SMS was the second vessel of the of dreadnought battleships of the Imperial German Navy. Named for the region of East Frisia, s keel was laid in October 1908 at the dockyard in Wilhelmshaven. She was launched on 30 September 1909 and was commissioned into the fleet on 1 August 1911. The ship was equipped with twelve guns in six twin turrets, and had a top speed of . was assigned to the I Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet for the majority of her career, including World War I.
Along with her three sister ships, , , and , participated in all of the major fleet operations of World War I in the North Sea against the British Grand Fleet. This included the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, the largest naval battle of the war. The ship also saw action in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. She was present during the unsuccessful first incursion into the Gulf of Riga in August 1915.
After the German collapse in November 1918, most of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa Flow during the peace negotiations. The four -class ships were allowed to remain in Germany, however, and were therefore spared the destruction of the fleet in Scapa Flow. and her sisters were eventually ceded to the victorious Allied powers as war reparations; was transferred to the United States Navy. She was sunk during air power trials off the Virginia Capes in July 1921.
Design
Many senior officers in the German (Imperial Navy) acknowledged that the s, armed with guns, were inferior to their British counterparts that carried guns. They sought to incorporate guns of the latter caliber in the next battleship design, though the significant increase in cost from the pre-dreadnought s to the dreadnought Nassau class precluded another major qualitative increase until the 1908 budget year, two years after the first Nassaus were ordered. The design staff experimented with a variety of gun turret arrangements, including superfiring layouts like the American , but they ultimately settled on the same hexagonal arrangement of the Nassaus.
Characteristics
The ship was long, had a beam of and a draft of , and displaced at full load. Ostfriesland had a flush deck and minimal superstructure that consisted primarily of a large, armored conning tower forward and a smaller, secondary conning position further aft. Ostfriesland was fitted with additional facilities for an admiral's staff so she could be used as a flagship. The ship was fitted with a pair of pole masts, which held spotting tops and positions for searchlights. She had a crew of 42 officers and 1,071 enlisted men.
She was powered by three 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines; each engine drove a four-bladed screw. Steam was provided by fifteen water-tube boilers, which were vented through three closely spaced funnels placed amidships. The ship's engines were rated at and produced a top speed of . stored up to of coal, which allowed her to steam for at a speed of . After 1915 the boilers were modified to spray oil on the coal; the ship could carry up to of fuel oil.
was armed with a main battery of twelve SK L/50 guns in six twin gun turrets, with one turret fore, one aft, and two on each flank of the ship. The ship's secondary battery consisted of fourteen SK L/45 guns, all of which were mounted in casemates in the side of the upper deck. For defense against torpedo boats, she carried fourteen SK L/45 guns. After 1914, two of the 8.8 cm guns were removed and replaced by 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns. was also armed with six submerged torpedo tubes; one was in the bow, one in the stern, and two on each 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 the same thickness of KCA on the sides and faces, as well as the barbettes that supported the turrets. s deck was thick.
Service history
was ordered by the German Imperial Navy () under the provisional name , as a replacement for the old coastal defense ship . The contract for the ship was awarded to the (Imperial Dockyard) in Wilhelmshaven under construction number 31. Work began on 19 October 1908 with the laying of her keel, and the ship was launched less than a year later, on 30 September 1909. She was christened by the Princess of Innhausen and Knyphausen, a representative of the oldest East Frisian nobility. Fitting out, including completion of the superstructure and the installation of armament, lasted until August 1911. , named for the north-western coastal area of Germany, was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 1 August 1911, just under three years from when work commenced.
After commissioning, conducted sea trials, which were completed by 15 September. (KzS—Captain at Sea) Walter Engelhardt served as the ship's first commanding officer. On the 22nd, the ship was formally assigned to I Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet. She then conducted individual ship training exercises, which were followed by I Squadron, and then fleet maneuvers in November. became the new squadron flagship on 24 April 1912, replacing , and flying the flag of (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Hugo von Pohl. The annual summer cruise in July–August, which typically went to Norway, was interrupted by the Agadir Crisis. As a result, the cruise only went into the Baltic. and the rest of the fleet then fell into a pattern of individual ship, squadron, and full fleet exercises over the next two years of peacetime. won the 1912/1913 —the Kaiser's artillery shooting prize—for I Squadron. On 27 January 1913, (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Wilhelm von Lans replaced Pohl as the squadron commander.
On 14 July 1914, the annual summer cruise to Norway began. 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 it remained at a heightened state of readiness. War between Austria-Hungary and Serbia broke out on the 28th, and in the span of a week all of the major European powers had joined the conflict. By 29 July and the rest of I Squadron was back in Wilhelmshaven.
World War I The first major naval action in the North Sea, the Battle of Helgoland Bight, took place on 28 August 1914. At 04:30, , which was stationed off the heavily fortified island of Wangerooge, received the order to join and sail out of the harbor. At 05:00, the two battleships met the battered cruisers and . By 07:30, the ships had returned to port for the night. On the afternoon of 7 September, and the rest of the High Seas Fleet conducted a training cruise to the island of Heligoland. In October, was equipped with a pair of 8.8 cm flak guns for anti-air defense.
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. Ingenohl intended to use the battlecruisers of KAdm Franz von Hipper's I Scouting Group to raid British coastal towns to lure out portions of the 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 three 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.
The Battle of Dogger Bank, in which Vice Admiral David Beatty's 1st and 2nd Battlecruiser Squadrons ambushed the battlecruisers of I Scouting Group, occurred on 24 January 1915. and the rest of I Squadron sortied to reinforce the outnumbered German battlecruisers; I Squadron left port at 12:33 CET, along with the pre-dreadnoughts of II Squadron. They were too late, however, and failed to locate any British forces. By 19:05, the fleet had returned to the Schillig Roads outside Wilhelmshaven. In the meantime, the armored cruiser had been overwhelmed by concentrated British fire and sunk, while the battlecruiser was severely damaged by a fire in one of the ammunition magazines. As a result, Kaiser Wilhelm II removed Ingenohl from his post and replaced him with now-Admiral Pohl on 2 February. VAdm Richard Eckermann replaced Lans on 16 February.
The eight I Squadron ships went into the Baltic on 22 February 1915 for unit training, which lasted until 13 March. Following their return to the North Sea, the ships participated in a series of uneventful fleet sorties on 29–30 March, 17–18 April, 21–22 April, 17–18 May, and 29–30 May. In June, Eckermann fell ill and had to be replaced temporarily by KAdm Friedrich Gädeke. and the rest of the fleet remained in port until 4 August, when I Squadron returned to the Baltic for another round of training maneuvers. That month, KzS Ernst-Oldwig von Natzmer replaced Engelhardt as the ship's commanding officer. From the Baltic, the squadron was attached to the naval force that attempted to sweep the Gulf of Riga of Russian naval forces in August 1915. The assault force included the eight I Squadron battleships, the battlecruisers , , and , several light cruisers, 32 destroyers and 13 minesweepers. The plan called for channels in Russian minefields to be swept so that the Russian naval presence, which included the pre-dreadnought battleship , could be eliminated. The Germans would then lay minefields of their own to prevent Russian ships from returning to the Gulf. and the majority of the other big ships of the High Seas Fleet remained outside the Gulf for the entirety of the operation. The dreadnoughts and were detached on 16 August to escort the minesweepers and to destroy , though they failed to sink the old battleship. After three days, the Russian minefields had been cleared, and the flotilla entered the Gulf on 19 August, but reports of Allied submarines in the area prompted a German withdrawal from the Gulf the following day. By 26 August, I Squadron had returned to Wilhelmshaven. That day, Gädeke was relieved by VAdm Ehrhard Schmidt.