Kaiser Friedrich III class
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 SMS Kaiser Friedrich III. , the lead ship of the class |
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| Class details | |
| Ship type | Standard ship of the line |
| predecessor | Brandenburg class |
| successor | Wittelsbach class |
| units | 5 |
| period of service | 1896-1918 |
| Sister ships | |
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SMS Kaiser Friedrich III. SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II. SMS Kaiser Karl der Große SMS Kaiser Wilhelm der Große SMS Kaiser Barbarossa |
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| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement | Construction: 11,100 t |
| length |
KWL : 120.9 m over all: 125.3 m |
| width | 20.4 m |
| Draft | 7.8 m |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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| Propulsion system |
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| Machine performance | Continuous load: approx. 13,000 PSi |
| Fuel supply | 1,030 tons of coal |
| speed | 18 kn |
| Driving range | 3420 nm at 10 kn |
| crew | 39 officers and 612 men |
The Kaiser-Friedrich-III.-Klasse (also: Kaiser-Friedrich-Klasse ) was a class of five unit ships of the line of the Imperial Navy , named after Kaiser Friedrich III. (1831–1888), German Emperor and King of Prussia. The five individual ships were named after the three emperors of the German Empire, Wilhelm I and Friedrich III. and Wilhelm II , as well as two famous emperors of the Holy Roman Empire , Charlemagne and Barbarossa . Originally referred to as the Kaiser class , it traded as the old Kaiser class or Kaiser Friedrich class from 1911, the launch of the type ship SMS Kaiser of the new Kaiser class .
draft
In terms of design, there were clear changes with significantly larger superstructures, based on French models and, above all, in the armament due to a changed view of the importance of the artillery , with almost the same displacement as in the previous Brandenburg class .
Armament
In addition to the two twin towers of heavy artillery , which for the first time consisted of fast-loading cannons, a faster-firing medium artillery was installed. This comprised a total of 18 15 cm guns and was intended in particular to destroy the less protected structures of the enemy, such as the bridge, primarily through fire. The light artillery for fighting torpedo boats included twelve 8.8 cm guns.
The guns of the heavy artillery were quick-loading cannons instead of the conventional jacket ring cannons with 28 cm caliber as in the previous Brandenburg class . Despite the 24 cm lower caliber, they achieved better shooting performance in terms of cadence , range and penetration. The first two ships of the class still received the older gun turrets C / 1897, which had no ammunition lifts - the projectiles and charges were conveyed here outside the turret in an armored shaft. The remaining ships, however, already received the new towers C / 1898 with continuous ammunition lifts, which allowed a significantly higher rate of fire - instead of two shots, up to five rounds per minute were possible.
Armor
The narrow armor of the belt consisted of an improved KC steel ( Krupp cemented ) with a depth of up to 300 mm.
drive
A three- shaft drive was chosen for the first time. This arrangement was retained on all subsequent German capital ships, with the exception of the large cruisers, up to the Bismarck class . It resulted in improved propulsion efficiency and maneuverability. The spatial arrangement within the ship's hull was another advantage.
Use and whereabouts
All units were in fleet service until 1915, with the Kaiser Wilhelm II serving as the fleet flagship until 1906 . Then they were replaced by the more modern SMS Deutschland . The ships were used stationary and disarmed from 1915 due to their inadequate combat strength and poor underwater protection; the guns were primarily used as railroad guns on the western front because of their long range . The ships themselves became semitrailers, with Kaiser Wilhelm II serving as the office ship of the fleet chief in Wilhelmshaven . The remainder became prisoner ships in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel . The Kaiser Wilhelm der Große was used as a torpedo shooting range ship from 1917 .
On December 6, 1919, all of them were deleted from the fleet list, with the exception of Kaiser Wilhelm II , which was not retired until March 17, 1921. From 1920 to 1922, all five were scrapped by German scrappers.
literature
- 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. 37-39 .
- Erwin Strohbusch: Warship building since 1848. German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven 1984.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Various different configurations of 6–8 cylinder boilers plus 4 Thornycroft or marine boilers or 6 cylinder boilers plus 2 marine boilers and 2 marine double boilers