SMS was the last dreadnought battleship of the four-ship of the German Imperial Navy. The battleship was laid down in November 1911 and launched on 21 February 1914. She was formally commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 8 November 1914, just over 3 months after the start of World War I. The name ("Crown Prince") refers to Crown Prince Wilhelm, and in June 1918, the ship was renamed in his honor. The battleship was armed with ten guns in five twin turrets and could steam at a top speed of .
Along with her three sister ships, , and , took part in most of the fleet actions during the war, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. Although near the front of the German line, she emerged from the battle unscathed. She was torpedoed by the British submarine on 5 November 1916 during an operation off the Danish coast. Following repairs, she participated in Operation Albion, an amphibious assault in the Baltic, in October 1917. During the operation engaged the Russian battleship and forced her to retreat.
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. Unlike most of the other scuttled ships, was never raised for scrapping; the wreck is still on the bottom of the harbor.
Design
The four s were ordered as part of the Anglo-German naval arms race; they were the fourth generation of German dreadnought battleships, and they were built in response to the British that had been ordered in 1909. The s represented a development of the earlier , with the primary improvement being a more efficient arrangement of the main battery. The ships had also been intended to use a diesel engine on the center propeller shaft to increase their cruising range, but development of the diesels proved to be more complicated than expected, so an all-steam turbine powerplant was retained.
displaced as built and fully loaded, with a length of , a beam of and a draft of . She was powered by three Parsons steam turbines, with steam provided by three oil-fired and twelve coal-fired Schulz-Thornycroft water-tube boilers, which developed a total of and yielded a maximum speed of . The ship had a range of at a cruising speed of . Her crew numbered 41 officers and 1,095 enlisted men.
She was armed with ten SK L/50 guns arranged in five twin gun turrets: two superfiring turrets each fore and aft and one turret amidships between the two funnels. Her secondary armament consisted of fourteen SK L/45 quick-firing guns and six SK L/45 quick-firing guns, all mounted singly in casemates. As was customary for capital ships of the period, she was also armed with five underwater torpedo tubes, one in the bow and two on each beam.
The ship's armored belt consisted of Krupp cemented steel that was thick in the central citadel that protected the propulsion machinery spaces and the ammunition magazines, and was reduced to forward and aft. In the central portion of the ship, horizontal protection consisted of a deck, which was reduced to on the bow and stern. The main battery turrets had of armor plate on the sides and on the roofs, while the casemate guns had of armor protection. The sides of the forward conning tower were also 30 cm thick.
Service history
was ordered under the provisional name , and built at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel under construction number 182. Her keel was laid down in May 1912 and she was launched on 21 February 1914. The ship's namesake, Crown Prince Wilhelm, was to have given the launching speech, but he was sick at the time so Prince Heinrich, the General Inspector of the Navy, gave it in his place. Crown Princess Cecile christened the ship. The ship was scheduled to be completed in early 1915, but work was expedited after the outbreak of World War I in mid-1914. Fitting-out work was completed by 8 November 1914, the day she was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet. was completed in November 1914; following her commissioning she joined III Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet. Gottfried von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels served as the ship's first commander.
completed her sea trials on 2 January 1915. The first operation in which she participated was an uneventful sortie by the fleet into the North Sea on 29–30 March. Three weeks later, on 17–18 April, she and her sisters supported an operation in which the light cruisers of II Scouting Group laid mines off the Swarte Bank. Another sweep by the fleet occurred on 22 April; two days later III Squadron returned to the Baltic for another round of exercises. On 8 May an explosion occurred in the center turret's right gun. The Baltic exercises lasted until 13 May, at which point III Squadron returned to the North Sea. Another minelaying operation was conducted by II Scouting Group on 17 May, with the battleship again in support.
participated in a fleet operation into the North Sea which ended without combat from 29 until 31 May 1915. In August, Constanz Feldt replaced Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels as the ship's captain. The ship supported a minelaying operation on 11–12 September off Texel. The fleet conducted another sweep into the North Sea on 23–24 October. Several uneventful sorties followed on 5–7 March 1916, 31 March and 2–3 April. supported a raid on the English coast on 24 April 1916 conducted by the German battlecruiser force of I Scouting Group. The battlecruisers left the Jade Estuary at 10:55 CET, and the rest of the High Seas Fleet followed at 13:40. The battlecruiser struck a mine while en route to the target, and had to withdraw. The other battlecruisers bombarded the town of Lowestoft unopposed, but during the approach to Yarmouth, they encountered the British cruisers of the Harwich Force. A short gun duel ensued before the Harwich Force withdrew. Reports of British submarines in the area prompted the retreat of I Scouting Group. At this point, Admiral Reinhard Scheer, who had been warned of the sortie of the Grand Fleet from its base in Scapa Flow, also withdrew to safer German waters.
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. was the rearmost ship of V Division, III Battle Squadron, the vanguard of the fleet. She followed her sisters , the lead ship, , and . III Battle Squadron was the first of three battleship units; directly astern were the -class battleships of VI Division, III Battle Squadron. Directly astern of the -class ships were the and es of II Battle Squadron; in the rear guard were the obsolescent pre-dreadnoughts of I Battle Squadron.
Shortly before 16:00, the battlecruisers of I Scouting Group encountered the British 1st Battlecruiser Squadron under the command of 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, s crew 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.
s sisters opened fire on the British battlecruisers, but was not close enough to engage them. Instead, she and ten other German battleships fired at the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron. fired at from 17:51 to 18:00 at ranges of , then shifted her fire to the fast battleship at 18:08 at a range of 17,000 m. fired first with semi-armor-piercing shells to find the range to her target, then with standard armor-piercing shells. By the time Malaya drew out of range 13 minutes later, only one hit had been reported by s gunners. According to naval historian John Campbell, this hit was more likely "the flash of the Malayas guns seen through haze and smoke". During this period, several salvos fell close to , though none struck her. again reached a firing position against Malaya at 18:30, but was only able to fire for six minutes before the British ship again pulled away.
Shortly after 19:00, several British destroyers attempted a torpedo attack against the leading ships of the German line. The destroyer fired a pair of torpedoes at at a range of , though both missed. The German cruiser had been disabled by a shell from the British battlecruiser , and Rear Admiral Paul Behncke in ordered his four ships to maneuver to cover the stricken cruiser. Simultaneously, the British III and IV Light Cruiser Squadrons began a torpedo attack on the German line; while advancing to torpedo range, they smothered with fire from their main guns. and her sisters fired heavily on the British cruisers, but failed to drive them off. In the ensuing melee, the British armored cruiser was struck by several heavy caliber shells from the German dreadnoughts. One salvo penetrated the ship's ammunition magazines and, in a massive explosion, destroyed the cruiser. John Campbell notes that although Defences destruction is usually attributed to the battlecruiser , there is a possibility that it was s fire that destroyed the ship. After the destruction of Defence, shifted her fire to ; the British cruiser was badly damaged and forced to withdraw from the battle. She was unable to reach port, and was abandoned the following morning.
By 20:00, the German line was ordered to turn eastward to disengage from the British fleet. , directly ahead of , had engine problems and fell out of formation, then fell in behind . Between 20:00 and 20:30, and the other III Squadron battleships engaged the British 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron as well as the battleships of the Grand Fleet. attempted to find the range by observing the British muzzle flashes, but the worsening visibility prevented her gunners from acquiring a target. As a result, she held her fire in this period. was violently shaken by several near misses. At 20:18, Scheer ordered the fleet to turn away a third time to escape from the murderous British gunfire; this turn reversed the order of the fleet and placed toward the end of the line. After successfully withdrawing from the British, Scheer ordered the fleet to assume night cruising formation, though communication errors between Scheer aboard and , the lead ship, caused delays. The fleet fell into formation by 23:30, with the 14th vessel in the line of 24 capital ships.
Around 02:45, several British destroyers mounted a torpedo attack against the rear half of the German line; spotted several unidentified destroyers in the darkness. held her fire, and she and the other battleships turned away to avoid torpedoes. One torpedo, fired by the destroyer , exploded about behind , in the battleship's wake. Both Obedient and reported a hit on , though she was undamaged by the near miss. Heavy fire from the German battleships forced the British destroyers to withdraw. The High Seas Fleet had managed to punch through the British light forces and subsequently reached Horns Reef by 04:00 on 1 June, and Wilhelmshaven a few hours later. The I Squadron battleships took up defensive positions in the outer roadstead, while , , , and stood ready just outside the entrance to Wilhelmshaven.