SMS King Albert
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
SMS König Albert was the last ship of the Kaiser class , a class of five large-line ships of the Imperial Navy .
construction
In July 1910 the Danzig shipyard of the Schichau-Werke began building the replacement Aegir . The ship was the last of its class to be launched on April 27, 1912. After a baptismal address by the Saxon King Friedrich August III. His sister, Princess Mathilde von Sachsen , baptized the new building in the name of her uncle Albert, who died in 1902 . The further expansion of the liner proceeded rapidly.
Peace time
The König Albert entered service on July 31, 1913. Just like her sister ships - with the exception of Friedrich the Great , which acted as a naval flagship - the King Albert belonged to III. Squadron of the deep sea fleet. Since the ships of the Kaiser class were the first German capital ships to have a turbine drive, their performance and operational safety under constant load should be determined. At the end of 1913, the King Albert was therefore merged with the Kaiser and the small cruiser Strasbourg to form the so-called "Detached Division". The association ran out of Wilhelmshaven on December 9, 1913 . The voyage initially led to Cameroon and German South West Africa , with which these colonies were first visited by German capital ships. Then ports in Brazil , Argentina , Uruguay and Chile were visited. The Strasbourg was finally released to Central America, while the two liners returned home via Funchal and Vigo and arrived in Kiel on June 17, 1914 . The ships' turbines had withstood the stress without incident even in the tropical climate.
Use in the First World War
After the outbreak of the First World War , the König Albert was initially used in standby, outpost and security service in the German Bight . From November 2 to 4 and December 15 and 16, 1914, the ship took part in naval advances, neither of which led to combat contact. Further missions followed in 1915, but these too remained without enemy contact.
After Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer became head of the deep sea fleet in January 1916, it was used more aggressively. Fleet operations followed from March 5th to 7th and March 26th, from April 22nd to 23rd and finally from April 24th to 25th. Afterwards, the King Albert had to stay at the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven in order to have the three main capacitors touched again. These had led to machine malfunctions several times. Because of this, the ship of the line was the only one in its class not to take part in the Battle of the Skagerrak .
The King Albert was again ready for the naval advances that took place from August 18 to 20 and October 19 and 20 . When the ship was on its way back to the North Sea after carrying out exercises in the Baltic Sea, it was with the III. Squadron ordered on November 4th to the height of Bovbjerg , where U 20 and U 30 had got stuck. During this venture, the Great Elector and the Crown Prince each received a torpedo hit, while King Albert remained undamaged. On November 6th, the ships reached the Jade Bay .
The King Albert was assigned to the IV. Wing on December 1, consisting of the ships of the emperor was formed class. From August 18, 1917 on, the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel carried out repair work on the König Albert . After its completion on September 23, the ship sailed into the eastern Baltic Sea to participate in the Albion company . The König Albert lay in the Putziger Wiek until October 10th and then left for the Baltic Islands. On October 12th, targets were shot at Sworbe together with Frederick the Great , and on October 14th and 15th the Zerel battery was shot at. On October 14th and again on October 16th, the König Albert was unsuccessfully torpedoed by a submarine . After it had returned to Putziger Wiek on October 16 to coal, the ship was released two days later on the renewed march to the Baltic Islands by the chief of the special association, Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt , and ran via Putzig to Kiel, which it on Reached October 23.
On November 2nd and 3rd, the King Albert was the flagship of the 2nd Admiral of the 1st Reconnaissance Group, Vice Admiral Friedrich Boedicker , in the German Bight. The Empress , Nassau , Rhineland and Derfflinger were also involved in this advance .
There were no special incidents for the King Albert during 1918 . The ship was ready for the fleet operation planned for the end of October . Due to the mutiny that broke out on board the Helgoland and the Thuringia , this was given up on October 30th. The König Albert was then active in the outpost service until November 10th and arrived in Wilhelmshaven on that day. At the same time, the red flag was also set on it .
Whereabouts
The King Albert was one of the ships to be interned according to the armistice agreement . It was disarmed and left Wilhelmshaven on November 19, 1918 together with the transfer association and reached the Firth of Forth two days later . On November 25th, the trip to Scapa Flow continued. The ship remained there, initially with a crew of 175, the number of which was reduced again on June 17, 1919.
Since Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter , commander of the interned ships, was only sparsely supplied with news from the British and had no contact with the Reich government, he assumed a German rejection of the Treaty of Versailles . This would have meant a resumption of the war. To make the German ships do not fall without a fight into British hands, commanded by Reuter on June 21, the self-absorption . The König Albert capsized at 12:54 p.m. after the crew opened the sea valves and disembarked. It was lifted on July 31, 1935. The wreck was towed to Rosyth and dismantled there in the course of 1936.
Commanders
| July 31, 1913 to July 1917 | Sea captain Karl Thorbecke |
| July 1917 | Captain Heinrich Löhlein (deputy) |
| July to August 1917 | Corvette Captain Ernst Arnold (deputy) |
| August 3-24, 1917 | Sea captain Ernst Ewers |
| August to September 1917 | Corvette Captain Paul Globig (deputy) |
| September to November 1917 | Sea captain Eduard Varrentrapp |
| December 1, 1917 to December 3, 1918 | Sea captain Ernst Ewers |
| December 4, 1918 to June 21, 1919 | Corvette Captain Ferdinand Boehmer |
Known crew members
- Gerhard Wagner (1898–1987), was Rear Admiral Commander Naval Forces Baltic Approaches (COMNAVBALTAP) from 1961 to 1962
literature
- Breyer, Siegfried: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970 . JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 , p. 293 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. 49 f .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 5 : Ship biographies from Kaiser to Lütjens . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 109-111 .
- Koop, Gerhard / Klaus-Peter Schmolke: Ship classes and ship types of the German Navy . tape 9 : Ships of the line: From the Nassau to the König class . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-7637-5994-8 , pp. 80-90 .