SMS was a battlecruiser of the German (Imperial Navy), the third ship of the , built to a slightly modified design. She was laid down in October 1913 and launched in August 1915. She carried the same battery of eight guns, but in improved turrets that allowed them to fire farther. The ship was also slightly larger and faster than her two sister ships. She was named in honor of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, the victor of the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of the Masurian Lakes, as well as the supreme commander of the German armies from 1916. Construction of the ship was slowed after the start of World War I by shortages of material and manpower, the need to repair damaged ships, and shifting priorities. As a result, Hindenburg was the last capital ship of any type built for the German navy during the war, finally entering service in May 1917.
was commissioned late in the war and as a result had a brief service career. The ship took part in a handful of short fleet operations as the flagship of I Scouting Group in 1917–1918, though saw no major action with British forces. The proposed final sortie of the fleet in the last weeks of the war came to nothing when the crews of the capital ships mutinied. Following Germany's defeat in November 1918, was interned with the rest of the German battlecruisers at Scapa Flow in November 1918. Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered the ships be scuttled on 21 June 1919, and was the last of the ships to sink. She was raised in 1930 and broken up for scrap over the following two years.
Design
The class was authorized for the 1911 fiscal year as part of the 1906 naval law; design work had begun in early 1910. After their British counterparts had begun installing guns in their battlecruisers, senior officers in the German naval command came to the conclusion that an increase in the caliber of the main battery guns from to would be necessary. To keep costs from growing too quickly, the number of guns was reduced from ten to eight, compared to the earlier , but a more efficient superfiring arrangement was adopted. , the third and final member of the class, was allocated to the 1913 construction program. Though broadly identical to her two sisters, Hindenburg incorporated some incremental improvements, and as a result was slightly longer to maintain the same speed with an increased displacement.
Characteristics
was slightly longer than her two sister ships, at at the waterline and overall. She had a beam of , and a draft of between forward and aft. displaced normally and up to fully laden. She had a crew of 44 officers and 1,068 men; when serving as the flagship for I Scouting Group, the ship carried an additional 14 officers and 62 men. Unlike her sisters, Hindenburg was completed with a tripod mast forward and a normal pole mast aft. The ship was fitted with a derrick to handle a pair of seaplanes that were carried abreast of the aft funnel.
was propelled by four sets of steam turbines driving four screws; steam was provided by fourteen coal-fired marine-type double boilers and eight oil-fired marine-type double-ended boilers. The propulsion system was rated at for a top speed of . During speed tests shortly after entering service in 1917, Hindenburg reached in shallow water; in deep water, this corresponded to a speed of about . At a cruising speed of , she had a range of .
s primary armament was eight 30.5 cm guns in four twin turrets, the same as in her two sisters. However, the gun turrets were Drh LC/1913 mounts, which were an improved version the Drh LC/1912 type mounts on and —the gun houses on allowed gun elevation to 16°, as opposed to 13.5° in the earlier model. This gave the guns mounted in the Drh LC/1913 turrets a range advantage of some over those in the older model turret. Like her sister ship, , she was armed with a secondary battery of fourteen SK L/45 guns and four 60 cm (23.6 in) torpedo tubes instead of the standard twelve 15 cm guns and four 50 cm (19.7 in) tubes mounted on .
was protected by an armor belt that was thick in the central citadel of the ship where it protected the ammunition magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. Her deck was thick, with the thicker armor sloping down at the sides to connect to the lower edge of the belt. Her main battery turrets had thick faces. Her secondary casemates received of armor protection. The forward conning tower, where the ship's commander controlled the vessel, had 300 mm of armor plate on the sides.
Service history
Built by the at their shipyard in Wilhelmshaven, was the third and final ship of her class; her sister ships were and . Designed as a replacement for the elderly protected cruiser , s keel was laid down on 30 June 1913 under the provisional designation " Hertha". After World War I broke out in July 1914, work on the ship was delayed so that existing warships in the reserve fleet could be mobilized for the conflict. Hindenburg was launched on 1 August 1915 and named for General Paul von Hindenburg, but due to shifting construction priorities in time of war, work proceeded slowly. The reasons included shortages of material and workers, the prioritization of repairs to existing ships (which the Battle of Jutland considerably exacerbated), and the decision to adopt unrestricted submarine warfare, which saw a redirection of resources from surface warships to U-boat construction. Work on Hindenburg continued, however, since the High Seas Fleet was short of battlecruisers, particularly following the loss of Lützow at Jutland.
In April 1917, Hindenburg was lightly rammed by the dreadnought battleship while the latter vessel exited a nearby dry dock, but she was not significantly damaged. The new battlecruiser was finally commissioned on 10 May, the last capital ship to be commissioned by the imperial fleet. The ship was initially under the command of (KzS—Captain at Sea) Johannes von Karpf. By that time it was too late for her to see any significant operations in World War I. At the time, British naval intelligence mistakenly believed the ship was commissioned so late because she had had parts removed to repair after the battle of Jutland in June 1916. Hindenburg conducted sea trials from her commissioning until 20 August, at which time she was sent to conduct initial crew training for two months. In early October, Hindenburg cruised in the Bay of Mecklenburg with the battlecruisers Seydlitz, Derfflinger, and , and then conducted torpedo training with the battleship .
sailed from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven on 25 October, and was declared fully operational the following day. The next month, KzS Hans Eberius replaced Karpf as the ship's captain. From 4 to 9 November, Hindenburg patrolled in the German Bight to support the light forces patrolling the Germans' defensive minefields. On 17 November, and , along with the light cruisers of II Scouting Group, were acting as distant support for German minesweepers off the German coast when the minesweepers were attacked by British warships. The British raiders included the new battlecruisers , , and . However, the raid was brief; by the time and arrived on the scene, the British ships had broken off the attack and withdrawn. The next day, Hindenburg and the rest of I Scouting Group went to sea again with a group of torpedo boats to clear buoys that had been set to mark the entrances to the minefields. The ships completed their task and returned to port later that evening without incident.
On 23 November, replaced as flagship of I Scouting Group, under the command of Franz von Hipper. During this period, Hipper spent little time aboard the ship, instead operating from the light cruiser , since he was also responsible for the defense of the German Bight, and Hindenburg was not required to patrol. Hipper only returned to his designated flagship when the entire I Scouting Group went to sea. Hindenburg was taken into a floating dry dock in Wilhelmshaven for repairs from 11 to 13 December. The ship next went to sea with Moltke, the light cruiser , and two torpedo boats for patrol duties in the bight that lasted from 21 to 23 December. Another stint on the patrol line followed from 22 to 23 January 1918. Five days later, KzS Walter Hildebrand took command of the ship. February and March followed a similar pattern, with most of the ship's time spent on patrol duty, punctuated with brief stints in dry dock for maintenance and alterations.
Advance of 23 April 1918 In late 1917, light forces of the High Seas Fleet began interdicting British convoys to Norway. On 17 October the light cruisers and intercepted one of the convoys, sinking nine of the twelve cargo ships and the two escorting destroyers— and —before turning back to Germany. On 12 December, four German destroyers ambushed a second British convoy of five cargo vessels and two British destroyers. All five transports were sunk, as was one of the destroyers. Following these two raids, Admiral David Beatty, the commander of the Grand Fleet, detached battleships from the battle fleet to protect the convoys. The German navy was now presented with an opportunity for which it had been waiting the entire war: a portion of the numerically stronger Grand Fleet was separated and could be isolated and destroyed. Hipper planned the operation: the battlecruisers of I Scouting Group, along with light cruisers and destroyers, would attack one of the large convoys, while the rest of the High Seas Fleet would stand by, ready to attack the British dreadnought battleship squadron.
At 05:00 on 23 April 1918, the German fleet, with in the lead, departed from the Schillig roadstead. Hipper ordered wireless transmissions be kept to a minimum, to prevent British intelligence from receiving radio intercepts. At 06:10 the German battlecruisers had reached a position approximately 60 kilometers southwest of Bergen, when lost her inner starboard propeller. Without resistance from the water, the propeller-less shaft began spinning faster and faster, until one of the engine gears flew apart. Shrapnel from the broken machinery damaged several boilers and tore a hole in the hull; the ship was dead in the water. The ship's crew effected temporary repairs, which allowed the ship to steam at . However, it was decided to take the ship under tow by the battleship . Despite this setback, Hipper continued northward. By 14:00, Hipper's force had crossed the convoy route several times but had found nothing. At 14:10, Hipper turned his ships southward. By 18:37, the German fleet had made it back to the defensive minefields surrounding their bases. It was later discovered that the convoy had left port a day later than expected by the German planning staff.
Later operations