SMS Schleswig-Holstein was a pre-dreadnought battleship in service with the Kaiserlichemarine (Imperial German Navy) from 1908 to 1944. She belonged to the Deutschland class, which also included SMS Hannover, Pommern, Schlesien, and Deutchland. Although she had taken part in World War I, she would become renowned for having initiated World War II, with the bormbardment of the Polish ammunition depots in the city-port of Westerplatte, on September 1, 1939.
SMS Schleswig-Holstein had been laid down in the Germaniawerft shipyards, in Kiel in 1905. After being launched on September 17, 1906, she would spend almost two years on sea trials. She was finally commissioned in 1908, being attached to the II Squadron of the Kaiserlichemarine. Many officers that composed her compliment had already been aboard her sister ship Schlesien.
After WWI broke out, the battleship Schleswig-Holstein was assigned to carry out picket and security duties until December 1914, when she began fleet operations. Between May 31 and June 1, 1916, she participated in the Battle of Jutland (Skagerrat). In the evening of the first day, a large-caliber shell struck one of her naval gun casemates, killing three sailors and wounding eight others. However, her sister ship SMS Pommern did not make it and she was sunk by torpedoes. Having been repaired, she would carry out patrol duties until 1917, when she was reassigned to the 5th U-Boat Flotilla as an accommodation ship.
In March 1918, SMS Schleswig-Holstein moored to a dock in Kiel, and she would lay there for the remainder of WWI. After the armistice, she would survive the severe tonnage reduction imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, she would be upgraded with new boilers and used as training ship for the German Navy cadets. The bombing of Westerplatte ammunition depots was the only action she saw in WWII. In 1944, she would be sunk by Allied bombers.
Armament
SMS Schleswig-Holstein was equipped with four (2x2) 280-mm 'quick-firing' guns (Schnelladenkanonen), with a barrel length L/40. She also featured fourteen 170-mm and twenty-two 88-mm guns. Six 450-mm torpedo tubes added to her lethal array of weapons.
Machinery
This German battleship was powered by three triple-expansion steam engines. These were supplied with pressurized steam from eight Scholz-Thornykroft boilers and six cylindrical boilers. Her two outboard shafts drove a 4.8-m-diameter three-bladed propeller, while her center engine shaft drove a 4.5-m diameter four-bladed propeller. Boilers and steam engines generated a maximum of 19,330 HP, with 122 revolutions per minutes.
Specifications
Type: Deutschland-Class battleship
Displacement: 14,218 tons (loaded)
Length: 127.6 m
Beam: 22.2 m
Draft: 8.25 m
Armor: 240-mm-thick on belt; 40-mm on deck; 280-mm on turrets.
Maximum Speed: 19.1 knots
Range: 5,720 nautical miles at 10 knots.
Crew: 743 sailors and officers
Below, SMS Schleswig-Holstein in 1937 sailing out of the port Hamburg.
The German Deutschland-class battleship approaching a wharf of the port of Kiel in 1918.
Below, the Schleswig-Holstein bombing the ammunition depots of Westerplatte on September 1, 1939.
The Schleswig-Holstein in action (video)
