Helgoland class (1909)
 Heligoland
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The Helgoland class , also widely known as the Ostfriesland class, was a class of four large-line ships ( battleships ) of the German Imperial Navy . The ships of this class took part, among other things, in the Battle of the Skagerrak during the First World War. All survived the war and were handed over to the victorious powers as reparations.
draft
The Helgoland class was designed in 1907 and 1908 as a replacement for outdated ironclad ships. The Oldenburg from 1884 was replaced by the successor of the same name, while the three other units replaced ships of the Siegfried class ( Siegfried , Beowulf and Frithjof ). As with almost all new builds of the Imperial Navy at the time, the design was based on ship classes of the British Royal Navy , but had stronger armor. In terms of main armament, they drew level with the British ships of the same age. In doing so, the German Navy did not reduce its medium artillery .
The Helgoland class was after the Nassau class , the second class of large battleships of the Imperial Navy. It was designed and built at the same time as the British St. Vincent class and the Neptune .
The building program cost about 182 million marks .
August Müller was responsible for the construction .
Technical successors were the ships of the Kaiser class .
Armament
The ships of the Helgoland class were provided with a main artillery reinforced to 30.5 cm compared to the previous class . The German Navy thus drew level with the armament of contemporary British ships, even if the Orion, launched in 1910, had 34.3 cm guns. However, compared to the British wire barrel guns, the German barrel cannons had a higher muzzle velocity and better ballistic properties, which partly compensated for the inferiority in bullet weight.
The overfiring installation of gun turrets (one raised behind the other) was still considered to be detrimental to the stability of the ships, and the machinery also took up a lot of space amidships due to its great height. That is why the Helgoland class carried its guns in six twin towers in a so-called hexagonal arrangement. When viewed from above, the turrets formed an elongated hexagon on the deck. Two towers each stood on port and starboard and the bow and stern towers on the midship line. As a result, eight guns could be used simultaneously in the broadside battle and six guns forwards or aft.
The middle artillery consisted of 15 cm guns in 14 individual armored casemates below the main deck. Due to the low installation, the middle artillery could only be used to a limited extent in rough seas.
There were also 14 light guns with a caliber of 8.8 cm, six of them also in (open) casemates on the bow (four) and stern (two) and eight in open positions on the superstructure. During the war, these were replaced by anti-aircraft guns of the same caliber.
The six torpedo tubes were built into the hull below the waterline, one in the bow and one in the stern, and two on each side.
As was customary at that time, the ships still had a reinforced, protruding ramming bow , which was, however, much less pronounced than the older ships of the line, such as the Deutschland or Kaiser Friedrich class.
Armor
The better armor protection compared to British ships and the careful subdivision corresponded to the philosophy of the imperial navy, which placed the constructive emphasis on armor protection and structural stability in all capital ships and also accepted a relatively weaker main armament. As with all ships of the line, the thickness of the main armor belt was roughly the same as the caliber of the main artillery. The internal structure was highly subdivided and important areas were separated from one another in order to limit the effects of damage. The erection of the side towers gave the ammunition rooms additional protection.
drive
The machine system consisted of three four-cylinder composite steam engines , each of which acted on a four- bladed propeller with a diameter of 5.1 m.
A special feature were the two rudders arranged one behind the other, which gave the ships a remarkably small curve radius.
Despite the widening of the hull necessary for the barbeds of the main artillery to be set up sideways, a speed of over 20 kn could be achieved through an extension and the reinforced machine system with 28,000 HP. In fact, the individual ships showed different mileage. During the tests, speeds between 20.8 ( Helgoland ) and 21.3 kn ( Oldenburg ) were driven.
The erection of the armored turrets limited the space for the machinery and gave the class characteristic chimneys that were close together.
During the war, the ships received additional oil firing. This allowed the speed to be increased by around 0.5 kn for a short time, but the range also decreased.
commitment
The ships formed the 1st squadron of the high seas fleet with those of the previous Nassau class and took part in various missions. All four were involved in the Battle of the Skagerrak. The was Helgoland from a 15- inch - grenade hit (38.1 cm), which caused minor damage. The Oldenburg received a hit from the middle artillery, which caused eight deaths and 14 injured, but also left only minor structural damage. The Thuringia sank the British battle cruiser Black Prince , but remained even undamaged. The Ostfriesland was also not hit during the battle, but ran into a sea mine on the way back and therefore required a longer stay in the shipyard in Wilhelmshaven.
Whereabouts
- Heligoland to Great Britain, 1924 (1921 according to other sources) scrapped
- Oldenburg to Japan, sold to England for scrapping in 1921
- East Frisia to the USA, target ship for air raids, sunk in 1921
- Thuringia as a target ship to France, scrapped in 1922 (large part of the central nave sunk off Lorient)
literature
- Breyer, Siegfried: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970 . JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 , p. 287 f .
- Gröner, Erich / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 1 : Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 , p. 48 .
- Ulrich Israel, Jürgen Gebauer: Ironclad ships around 1900 . 2nd edition Brandenburger Verlagshaus, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-327-01073-0 .
- Jane's 20th Century Warships . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-86047-592-4 .
Web links
- www.worldwar1.co.uk (engl.)
