SMS Westfalen

SMS was one of the s, the first four dreadnoughts built for the German Imperial Navy. was laid down at AG Weser in Bremen on 12 August 1907, launched nearly a year later on 1 July 1908, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 16 November 1909. The ship was equipped with a main battery of twelve guns in six twin turrets in an unusual hexagonal arrangement.

The ship served with her sister ships for the majority of World War I, seeing extensive service in the North Sea, where she took part in several fleet sorties. These culminated in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May â€“ 1 June 1916, where was heavily engaged in night-fighting against British light forces. led the German line for much of the evening and into the following day, until the fleet reached Wilhelmshaven. On another fleet advance in August 1916, the ship was damaged by a torpedo from a British submarine.

also conducted several deployments to the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. The first of these was during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, where supported a German naval assault on the gulf. was sent back to the Baltic in 1918 to support the White Finns in the Finnish Civil War. The ship remained in Germany while the majority of the fleet was interned in Scapa Flow after the end of the war. In 1919, following the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow, was ceded to the Allies as a replacement for the ships that had been sunk. She was then sent to ship-breakers in England, who broke the ship up for scrap by 1924.

Design

Design work on the class began in late 1903 in the context of the Anglo-German naval arms race; at the time, battleships of foreign navies had begun to carry increasingly heavy secondary batteries, including Italian and American ships with guns and British ships with guns, outclassing the previous German battleships of the with their secondaries. German designers initially considered ships equipped with secondary guns, but erroneous reports in early 1904 that the British s would be equipped with a secondary battery of guns prompted them to consider an even more powerful ship armed with an all-big-gun armament consisting of eight guns. Over the next two years, the design was refined into a larger vessel with twelve of the guns, by which time Britain had launched the all-big-gun battleship .

Characteristics

was long, wide, and had a draft of . She displaced with a standard load, and fully laden. She had a flush deck and a ram bow, a common feature for warships of the period. had a fairly small superstructure, consisting primarily of forward and aft conning towers. She was fitted with a pair of pole masts for signaling and observation purposes. The ship had a crew of 40 officers and 968 enlisted men.

The ship design retained 3-shaft triple expansion engines instead of the more advanced turbine engines. Steam was provided to the engines by twelve coal-fired water-tube boilers, with the addition in 1915 of supplementary oil firing. The boilers were vented through two funnels. Her propulsion system was rated at and provided a top speed of . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of .

carried a main battery of twelve SK L/45 guns in six gun turrets arranged in an unusual hexagonal configuration. One was placed forward, another toward the stern, and the remaining four were placed on the wings, two per broadside. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve SK L/45 guns, mounted in casemates located amidships. Close-range defense against torpedo boats was provided by a tertiary battery of sixteen SK L/45 guns, which were also mounted in casemates. The ship was also armed with six submerged torpedo tubes. One tube was mounted in the bow, another in the stern, and two on each broadside, on either end of the torpedo bulkhead.

The ship's hull was protected by heavy armor plate consisting of Krupp cemented steel. The belt armor along the sides of the hull was thick in the central portion, tapering down to at the bow. The belt was reinforced by an armored deck that angled downward at the sides to connect to the bottom edge of the belt. The deck was on the flat portion, while the sloped sides increased in thickness to . s main battery turrets had 28 cm of Krupp steel on their faces. Her forward conning tower had of armor plate on the sides, while the aft tower received only on the sides.

Service history

The German Imperial Navy () ordered under the provisional name as a replacement for , the lead ship of the elderly s. The Reichstag secretly approved and provided funds for and at the end of March 1906, but construction on was delayed while arms and armor were procured. She was laid down on 12 August 1907 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen. As with her sister , construction proceeded swiftly and secretly; detachments of soldiers guarded both the shipyard and the major contractors who supplied building materials, such as Krupp. The ship was launched on 1 July 1908, and Eberhard von der Recke von der Horst, the (supreme president) of the ship's namesake province, have a speech at the ceremony. ''Westfalen'' then underwent an initial fitting-out, and then in mid-September 1909 was transferred to Kiel by a crew composed of dockyard workers for a final fitting-out. However, the water level in the Weser River was low at this time of year, so six pontoons had to be attached to the ship to reduce her draft. Even so, it took two attempts before the ship cleared the river.

On 16 October 1909, before she was commissioned into the fleet, along with her sister participated in a ceremony for the opening of the new third entrance in the Wilhelmshaven Naval Dockyard. ''Westfalen'' at that time still had her dockyard crew. Exactly one month later, was commissioned for sea trials, which were interrupted only by fleet training exercises in February 1910. The ship's first commander was (KzS—Captain at Sea) Friedrich Gädeke. At the completion of the trials on 3 May, was added to I Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet, replacing the old battleship . Two days later, she became the squadron flagship, replacing the pre-dreadnought battleship . At that time, the squadron was commanded by (Rear Admiral) Hugo von Pohl. In May, the fleet conducted training maneuvers in the Kattegat. These were in accordance with Holtzendorff's strategy, which envisioned drawing the Royal Navy into the narrow waters there. The annual summer cruise was to Norway, and was followed by fleet training, during which another fleet review was held in Danzig on 29 August. KzS Paul Behncke replaced Gädeke after the review in September. A training cruise into the Baltic followed at the end of the year.

In March 1911, the fleet conducted exercises in the Skagerrak and Kattegat. and the rest of the fleet received British and American naval squadrons at Kiel in June and July. The year's autumn maneuvers were confined to the Baltic and the Kattegat. Another fleet review was held afterward, during the exercises for a visiting Austro-Hungarian delegation that included Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Admiral Rudolf Montecuccoli. In October, KzS Wilhelm Starke relieved Behncke as the ship's captain. KzS Hugo Kraft took command of the ship in April 1912. On 29 April, the new battleship joined I Squadron, replacing ''Westfalen'' as the squadron flagship, which then served as the flagship for the deputy commander of the squadron. In mid-1912, due to the Agadir Crisis, the summer cruise was confined to the Baltic, to avoid exposing the fleet during the period of heightened tension with Britain and France. A training cruise in the Baltic took place late in the year. The training program for 1913 proceeded in much the same pattern as in previous years. In October, KzS Johannes Redlich replaced Kraft as the ship's captain. The navy had intended to transfer the ship to II Battle Squadron in late 1914 to modernize that unit, but this plan was discarded after the outbreak of World War I in July.

World War I

participated in most of the fleet advances into the North Sea throughout the war. The first operation was conducted primarily by Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's battlecruisers; the ships bombarded the English coastal towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby on 15–16 December 1914. A German battlefleet of 12 dreadnoughts, including , her three sisters and eight pre-dreadnoughts sailed in support of the battlecruisers. On the evening of 15 December, they came to within of an isolated squadron of six British battleships. However, skirmishes between the rival destroyer screens in the darkness convinced the German fleet commander, Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, that the entire Grand Fleet was deployed before him. Under orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II, Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battlefleet back towards Germany.

next took part in the fleet advance on 24 January 1915 to support I Scouting Group after it had been ambushed by the British 1st and 2nd Battlecruiser Squadrons during the Battle of Dogger Bank, though she again saw no action, as the battle had ended before the High Seas Fleet arrived late in the afternoon. Following the loss of the armored cruiser at the Battle of Dogger Bank, the Kaiser removed Ingenohl from his post on 2 February. Now-Admiral Pohl replaced him as commander of the fleet. In late March, went into drydock for periodic maintenance. Pohl conducted a series of fleet advances in 1915 in which took part. On 21–22 April, the High Seas Fleet advanced towards the Dogger Bank, though again failed to meet any British forces. The fleet next went to sea on 29–30 May, advancing as far as Schiermonnikoog before being forced to turn back by inclement weather. On 10 August, the fleet steamed to the north of Helgoland to cover the return of the auxiliary cruiser .

Battle of the Gulf of Riga

In August 1915, the German fleet attempted to clear the Russian-held Gulf of Riga in order to assist the German army, which was planning an assault on Riga itself. To do so, the German planners intended to drive off or destroy the Russian naval forces in the Gulf, which included the pre-dreadnought battleship and a number of smaller gunboats and destroyers. The German battle fleet was accompanied by several mine-warfare vessels, tasked first with clearing Russian minefields and then laying a series of their own minefields in the northern entrance to the Gulf to prevent Russian naval reinforcements from reaching the area. The assembled German fleet included and her three sister ships, the four s, the battlecruisers , , and , and several pre-dreadnoughts. The force operated under the command of Hipper, who had by now been promoted to vice admiral. The eight battleships were to provide cover for the forces engaging the Russian flotilla. The first attempt on 8 August was broken off, as it took too long to clear the Russian minefields.

On 16 August 1915, a second attempt was made to enter the Gulf: and , four light cruisers, and 31 torpedo boats managed to breach the Russian defenses. On the first day of the assault, two German light craft—the minesweeper and the destroyer —were sunk. The following day, and battled , scoring three hits on the Russian ship that forced her to retreat. By 19 August, the Russian minefields had been cleared and the flotilla entered the Gulf. However, reports of Allied submarines in the area prompted the Germans to call off the operation the following day. Admiral Hipper later remarked that "to keep valuable ships for a considerable time in a limited area in which enemy submarines were increasingly active, with the corresponding risk of damage and loss, was to indulge in a gamble out of all proportion to the advantage to be derived from the occupation of the Gulf ''before'' the capture of Riga from the land side." In fact, the battlecruiser had been torpedoed that morning.

Return to the North Sea

By the end of August and the rest of the High Seas Fleet had returned to their anchorages in the North Sea. The next operation conducted was a sweep into the North Sea on 11–12 September, though it ended without any action. Another sortie followed on 23–24 October during which the German fleet did not encounter any British forces. On 12 January 1916, Admiral Reinhard Scheer replaced Pohl as the fleet commander; Scheer continued the aggressive fleet strategy of his predecessors. was present during the fleet advance on 5–7 March, though this too ended without action. Further sorties were conducted on 26 March, 2–3 April, and 21–22 April, but none resulted in action with British forces. A bombardment mission followed two days later; joined the battleship support for Hipper's battlecruisers while they attacked Yarmouth and Lowestoft on 24–25 April. During this operation, the battlecruiser was damaged by a British mine and had to return to port prematurely. Due to poor visibility, the operation was soon called off, leaving the British fleet no time to intercept the raiders.

Battle of Jutland

Scheer immediately planned another attack on the British coast. However, the damage to and condenser trouble on several of the III Battle Squadron dreadnoughts delayed the plan until the end of May 1916. The German battlefleet departed the Jade at 03:30 on 31 May. was assigned to II Division of I Battle Squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral W. Engelhardt. was the last ship in the division, astern of her three sisters. II Division was the last unit of dreadnoughts in the fleet; they were followed by only the elderly pre-dreadnoughts of II Battle Squadron.

Between 17:48 and 17:52, eleven German dreadnoughts, including , engaged and opened fire on the British 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron, though the range and poor visibility prevented effective fire, which was soon checked. At 18:05, began firing again; her target was a British light cruiser, most probably the . Despite the short distance, around , scored no hits. Scheer had by this time called for maximum speed in order to pursue the British ships; made . By 19:30 when Scheer signaled "Go west", the German fleet had faced the deployed Grand Fleet for a second time and was forced to turn away. In doing so, the order of the German line was reversed; this would have put II Squadron in the lead, but Redlich of noted that II Squadron was out of position and began his turn immediately, assuming the lead position.

Around 21:20, and her sister ships began to be engaged by the battlecruisers of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron; several large shells straddled (fell to either side of) the ship and rained splinters on her deck. Shortly thereafter, two torpedo tracks were spotted that turned out to be imaginary. The ships were then forced to slow down in order to allow the battlecruisers of I Scouting Group to pass ahead. Around 22:00, and observed unidentified light forces in the gathering darkness. After flashing a challenge via searchlight that was ignored, the two ships turned away to starboard in order to evade any torpedoes that might have been fired. The rest of I Battle Squadron followed them. During the brief encounter, fired seven of her 28 cm shells in the span of about two and a half minutes. again assumed a position guiding the fleet, this time because Scheer wanted lead ships with greater protection against torpedoes than the pre-dreadnoughts had.

At about 00:30, the leading units of the German line encountered British destroyers and cruisers. A violent firefight at close range ensued; opened fire on the destroyer with her 15 cm and 8.8 cm guns at a distance of about 1,800 m (2,000 yd). Her first salvo destroyed ''Tipperary''s bridge and forward deck gun. In the span of five minutes, fired ninety-two 15 cm and forty-five 8.8 cm rounds at ''Tipperary'' before turning 90 degrees to starboard to evade any torpedoes that might have been fired. and several cruisers and destroyers joined in the attack on ''Tipperary''; the ship was quickly turned into a burning wreck. The destroyer nevertheless continued to fire with her stern guns and launched her two starboard torpedoes. One of the British destroyers scored a hit on s bridge with its guns, killing two men and wounding eight; Redlich was slightly wounded. At 00:50, spotted and briefly engaged her with her secondary guns; in about 45 seconds she fired thirteen 15 cm and thirteen 8.8 cm shells before turning away. ''Broke'' was engaged by other German warships, including the cruiser ; she was hit at least seven times and suffered 42 dead, six missing, and 34 wounded crew members. An officer aboard the light cruiser ''Southampton'' described ''Broke'' as "an absolute shambles." Despite the serious damage inflicted, ''Broke'' managed to withdraw from the battle and reach port. Just after 01:00, s searchlights fell on the destroyer , which was wrecked and set ablaze in a matter of seconds by and . At around 01:40, ''Westfalen'' engaged the destroyers and , inflicting serious damage to both with her secondary guns. ''Petard'' survived the encounter but ''Turbulent'', which had also been hit repeatedly by other German battleships, was caught by a pair of torpedo boats, which took off survivors and then sank her with a torpedo.

Despite the ferocity of the night fighting, the High Seas Fleet punched through the British destroyer forces and reached Horns Reef by 4:00 on 1 June. With in the lead, the German fleet reached Wilhelmshaven a few hours later, where the battleship and two of her sisters took up defensive positions in the outer roadstead. Over the course of the battle, the ship had fired fifty-one 28 cm shells, one-hundred and seventy-six 15 cm rounds, and one hundred and six 8.8 cm shells. Repair work followed immediately in Wilhelmshaven and was completed by 17 June.

Raid of 18–19 August

Another fleet advance followed on 18–22 August, during which the I Scouting Group battlecruisers were to bombard the coastal town of Sunderland in an attempt to draw out and destroy Beatty's battlecruisers. As only two of the four German battlecruisers were still in fighting condition, three dreadnoughts were assigned to the Scouting Group for the operation: , , and the newly commissioned . The High Seas Fleet, including at the rear of the line, would trail behind and provide cover. However, at 06:00 on 19 August, was torpedoed by the British submarine , some north of Terschelling. The ship took in approximately of water, but the torpedo bulkhead held. Three torpedo-boats were detached from the fleet to escort the damaged ship back to port; made on the return trip. The British were aware of the German plans and sortied the Grand Fleet to meet them. By 14:35, Admiral Scheer had been warned of the Grand Fleet's approach and, unwilling to engage the whole of the Grand Fleet just 11 weeks after the close call at Jutland, turned his forces around and retreated to German ports. Repairs to lasted until 26 September. During this period, KzS Hans Eberius relieved Redlich as the ship's commander.

Following the repair work, briefly went into the Baltic Sea for training, before returning to the North Sea on 4 October. The fleet then advanced as far as the Dogger Bank on 19–20 October. The operation led to a brief action on 19 October, during which a British submarine torpedoed the cruiser . The failure of the operation (coupled with the action of 19 August) convinced the German naval command to abandon its aggressive fleet strategy in favor of a resumption of the unrestricted submarine warfare campaign. The ship remained in port for the majority of 1917. In June, KzS Ernst Ewers briefly served as the ship's captain until he was replaced the following month, when he was replaced by KzS Hermann Bauer. The ship did not actively take part in Operation Albion in the Baltic, though she was stationed off Apenrade to prevent a possible British incursion into the area.

Expedition to Finland

In late 1917, the Grand Duchy of Finland declared independence from the collapsing Russian Empire, but the country quickly devolved into a civil war between the Whites and the Reds. As the latter were being supported by the new Communist government of Soviet Russia, which was still fighting Germany, the German government decided to intervene in Finland to aid the White faction. ''Westfalen'' was assigned as the flagship for a squadron that was to support a German expeditionary force deployed to Finland. The naval unit, commanded by Hugo Meurer, was assigned three tasks: to seize the island of Ã…land for use as a forward operating base; transfer the army's Baltic Sea Division to Finland; and to support army operations along the Finnish coast. The squadron, which was named a (special unit), also included , the minelaying cruiser , III Sperrbrecher Group, the 9th Minesweeping Half-Flotilla, four torpedo boats, and a number of supporting vessels and transports.

On 23 February, the two battleships took on the 14th Jäger Battalion and a company of bicycle troops, and early on 24 February they departed for Åland. Sweden had previously granted permission for Germany to sail through Swedish territorial waters, but by this time, had revoked the agreement, so the ship had to sail through international waters. Meuer initially intended to land the soldiers near Lemland, but the danger of mines and heavy sea ice forced him to move to Eckerö, despite Swedish objections. Sweden had already sent forces to the island, including a squadron that consisted of coastal defense ships , , and , and they were already in Eckerö when the Germans arrived. Negotiations ensued, which resulted in the landing of the German troops on Åland on 7 March; then returned to Danzig, but was left at Eckerö.

In Danzig, Meuer requested and received reinforcements, in the form of , the coastal defense ship , the light cruiser , and several more auxiliaries. By that time, Germany and Russia had signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending the fighting between the two countries. remained in Danzig until 31 March, when she departed for Finland with ; the ships arrived at Russarö, which was the outer defense for Hanko, by 3 April. The fortress at Russarö was still under Russian control, and the garrison declared their neutrality, which allowed the Germans to go ashore without fighting. The German army quickly took the port, and the British submarines that had been based there were all scuttled by their crews. On 5 April, Meuer secured an agreement with the local Russian naval commander that his ships would not interfere in the German operations.

Helsingfors was the next major objective; ''Westfalen'' had sailed south to Reval to make preparations for the attack on the Finnish capital. The ship got underway on 11 April, and the following day, she and ''Posen'' passed the fortifications guarding Helsingfors, and they were soon joined by ''Beowulf''. The German ships sent men ashore to take control of the harbor and the Skatudden district, while the Baltic Division attacked the city from the land side. ''Westfalen'' and the other ships provided fire support while the German and White forces fought their way across the city. Five men from the ships' landing parties were killed in the fighting, but by 14 April, the Germans and White forces had taken control of Helsingfors. ''Westfalen'' remained in Helsingfors until 30 April, by which time the White government had been installed firmly in power. Upon leaving the city, Meuer handed control of the harbor facilities over to the White government.

Following the operation, returned to the North Sea where she rejoined I Battle Squadron. On 11 August, , , , and steamed out towards Terschelling to support German torpedo boat patrols in the area. While en route, suffered serious damage to her boilers that reduced her speed to . After returning to port, she was withdrawn from front-line service and employed as an artillery training ship with the Naval Artillery Inspectorate.

Fate

Following the German collapse in November 1918, a significant portion of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa Flow under the terms of the Armistice. and her three sisters—the oldest dreadnoughts in the German navy-were not among the ships listed for internment, so they remained in German ports. They had their guns disabled, along with the four ''Helgoland''-class battleships. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that formally ended the war in June 1919, ''Westfalen'' and the other dreadnoughts that had remained in Germany were to be surrendered to the Allies under Article 185. Negotiations between the Allies over which country received what vessels, and what those ships could be used for began in November. was struck from the German naval list on 5 November. While final decisions were still being made, the Allies decided that the ships in question were to sail to either a British or French port, and accordingly, on 31 July 1920, ''Westfalen'', , and twelve torpedo boats sailed for Rosyth, Britain, arriving on 5 August. By that time, ''Westfalen'' had been renamed "D". The ship was then sold to ship-breakers in Birkenhead, arriving there on 3 September 1921, where she was stripped of weapons and some equipment to lighten her. From there, she sailed to Barrow-in-Furness on 18 May 1922 to be broken up for scrap by 1924.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Westfalen
Nassau-class battleships
Ships built in Bremen (state)
1908 ships
World War I battleships of Germany