 Elsass underwayc. 1904–1908 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
  Germany | |
| Name | Elsass |
| Namesake | Alsace |
| Builder | Schichau-Werke,Danzig |
| Laid down | 26 May 1901 |
| Launched | 26 May 1903 |
| Commissioned | 29 November 1904 |
| Decommissioned | 25 February 1930 |
| Stricken | 31 March 1931 |
| Fate | Scrapped in 1936 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Braunschweig-classpre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 127.7 m (419 ft) |
| Beam | 22.2 m (72 ft 10 in) |
| Draft | 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power | |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 18knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Range | 5,200 nmi (9,600 km; 6,000 mi); 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
| Armor | |
SMSElsass[a] was the second of fivepre-dreadnoughtbattleships of theBraunschweig class in theGermanImperial Navy. She waslaid down in May 1901,launched in May 1903, andcommissioned in November 1904, though an accident duringsea trials delayed her completion until May 1905. She was named for the German province ofElsass, now the French region ofAlsace. Her sister ships wereBraunschweig,Hessen,Preussen andLothringen. The ship was armed with a battery of four28 cm (11 in) guns and had a top speed of 18knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Like all other pre-dreadnoughts built at the turn of the century,Elsass was quickly made obsolete by the launching of the revolutionaryHMS Dreadnought in 1906; as a result, her career as a frontline battleship was cut short.
The ship served in II Squadron of the German fleet after commissioning, and during this period, she was occupied with extensive annual training, as well as making good-will visits to foreign countries. Surpassed by newdreadnought battleships,Elsass was decommissioned in 1913, though she was reactivated a year later following the outbreak ofWorld War I and assigned toIV Battle Squadron.Elsass saw action in the Baltic Sea against theRussian Navy. In August 1915, she participated in theBattle of the Gulf of Riga, during which she engaged theRussian battleshipSlava. In 1916, she was placed in reserve because of crew shortages and the threat of Britishsubmarines operating in the Baltic, and she spent the remainder of the war as atraining ship.
She was retained after the war under the terms of theTreaty of Versailles, and was modernized in 1923–1924.Elsass served in theReichsmarine with the surface fleet until 1930, conducting training operations and visits to foreign ports as she had earlier in her career. In 1930, she was again placed in reserve, and the following year she was stricken from thenaval register.Elsass was used for a short time as ahulk in Wilhelmshaven. The outdated battleship was sold toNorddeutscher Lloyd in late 1935 and wasbroken up for scrap the following year.
With the passage of theSecond Naval Law under the direction ofVizeadmiral (VAdm—Vice Admiral)Alfred von Tirpitz in 1900, funding was allocated for a new class of battleships, to succeed theWittelsbach-class ships authorized under the 1898 Naval Law. By this time,Krupp, the supplier of naval artillery to theKaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) had developedquick-firing, 28-centimeter (11 in) guns; the largest guns that had previously incorporated the technology were the 24 cm (9.4 in) guns mounted on theWittelsbachs. The Design Department of theReichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office) adopted these guns for the new battleships, along with an increase from 15 cm (5.9 in) to 17 cm (6.7 in) for the secondary battery, owing to the increased threat fromtorpedo boats as torpedoes became more effective.[1][2]
Though theBraunschweig class marked a significant improvement over earlier German battleships, its design fell victim to the rapid pace of technological development in the early 1900s. The British battleshipHMS Dreadnought—armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—was commissioned in December 1906,[3] just a year afterElsass entered service.[4]Dreadnought's revolutionary design rendered every capital ship of the German navy obsolete, includingElsass.[5]
Elsass was 127.7 m (419 ft)long overall and had abeam of 22.2 m (72 ft 10 in) and adraft of 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in) forward. Shedisplaced 13,208 t (12,999long tons) as designed and 14,394 t (14,167 long tons) atfull load. Her crew consisted of 35 officers and 708 enlisted men. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder verticaltriple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by eight naval and six cylindricalboilers, and all of which burned coal.Elsass's powerplant was rated at 16,000indicated horsepower (12,000 kW), which generated a designed top speed of 18knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). She could steam 5,200nautical miles (9,600 km; 6,000 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[6]
Elsass's armament consisted of amain battery of four28 cm (11 in) SK L/40 guns in twingun turrets,[b] one fore and one aft of the centralsuperstructure.[8] Hersecondary armament was composed of fourteen17 cm (6.7 inch) SK L/40 guns and eighteen8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/35 quick-firing guns. Her armament was further increased by six 45 cm (17.7 in)torpedo tubes, all mounted submerged in the hull.[9] One tube was in the bow, two were on eachbroadside, and the final tube was in the stern.[10]Elsass was protected withKrupp armor. Herarmored belt was 110 to 225 millimeters (4.3 to 8.9 in) thick, with the heavier armor in the centralcitadel that protected hermagazines and machinery spaces, and the thinner plating at either end of the hull. Herdeck was 40 mm (1.6 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 250 mm of armor plating.[11]
Elsass waslaid down on 26 May 1901 at theSchichau-Werke inDanzig under construction number 97. The second unit of her class, she was ordered under the contract name "J" as a new unit for the fleet.[c]Elsass waslaunched on 26 May 1903, and the launching ceremony was attended byHermann zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg, theReichsstatthalter (Governor) of the ship'snamesake province. The ship was transferred toKiel on 26 October 1904 by a shipyard crew. She wascommissioned into the fleet on 29 November 1904 and begansea trials thereafter. These were interrupted on 15 December, when the ship'srudder broke, forcing her to return for repairs that lasted until February 1905.Elsass then returned to trials, which were completed by May. She thereafter joinedII Squadron, replacing the oldcoastal defense shipFrithjof.[4][13] Her first commander was then-Kapitän zur See (KzS—Captain at Sea)Hugo von Pohl, who remained in the position until September 1905.[14]
For the next several years,Elsass and the rest of the fleet were occupied with the peacetime training regimen that consisted of squadron and fleet training in April and May and a major fleet cruise during the summer, followed by annual fall maneuvers with the whole fleet in August and September. The year would typically conclude with a winter training cruise.[15] ForElsass, her career began with squadron training in theNorth Sea andBaltic Sea in May 1905, followed by the summer cruise in July and August.[4] In August, before the annual fleet maneuvers, the BritishChannel Fleet visited the German fleet inSwinemünde.[15]KzSGustav Bachmann took command of the ship in September.[14] The year 1906 followed the same pattern, concluding with fleet exercises in the North Sea in December before returning to Kiel.[16] Further maneuvers in the North Sea occupied the fleet for much of the first half of 1907, followed by a summer cruise to Norway and the annual autumn maneuvers in August and September.[17]KzSReinhard Scheer replaced Bachmann in October 1907.[14] The winter cruise that year went to the Baltic.[4]
On 28 April 1908, a significant accident occurred aboardElsass, when a round of ammunition exploded. Three men were killed and another six were wounded.[4] In 1908 and 1909, the fleet, which had been renamed theHigh Seas Fleet, undertook major cruises into the Atlantic Ocean. During the first, which began on 13 July 1908,Elsass stopped inLas Palmas from 23 July to 1 August before returning to Germany on 13 August for the autumn maneuvers. The 1909 cruise began on 7 July and lasted until 1 August, and included a visit toEl Ferrol, Spain from 18 to 25 July.[4][17] In September,KzSHubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz replaced Scheer as the ship's commander.[14] The year 1910 followed the same pattern of individual, squadron, and fleet training as in previous years. For the summer cruises of 1910 and 1911, the German fleet went to Norwegian waters; both years also saw winter cruises in the western Baltic.[18][17] On 14 December 1910, while conducting individual training,Elsass collided with the battleshipSchwaben, though neither ship was seriously damaged.[4]KzSCarl Schaumann took command of the ship in September 1911, though he remained in command for just a month, being replaced byKzSHugo Langemak in October.[14]Elsass was transferred toI Squadron on 3 October, trading places with the battleshipSchlesien.[4]
On 23 March 1912, during fleet training,Elsass accidentally collided with a Swedish steamship—Pollux—in heavy fog in the western entrance to theSkagerrak.Pollux was badly damaged in the accident and sank, thoughElsass was able to take off her crew. In April,Elsass served as atarget ship during gunfire training with thearmored cruiserBlücher in a demonstration held off theFaroe Islands. On the 29th of the month, the newdreadnought battleshipOldenburg replacedElsass in I Squadron, and the latter had her crew reduced. On 24 August, the ship received her full complement again, to allowElsass to take part in the annual maneuvers with the newly formedIII Squadron.[4] She also came under the temporary command ofKzSLeberecht Maass.[14] After the exercises, the squadron was dissolved, and on 29 SeptemberElsass again had her crew reduced. She returned to active duty on 1 December, when she was assigned to V Division of III Squadron, along with hersister shipBraunschweig and the new dreadnoughtKaiser. The ships began the year with individual training, followed by divisional exercises in the Baltic later in January 1913. In early March, fleet exercises were held in the North Sea.Elsass was sent to Kiel on 17 March to begin preparations for her decommissioning, as her place in the division was taken by the new dreadnoughtKaiserin. On 13 May,Elsass was decommissioned and assigned to the Reserve Division of the Baltic Sea. Effective 15 October, she was assigned to theMarinestation der Ostsee (Naval Station of the Baltic Sea).[19]
On 28 July 1914, Germany's allyAustria-Hungary declared war onSerbia, beginningWorld War I. Three days later,Elsass was reactivated as the European powers moved toward war, and she was assigned toIV Battle Squadron.[20] The unit also included her sister shipBraunschweig and the fiveWittelsbach-class battleships, and was commanded byVizeadmiralEhrhard Schmidt.[21]Elsass began individual and then squadron training, which lasted until early September. The training exercises were interrupted on 26 August, when the squadron and the armored cruisersRoon andPrinz Adalbert and the light cruiserGazelle were sent to rescue the strandedlight cruiserMagdeburg, which had run aground off the island ofOdensholm in the eastern Baltic. By 28 August, however, the ship's crew had been forced to detonate explosives to destroyMagdeburg before the relief force had arrived. As a result,Braunschweig and the rest of the squadron returned toBornholm that day.[20]
Starting on 2 September, IV Squadron, assisted byBlücher, conducted a sweep into the Baltic. The operation lasted until 9 September and failed to bringRussian naval units to battle.[22] From 11 to 20 September,Elsass and the rest of the division was transferred to the mouth of theElbe to provide local defense against possible British attacks.[20] Later that month, the IV Squadron ships were transferred back to the Baltic. The army had requested that the navy make ademonstration to keep Russian reserves along the Baltic coast, instead of allowing the Russians to re-deploy them toGalicia. The older battleships of theV Battle Squadron were sent to Danzig to embark ground forces, whileBraunschweig and IV Squadron steamed in advance. The operation was called off early, however, after Britishsubmarines were reportedly sighted in the Baltic. The two squadrons rendezvoused off Bornholm before proceeded on to Kiel, arriving on 26 September.[23]
Elsass returned to the Elbe from 5 December to 1 March 1915, with scheduled periodic maintenance from 24 to 28 February. After guard ship duties in the Elbe ended, she was briefly transferred to theSchillig Roads, outside Wilhelmshaven, from 1 to 9 March. Beginning on 2 April,Elsass began training exercises in the Baltic, followed by another shipyard period from 26 April to 16 May at theKaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel. She returned to provide coastal defense in the Elbe on 27 May.[20] On 4 July 1915, following the loss of theminelaying cruiserAlbatross in the Baltic, the IV Squadron ships were transferred to reinforce the German naval forces in the area. Additionally, the army requested naval support for theArmy of the Niemen, which was operating inCourland.[24][25] On 7–11 and 18–19 July, German cruisers, with the IV Squadron ships in support, conducted sweeps in the Baltic, though without engaging any Russian forces. During the latter operation,Elsass collided with the torpedo boatG175, though she inflicted only minor damage.[26][27]
In August 1915, the German fleet attempted to clear theGulf of Riga of Russian naval forces to assist the German Army then advancing on the city. IV Squadron was joined by I Squadron, which consisted of the eightNassau andHelgoland-class battleships, from the High Seas Fleet, as well as threebattlecruisers and many smaller craft. The task force was commanded byVizeadmiralFranz von Hipper, though operational command remained with Schmidt.[26] On the morning of 8 August, the German fleet made its initial push into the Gulf.Elsass andBraunschweig were assigned to attack the Russian pre-dreadnoughtSlava to prevent her from disrupting the German minesweepers. The German vessels engagedSlava and thegunboatKhrabry at long range without result.[27] When it became clear that the minesweepers could not clear the minefield before nightfall, Schmidt called off the attempt.[28] A second attempt was made on 16 August.Elsass remained outside the Gulf, while thedreadnoughtsNassau andPosen dealt withSlava.[29] 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 German fleet to call off the operation the following day.[30]
After the operation,Elsass remained inLibau, and IV Squadron was disbanded on 18 December. While in Libau,Elsass briefly served as thecommand ship forVizeadmiralFriedrich Schultz, theBefehlshaber der Aufklärungsschiffe der Ostsee (Commander of Reconnaissance Forces in the Baltic), from January to March 1916. By that time,Braunschweig, which had been modified in Kiel to serve as Schultz's command ship, arrived to relieveElsass. Crew shortages forced the navy to reduce both ships' crews, to the point that they were only capable of providing local defense of the harbor. On 10 July,Elsass was transferred back to Kiel, where four days later her crew was transferred to her sisterLothringen.Elsass was taken into the shipyard in Kiel for repairs before returning to service on 25 July as a stationarytraining ship assigned to I Marine Inspectorate. She remained in Kiel until her decommissioning on 20 June 1918. The ship underwent an overhaul and returned to training duty in October, though Germany surrendered the following month.[27]
TheTreaty of Versailles, which ended the war, specified that Germany was permitted to retain six battleships of the older "Deutschland orLothringen class."[31]Elsass was kept and used as a training ship in the German fleet, which was renamed theReichsmarine.[9] In 1923, the aging ship underwent a major overhaul.Elsass was dry-docked in theReichsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven,[6] where theconning tower was rebuilt. Work was completed the following year.[9] She was recommissioned on 15 February 1924 with a partial crew. Assigned to theLinienschiffsdivision (Battleship Division) of theSeestreitkräfte der Nordsee (Naval Forces of the North Sea) and based in Wilhelmshaven, the ship received her full crew by 1 April. In July, she joined the rest of the fleet for a major training cruise in the Atlantic, which included a stop inVigo, Spain, from 6 to 13 July. In 1925,Elsass and the battleshipHannover visitedOslo, Norway, from 19 to 24 June, thoughElsass proceeded alone toOdda, where she stayed from 26 to 30 June.[27]
On 1 October, the ship was transferred to theSeestreitkräfte der Ostsee (Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea), which was based in Kiel. The fleet went on another major cruise in the Atlantic and theMediterranean Sea in May and June 1926; during the tripElsass made calls in several Spanish ports, includingMahón,Barcelona, and Vigo. Another cruise followed the next year in April and May, with stops inVilagarcía, Spain,São Vicente, Madeira,Santa Cruz de Tenerife andSanta Cruz de La Palma in theCanary Islands,Horta andPonta Delgada in theAzores, andLisbon, Portugal. In 1928,Elsass made visits toUlvik andBergen in Norway in July, andSkagen, Denmark, in September. The winter of 1928–1929 proved to be especially cold, andElsass and the battleshipSchleswig-Holstein were pressed into service asicebreakers; the two ships helped to free 65 merchant ships from the heavy ice. In March 1929,Elsass also performed icebreaking duties offGedser, Denmark.[32]
The fleet went on another Atlantic cruise in April 1929, andElsass made calls in Villagarcia andA Pobra do Caramiñal, Spain. That fall, the ship visitedKarlskrona, Sweden.[33]Elsass was withdrawn from active service on 25 February 1930. She was stricken from the naval register on 31 March 1931 and served as ahulk in Wilhelmshaven until 31 October 1935, when theReichsmarine sold her toTechnischer Betrieb desNorddeutscher Lloyd.Elsass was broken up for scrap the following year.[9]
