SMS Württemberg (1917)

**Württemberg**
	The type ship SMS Bayern
Ship data
flag	German Empire
Ship type	Large-line ship
class	Bavaria class
Shipyard	AG Vulcan , Hamburg
Build number	19th
building-costs	approx. 49,000,000 marks
Launch	June 20, 1917
Whereabouts	Wrecked in Hamburg in 1921
Ship dimensions and crew
length	180.0 m ( Lüa ) 179.4 m ( KWL )
width	30.0 m
Draft	Max. 9.39 m
displacement	Construction: 28,530 t; maximum: 32,200 t
crew	1,171 men
Machine system
machine	12 marine boilers; 3 AEG Vulcan turbines; 2 rudders
Machine ; performance	48,000 PS (35,304 kW)
Top ; speed	22.0 kn (41 km / h)
propeller	3 three-winged ∅ 3.87 m
Armament
	8 × Sk 38.0 cm L / 45 (720 shots); 16 × Sk 15.0 cm L / 45 (2,560 shots); 8 × Flak 8.8 cm L / 45 (3,200 rounds); 5 × torpedo tube ∅ 60 cm (1 in the bow, 4 in the sides, under water);
Armor
	Belt: 30-350 mm; Deck: 90-120 mm; Towers: 100–350 mm; Barbettes: 40-350 mm; Casemates: 170 mm; Front command post: 50–400 mm; aft command post: 50–170 mm; Citadel: 250 mm; Torpedo bulkhead: 50 mm; Transverse bulkheads: 170-200 mm;

The SMS Württemberg was the fourth ship of the Bavaria class and at the same time the last large-line ship built for the Imperial Navy . Like her sister ship Saxony , the Württemberg was not completed.

construction

The Hamburg shipyard AG Vulcan received on 12 August 1914 a few days after the outbreak of the First World War , the contract to build the fourth ship of the new large battleship class. The budget was around 49 million marks . The keel for the ship under the household name Ersatz Kaiser Wilhelm II was stretched on January 4, 1915. Due to the war-related lack of shipyard workers and the high capacity utilization of the shipyard, construction progressed only slowly. The launch could only take place on June 20, 1917 , whereby the usual ceremony was omitted. The new building was baptized in the name of the Kingdom of Württemberg . Since the old ironclad SMS Württemberg was still in use as a torpedo training ship at that time , the unusual circumstance arose that the Imperial Navy had two large ships of the same name.

The further expansion of Württemberg also made slow progress. The ship could not be put into service until the end of the war. The construction was finally stopped around twelve months before completion.

Whereabouts

"Württemberg" and "Prinz Eitel Friedrich" , Hamburg 1920

The provisions of the Versailles Treaty only allowed the German Reich to build ships with a design displacement of 10,000 ts . The Württemberg exceeded this limit by far, which is why completion was impossible. The unfinished ship was therefore struck off the list of warships on November 3, 1919, sold and scrapped in Hamburg in 1921.

literature

Siegfried Breyer: Battleships and battle cruisers 1905–1970 . JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-88199-474-2 , p. 300-302 .
Erich Gröner , 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. 52-54 .
Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 8 : Ship biographies from Undine to Zieten . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 120 .

Web links

Commons : Bavaria- class - collection of pictures, videos and audio files