SMS Alsace

German Empire German Empire
Ship of the line Alsace , 1926
Ship data
Ship type	Ship of the line
Ship class	Braunschweig class
Construction designation:	New building J
Keel laying :	1901
Launch :	May 26, 1903
Commissioning:	November 29, 1904
Builder:	Schichau-Werke in Gdansk Building no. 696
Crew:	35 officers and 708 men
Building-costs:	24.373 million gold marks

4 sister ships
SMS Braunschweig SMS Hessen	SMS Preussen SMS Lothringen
Technical specifications
Construction displacement :	13,208 t
Maximum deployment displacement :	14,394 t
Length:	127.70 m
Width:	22.20 m
Draft :	8.16 m
Machinery:	8 marine water tube and 6 cylinder steam boilers with coal firing 3 standing three-cylinder triple expansion steam engines
Number of screws:	2 three-winged ( 4.80 m) 1 four-winged ( 4.50 m) ${\ displaystyle \ varnothing}$ ${\ displaystyle \ varnothing}$
Shaft speed:	110 rpm
Power:	Construction: 16,000 PSi Test drive: 16,812 PSi
Top speed:	Construction: 18.0 kn Test drive: 18.74 kn
Driving range:	approx. 5,260 nm at 10 kn
Fuel supply:	Max. 1,670 tons of coal
Armor
Belt armor:	100 - 225 mm on 100 mm teak backing
Deck:	40 mm
Towers:	50 - 280 mm
Front control station:	horizontal: 50 mm vertical: 300 mm
Control station aft:	horizontal: 30 mm vertical: 140 mm
Casemates:	150 mm
Pages:	Cork dams
Armament
Guns 28.0 cm L / 40 C / 1901:	4 in 2 twin towers on turntable carriage C / 1901
Gun range 28.0 cm:	18.8 km at 30 °
Guns 17 cm L / 40 C / 1901:	10 in casemates 4 in single towers
Gun range 17.0 cm:	14.5 km at 22 °
Guns 8.8 cm L / 35 C / 1902:	18 in casemates
Guns 3.7 cm automatic cannons:	up to 4 in individual installation
Torpedo tubes 45 cm: ${\ displaystyle \ varnothing}$	6 under water (1 in the bow, 2 on each side, 1 in the stern)

SMS Alsace was a battleship of the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Navy . It was named after a part of the realm of Alsace-Lorraine . The ship was a multipurpose building based on the 1st Fleet Act of 1898.

technology

Armament

The Alsace and her sister ships of the Braunschweig class were the first ships of the line of the Imperial Navy to carry newly developed fast-loading cannons with a caliber of 28 cm. Thanks to the newly developed quick-loading system with a wedge lock and brass sleeves, these were able to achieve a significantly higher rate of fire than the ten-year-old jacket ring cannons of the Brandenburg class with the same caliber and barrel length.

A novelty was the raising of the middle artillery caliber from 15.0 cm to 17.0 cm. Parallel to this increase in caliber, other navies introduced a so-called intermediate caliber to strengthen firepower. The Imperial Navy did not go this way, but only increased the caliber of the middle artillery. The selected size represented the highest permissible manually loaded bullet weight. A 17.0 cm shell weighed approx. 70 kg, and with a targeted volley rate of 5 rounds / min, the loading staff was physically demanding. A new model was also introduced for the light artillery: the elongated barrels allowed the 8.8 cm anti-torpedo guns to fire a larger range.

history

After the ship was christened, the new Alsace building was transferred to the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel on October 26, 1904 for final equipment and officially put into service there on November 29, 1904. After completion of the tests in May 1905, the ship was assigned to the 1st Division of the newly established 2nd Squadron. In this association it provided its fleet service and took part in maneuvers and training trips. On August 28, 1908, improper handling during an ammunition takeover resulted in a grenade explosion, killing three soldiers and seriously injuring six others. During a maneuver, the ship collided on December 14, 1910 with the liner SMS Schwaben and on March 23, 1912 during an exercise in the Skagerrak with the steamer Pollux . From October 3, 1911, the Alsace switched to the 1st squadron of the high seas fleet with base in Wilhelmshaven and left the squadron association on April 29, 1912, where it was replaced by the new large-scale ship SMS Oldenburg . The crew was reduced and only briefly brought up to full strength for maneuvers. On March 17, 1913 the decommissioning took place in Kiel and the ship was part of the Reserve Division Baltic Sea.

Due to the threat of war, the Alsace was put back into service on July 31, 1914 and from then on belonged to the IV Squadron.

First World War

20.-26. September 1914 Advance with parts of the deep sea fleet against Windau to simulate a landing operation
26.-30. December 1914 Advance towards Gotland
6-9 January 1915 Cover forces for armored cruisers advancing to the Gulf of Finland
then until July guard ship in the Elbe and Jade estuaries
10/11 July 1915 Advance north of Gotland
18./19. July 1915 Advance north of Gotland, canceled due to fog
August 1, 1915 Advance against the Baltic Islands
6-20 August Advance into the Riga Bay , with two heavy hits on the Russian gunboat Grozjaschtschi on August 8 , later a cannon duel with the ship of the line Slava
29.-31. August 1915 Advance to the Gulf of Finland
21-23 September 1915 Advance into the northern Baltic Sea
7th / 8th October 1915 Cover forces for mining operations in Irbenstrasse
December 18, 1915 Decommissioned and relocated to Kiel
from July 25, 1916 training ship of the I. Navy Inspection and planned conversion to a cadet training ship for the inspection of the naval education system; disarmed
trailer in Wilhelmshaven at the end of the war

Imperial Navy

February 15, 1924 returned to service
July 1924 Atlantic voyage
June 1925 trip to Norway
May to June 1926 Mediterranean voyage
April to May 1927 Atlantic voyage
1928 trip to Norway
Winter 1928/29 icebreaker aid in the Baltic Sea
1929 trip to the Atlantic and Sweden
February 25, 1930 final decommissioning
March 31, 1931 removed from the list of warships on October 31, 1935 sale for demolition and in 1936 Bremerhaven scrapped

Commanders

November 29, 1904 to May 13, 1913
November 29, 1904 to September 30, 1905	Sea captain Hugo Pohl
October 1, 1905 to September 30, 1907	Sea captain Gustav Bachmann
October 1, 1907 to September 1909	Captain Reinhard Scheer
September 1909 to September 1911	Sea captain Hubert von Rebeur-Paschwitz
October 1st to 3rd, 1911	Sea captain Carl Schaumann
October 1911 to April 1912	Sea captain Hugo Langemak
April to August 1912	Corvette Captain Eduard Bartels (reduced crew)
August to September 1912	Sea captain Leberecht Maaß
September to December 1912	Corvette Captain Eduard Bartels (reduced crew)
December 1912 to May 13, 1913	Sea captain Siegfried Bölken
July 31, 1914 to June 20, 1918
July 31, 1914 to February 1915	Sea captain Hugo Langemak
February to November 1915	Sea captain Robert Kühne
November 1915 to July 1916	Sea captain Johann von Lessel
July to September 1916	Corvette Captain Ernst Hoffmann (reduced crew)
September to December 1916	Corvette Captain Hellmut Kellermann (reduced crew)
December 1916 to February 1917	Captain Johannes Bähr (deputy, reduced crew)
February 1917	Corvette Captain Walter Mehnert (reduced crew)
February 1917 to March 1918	Sea captain Friedrich Kuntz (reduced crew)
March to June 20, 1918	Corvette Captain Richard Spitzner (reduced crew)
October 15 to December 20, 1918
October 15 to December 1918	Frigate Captain Waldemar Krah
December 1918	Lieutenant to the sea Nerner
February 15, 1924 to February 25, 1930
February 15, 1924 to October 1925	Sea captain Wilhelm Prentzel
October 1925 to September 1927	Sea captain Friedrich Brutzer
October 1927 to September 1929	Frigate captain / sea captain Otto Schultze
September 1929 to February 1930	Frigate Captain / Captain Reinhold Knoblauch

Known crew members

Friedrich Ruge (1894–1985) was the first inspector of the Navy from 1956 to 1961

literature

Breyer, Siegfried: The Navy of the Weimar Republic . Marine-Arsenal special issue, Vol. 5, Podzun-Pallas Verlag, Friedberg 1992. ISBN 3-7909-0464-3 .
Breyer, Siegfried: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970 , JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970. ISBN 3-88199-474-2 .
Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 1. Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe 1998 ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke: The liners of the Brandenburg to Germany class. Ship classes and types of the German Navy. Volume 10. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe 2001 ISBN 3-7637-6211-6 .

Web links

Liner squadron from the third division of the second squadron in the roadstead in front of Travemünde (1908)
Tea distribution on the ship (1908)
A squadron of the German High Seas Fleet: Braunschweig class liner (foreground), other liners and a maritime reconnaissance zeppelin