
With the passage of the Second Naval Law under the direction of (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz in 1900, funding was allocated for a new class of battleships, to succeed the ships authorized under the 1898 Naval Law. By this time, Krupp, the supplier of naval artillery to the (Imperial Navy) had developed quick-firing, guns; the largest guns that had previously incorporated the technology were the guns mounted on the s. The Design Department of the (Imperial Navy Office) adopted these guns for the new battleships, along with an increase from to for the secondary battery, owing to the increased threat from torpedo boats as torpedoes became more effective.
Though the class marked a significant improvement over earlier German battleships, its design fell victim to the rapid pace of technological development in the early 1900s. The British battleship —armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—was commissioned in December 1906, just a year after entered service. Dreadnoughts revolutionary design rendered every capital ship of the German navy obsolete, including .
was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced as designed and at full load. Her crew consisted of 35 officers and 708 enlisted men. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by eight naval and six cylindrical boilers, and all of which burned coal. s powerplant was rated at , which generated a designed top speed of . She could steam at a cruising speed of .
s armament consisted of a main battery of four 28 cm (11 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure. Her secondary armament was composed of fourteen 17 cm (6.7 inch) SK L/40 guns and eighteen 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/35 quick-firing guns. Her armament was further increased by six torpedo tubes, all mounted submerged in the hull. One tube was in the bow, two were on each broadside, and the final tube was in the stern. was protected with Krupp armor. Her armored belt was thick, with the heavier armor in the central citadel that protected her magazines and machinery spaces, and the thinner plating at either end of the hull. Her deck was thick. The main battery turrets had 250 mm of armor plating.
Service history Pre-war career
was laid down on 26 May 1901 at the Schichau-Werke in Danzig under construction number 97. The second unit of her class, she was ordered under the contract name "J" as a new unit for the fleet. was launched on 26 May 1903, and the launching ceremony was attended by Hermann zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the (Governor) of the ship's namesake province. The ship was transferred to Kiel on 26 October 1904 by a shipyard crew. She was commissioned into the fleet on 29 November 1904 and began sea trials thereafter. These were interrupted on 15 December, when the ship's rudder broke, forcing her to return for repairs that lasted until February 1905. then returned to trials, which were completed by May. She thereafter joined II Squadron, replacing the old coastal defense ship . Her first commander was then- (KzS—Captain at Sea) Hugo von Pohl, who remained in the position until September 1905.
For the next several years, and the rest of the fleet were occupied with the peacetime training regimen that consisted of squadron and fleet training in April and May and a major fleet cruise during the summer, followed by annual fall maneuvers with the whole fleet in August and September. The year would typically conclude with a winter training cruise. For , her career began with squadron training in the North Sea and Baltic Sea in May 1905, followed by the summer cruise in July and August. In August, before the annual fleet maneuvers, the British Channel Fleet visited the German fleet in Swinemünde. KzS Gustav Bachmann took command of the ship in September. The year 1906 followed the same pattern, concluding with fleet exercises in the North Sea in December before returning to Kiel. Further maneuvers in the North Sea occupied the fleet for much of the first half of 1907, followed by a summer cruise to Norway and the annual autumn maneuvers in August and September. KzS Reinhard Scheer replaced Bachmann in October 1907. The winter cruise that year went to the Baltic.
On 28 April 1908, a significant accident occurred aboard , when a round of ammunition exploded. Three men were killed and another six were wounded. In 1908 and 1909, the fleet, which had been renamed the High Seas Fleet, undertook major cruises into the Atlantic Ocean. During the first, which began on 13 July 1908, stopped in Las Palmas from 23 July to 1 August before returning to Germany on 13 August for the autumn maneuvers. The 1909 cruise began on 7 July and lasted until 1 August, and included a visit to Ferrol, Spain from 18 to 25 July. In September, KzS Hubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz replaced Scheer as the ship's commander. The year 1910 followed the same pattern of individual, squadron, and fleet training as in previous years. For the summer cruises of 1910 and 1911, the German fleet went to Norwegian waters; both years also saw winter cruises in the western Baltic. On 14 December 1910, while conducting individual training, collided with the battleship , though neither ship was seriously damaged. KzS Carl Schaumann took command of the ship in September 1911, though he remained in command for just a month, being replaced by KzS Hugo Langemak in October. was transferred to I Squadron on 3 October, trading places with the battleship .
On 23 March 1912, during fleet training, accidentally collided with a Swedish steamship——in heavy fog in the western entrance to the Skagerrak. Pollux was badly damaged in the accident and sank, though was able to take off her crew. In April, served as a target ship during gunfire training with the armored cruiser in a demonstration held off the Faroe Islands. On the 29th of the month, the new dreadnought battleship replaced in I Squadron, and the latter had her crew reduced. On 24 August, the ship received her full complement again, to allow to take part in the annual maneuvers with the newly formed III Squadron. She also came under the temporary command of KzS Leberecht Maass. After the exercises, the squadron was dissolved, and on 29 September again had her crew reduced. She returned to active duty on 1 December, when she was assigned to V Division of III Squadron, along with her sister ship and the new dreadnought . The ships began the year with individual training, followed by divisional exercises in the Baltic later in January 1913. In early March, fleet exercises were held in the North Sea. was sent to Kiel on 17 March to begin preparations for her decommissioning, as her place in the division was taken by the new dreadnought . On 13 May, was decommissioned and assigned to the Reserve Division of the Baltic Sea. Effective 15 October, she was assigned to the (Naval Station of the Baltic Sea).
World War I
On 28 July 1914, Germany's ally Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, beginning World War I. Three days later, was reactivated as the European powers moved toward war, and she was assigned to IV Battle Squadron. The unit also included her sister ship and the five -class battleships, and was commanded by Ehrhard Schmidt. began individual and then squadron training, which lasted until early September. The training exercises were interrupted on 26 August, when the squadron and the armored cruisers and and the light cruiser were sent to rescue the stranded light cruiser , which had run aground off the island of Odensholm in the eastern Baltic. By 28 August, however, the ship's crew had been forced to detonate explosives to destroy before the relief force had arrived. As a result, and the rest of the squadron returned to Bornholm that day.
Starting on 2 September, IV Squadron, assisted by , conducted a sweep into the Baltic. The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bring Russian naval units to battle. From 11 to 20 September, and the rest of the division was transferred to the mouth of the Elbe to provide local defense against possible British attacks. Later that month, the IV Squadron ships were transferred back to the Baltic. The army had requested that the navy make a demonstration to keep Russian reserves along the Baltic coast, instead of allowing the Russians to re-deploy them to Galicia. The older battleships of the V Battle Squadron were sent to Danzig to embark ground forces, while and IV Squadron steamed in advance. The operation was called off early, however, after British submarines were reportedly sighted in the Baltic. The two squadrons rendezvoused off Bornholm before proceeded on to Kiel, arriving on 26 September.
returned to the Elbe from 5 December to 1 March 1915, with scheduled periodic maintenance from 24 to 28 February. After guard ship duties in the Elbe ended, she was briefly transferred to the Schillig Roads, outside Wilhelmshaven, from 1 to 9 March. Beginning on 2 April, began training exercises in the Baltic, followed by another shipyard period from 26 April to 16 May at the (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel. She returned to provide coastal defense in the Elbe on 27 May. On 4 July 1915, following the loss of the minelaying cruiser in the Baltic, the IV Squadron ships were transferred to reinforce the German naval forces in the area. Additionally, the army requested naval support for the Army of the Niemen, which was operating in Courland. On 7–11 and 18–19 July, German cruisers, with the IV Squadron ships in support, conducted sweeps in the Baltic, though without engaging any Russian forces. During the latter operation, collided with the torpedo boat , though she inflicted only minor damage.