SMS was the fifth and final vessel of the of dreadnought battleships of the Imperial German Navy. s keel was laid in October 1910 at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel. She was launched on 17 February 1912 and was commissioned into the navy on 19 August 1913. The ship was equipped with ten guns in five twin turrets, and had a top speed of .
was assigned to III Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet for the majority of her career; in December 1916, she was transferred to IV Battle Squadron. Along with her four sister ships, , , , and , participated in all of the major fleet operations of World War I, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. The ship was also involved in Operation Albion, an amphibious assault on the Russian-held islands in the Gulf of Riga, in late 1917.
After Germany's defeat in the war and the signing of the Armistice in November 1918, and most of the capital ships of the High Seas Fleet were interned by the Royal Navy in Scapa Flow. The ships were disarmed and reduced to skeleton crews while the Allied powers negotiated the final version of the Treaty of Versailles. On 21 June 1919, days before the treaty was signed, the commander of the interned fleet, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, ordered the fleet to be scuttled to ensure that the British would not be able to seize the ships. was raised in July 1931 and subsequently broken up for scrap in 1933.
Design
The German 1909 construction program included the last two members of the s, along with two additional dreadnoughts to be built to a new design. The primary change was intended to be the adoption of steam turbines in favor of triple-expansion steam engines used in the earlier vessels. The space savings of turbines permitted a more efficient superfiring arrangement of the main battery, along the same model as the s. The new ships' armor layout was significant improved over earlier designs; the Kaiser class was also far superior in defensive characteristics to their British counterparts of the and es, even if markedly inferior in terms of firepower.
Characteristics
was long overall and displaced a maximum of at full load. She had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft. The ship had an inverted bow and a long forecastle deck that extended for two-thirds the length of the hull. Her superstructure was fairly minimal, consisting primarily of a short, armored conning tower forward and a smaller, secondary conning tower aft. was fitted with a pair of pole masts for observation and signaling purposes. She had a crew of 41 officers and 1,043 enlisted men.
was powered by two sets of Parsons steam turbines, which drove two screw propellers. The turbines were supplied with steam by fourteen coal-fired water-tube boilers that were vented through a pair of widely spaced funnels. Unlike her four sisters, the ship was intended to use a diesel engine on the center shaft, but this was not ready by the time work on the ship was completed. The engine was never installed, and so was slightly slower than her sisters, which were equipped with a third turbine on the center shaft. The powerplant produced a top speed of . She carried of coal, which enabled a maximum range of at a cruising speed of .
was armed with a main battery of ten 30.5 cm SK L/50 guns in five twin turrets. The ship dispensed with the inefficient hexagonal turret arrangement of previous German battleships; instead, three of the five turrets were mounted on the centerline, one forward and two of them arranged in a superfiring pair aft. The other two turrets were placed en echelon amidships, such that both could fire on the broadside. The ship was also armed with a secondary battery of fourteen SK L/45 guns in casemates amidships. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried eight SK L/45 guns in casemates. The ship was also armed with four 8.8 cm L/45 anti-aircraft guns. The ship's armament was rounded out by five torpedo tubes, all mounted in the hull; one was in the bow, and the other four were on the broadside.
Her main armored belt was thick in the central citadel, and was composed of Krupp cemented armor (KCA). Her main battery gun turrets were protected by of KCA on the sides and faces. s conning tower was heavily armored, with sides.
Service history Ordered under the contract name as a replacement for the obsolete coastal defense ship , was laid down at the Howaldtswerke dockyard in Kiel in October 1910. She was launched on 17 February 1912 and christened by Princess Theresa of Bavaria; Ludwig III, the last king of Bavaria and the son of the ship's namesake, Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, gave a speech. After fitting-out work was completed, the ship was commissioned into the fleet on 19 August 1913. was equipped with facilities for a squadron commander, and became the flagship of III Battle Squadron upon commissioning.
Directly after commissioning, took part in the annual autumn maneuvers, which followed the fleet cruise to Norway. The exercises lasted from 31 August to 9 September. Unit drills and individual ship training were conducted in October and November. In early 1914, participated in additional ship and unit training. The annual spring maneuvers were conducted in the North Sea at the end of March. Further fleet exercises followed in April and May in the Baltic and North Seas. The ship went to Kiel Week that year. Despite the rising international tensions following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June, the High Seas Fleet began its summer cruise to Norway on 13 July. During the last peacetime cruise of the Imperial Navy, the fleet conducted drills off Skagen before proceeding to the Norwegian fjords on 25 July. The following day the fleet began to steam back to Germany, as a result of Austria-Hungary's ultimatum to Serbia. On the 27th, the entire fleet assembled off Cape Skadenes before returning to port, where they remained at a heightened state of readiness. War between Austria-Hungary and Serbia broke out the following day, and in the span of a week all of the major European powers had joined the conflict.
World War I was present during the first sortie by the German fleet into the North Sea, which took place on 2–3 November 1914. No British forces were encountered during the operation. A second operation followed on 15–16 December. This sortie was the initiation of a strategy adopted by Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, the commander of the High Seas Fleet. He intended to use the battlecruisers of (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Franz von Hipper's I Scouting Group to raid British coastal towns to lure out portions of the British Grand Fleet where they could be destroyed by the High Seas Fleet. Early on 15 December the fleet left port to raid the towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby. That evening, the German battle fleet of some twelve dreadnoughts—including and her four sisters—and eight pre-dreadnoughts came to within of an isolated squadron of six British battleships. However, skirmishes between the rival destroyer screens in the darkness convinced Ingenohl that he was faced with the entire Grand Fleet. Under orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II to avoid risking the fleet unnecessarily, Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battle fleet back toward Germany.
went into the Baltic for squadron training from 23 to 29 January 1916. While on the maneuvers, the newer battleship became III Squadron flagship. (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Reinhard Scheer, the commander of III Squadron, lowered his flag on 24 January and transferred it to . The Kaiser removed Ingenohl from his post on 2 February, following the loss of the armored cruiser at the Battle of Dogger Bank the month before. Admiral Hugo von Pohl succeeded him as the commander of the fleet. Pohl continued the policy of sweeps into the North Sea to destroy isolated British formations. On 24 April, ran aground in the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, though she was freed without causing significant damage. A series of advances into the North Sea were conducted throughout the rest of 1915; was present for the sweeps on 17–18 May, 29–30 May, 10 August, 11–12 September, and 23–24 October. III Squadron completed the year with another round of unit training in the Baltic on 5–20 December.
Pohl's tenure as fleet commander was brief; by January 1916 hepatic cancer had weakened him to the point where he was no longer able to carry out his duties. He was replaced by Scheer in January. Scheer proposed a more aggressive policy designed to force a confrontation with the British Grand Fleet; he received approval from the Kaiser in February. The first of Scheer's operations was conducted the following month, on 5–7 March, with an uneventful sweep of the Hoofden. was also present during an advance to the Amrun Bank on 2–3 April. Another sortie was conducted on 21–22 April.
Battle of Jutland
was present during the fleet operation that resulted in the battle of Jutland which took place on 31 May and 1 June 1916. The German fleet again sought to draw out and isolate a portion of the Grand Fleet and destroy it before the main British fleet could retaliate. During the operation, was the third ship in VI Division of III Squadron and the seventh ship in the line, directly astern of and ahead of . VI Division was behind only V Division, consisting of the four s. The eight Helgoland- and s of I and II Divisions in I Squadron followed VI Division. The six elderly pre-dreadnoughts of III and IV Divisions in II Battle Squadron formed the rear of the formation.
Shortly before 16:00, the battlecruisers of I Scouting Group encountered the British 1st Battlecruiser Squadron under the command of Vice Admiral David Beatty. The opposing ships began an artillery duel that saw the destruction of , shortly after 17:00, and , less than half an hour later. By this time, the German battlecruisers were steaming south to draw the British ships toward the main body of the High Seas Fleet. At 17:30, the crew of the leading German battleship, , spotted both I Scouting Group and the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron approaching. The German battlecruisers were steaming to starboard, while the British ships steamed to port. At 17:45, Scheer ordered a two-point turn to port to bring his ships closer to the British battlecruisers, and a minute later, the order to open fire was given.
engaged the nearest target her gunners could make out, one of the s, at a range of some , though her shots fell short. Beatty's ships increased speed and at 17:51 veered away to further increase the distance to the III Squadron battleships. At 18:08, shifted her fire to the battleship at a range of , though without any success. By 18:38, Malaya disappeared in the haze and was forced to cease fire. The British destroyers and , which had been disabled earlier in the engagement, lay directly in the path of the advancing High Seas Fleet. and her three sisters destroyed Nomad with their secondary guns while the I Squadron battleships dispatched Nestor. At around 19:00, the German battle line came into contact with the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron; fired two salvos from her main battery at an unidentified four-funneled cruiser at 19:03 but made no hits.