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''Schlesien'' and ''Schleswig-Holstein'' in a German port in 1934.
'General characteristics'
Displacement:	13,200t standard; 14,218t full load
Dimensions:	127.6 m x 22.2 m x 7.7 m
Armament at construction	Four 280 mm (2 × 2) Fourteen 170 mm (casemated) Twenty-two 86 mm (casemated) Six 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armament in 1939:	Four 280 mm (2×2) Two 88 mm Four 37 mm (2×2) Twenty-two 20 mm cannon
Armor protection:	230 mm in belt 280 mm in turrets 76 mm in deck
Aircraft:	None
Propulsion:	19,330 hp, three shafts = 19.1 knots
Crew:	743

The 'Deutschland class battleships' were the last pre-''Dreadnought'' battleships of the Kaiserliche Marine. They were all present at the Battle of Jutland where one, the ''Pommern'', was sunk. Because of the Treaty of Versailles, two of them, the ''Schlesien'' and ''Schleswig-Holstein'', survived to see action with the Kriegsmarine.

Contents

Construction

Service life

World War I

World War II

External link

Construction

Representing the final flowering of Germany’s pre-dreadnought battleships, the ''Deutschland'' class battleships were laid down between July 1903 and November 1904, at dockyards in Kiel, Szczecin (then Stettin), Wilhelmshaven, and Danzig. They were similar in general type to the ''Braunschweig'' class immediately preceding them, although the ''Deutschlands'' were more heavily armoured. The practice of fitting a type of intermediate calibre artillery common in other powers' navies was not followed in the German Navy due to the difficulty in controlling the firing and in spotting the fall of shot from three different sizes of guns.
Germaniawerft built both the ''Deutshland'' and ''Schleswig-Holstein'', A G Vulcan built the ''Pommern'', the Wilhelmshaven Navy Dockyard built ''Hannover'', and Schichau built the ''Schlesien''. Each ship cost over 24 million marks, and took three to four years to be completed. By the time the ships of the ''Deutschland'' class entered service, they had been made obsolete by the launch of the "all big gun" HMS Dreadnought in 1906.

Service life

World War I

The ships of the Deutschland class served in the II Squadron, High Seas Fleet during World War I, and participated in the Battle of Jutland, during which the ''Pommern'' was sunk. The ''Schleswig-Holstein'' was hit once by gunfire from the British fleet, but was only minimally damaged.
By 1917, the ships were withdrawn from frontline service, and were placed in auxiliary roles. The ''Deutschland'' and ''Schleswig-Holstein'' became barracks ships, the ''Hannover'' was assigned as a guard ship for the Danish belt, and ''Schlesien'' became a training ship.
Following the German defeat in World War I, three of the Deutschland class battleships were allowed to be retained in the German Navy; the ''Hannover'', ''Schleswig-Holstein'' and the ''Schlesien'', along with the Braunschweig class battleship ''Hessen''. ''Deutschland'' was instead scrapped in 1922. The four remaining pre-dreadnought battlehips were modernized in the 1920s, with the ''Schleswig-Holstein'' serving as flagship of the German Navy from 1926 to 1935.

World War II

The ''Schleswig-Holstein'' and ''Schlesien'' are credited with firing the first shots of World War II, when they shelled the Polish base in Westerplatte on 1 September 1939. The ships bombarded other Polish positions in Gdynia, Kepa Oksywska, and the Hel Peninsula.
The remaining Deutschland class battleships were returned to training duty following the occupation of Norway in 1940. The Schleswig-Holstein became an anti-aircraft ship in 1944 in Gdynia. She was hit by three bombs dropped by British bombers, caught fire, and sank in 39 feet of water. The ''Hannover'' was scrapped in 1944. The Schlesien was scuttled in Swinemünde in 1945.

External link

★ World War 1 Naval Combat