 Schleswig-Holstein in the late 1930s
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
   Germany | |
| Name | Schleswig-Holstein |
| Namesake | Schleswig-Holstein[1] |
| Ordered | 11 June 1904 |
| Builder | Germaniawerft, Kiel |
| Laid down | 18 August 1905 |
| Launched | 17 December 1906 |
| Commissioned | 6 July 1908 |
| Recommissioned | 31 January 1926 |
| Decommissioned | 2 May 1917 |
| Fate | Sunk by bombs 1944; scuttled 21 March 1945; raised and beached for long-term use as target 1948; remains still exist. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Deutschland-class pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 127.60 m (418 ft 8 in) |
| Beam | 22.20 m (72 ft 10 in) |
| Draft | 8.21 m (26 ft 11 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 19.1 knots (35.4 km/h; 22.0 mph) |
| Range | 5,720 nmi (10,590 km; 6,580 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
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| Armor | |
| Service record | |
| Commanders: | |
SMS Schleswig-Holstein[a] (pronounced [ˌʃleːsvɪç ˈhɔlʃtaɪn] ) was the last of the five pre-dreadnought Deutschland-class battleships built by the German Kaiserliche Marine. The ship, named for the province of Schleswig-Holstein, was laid down in the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel in August 1905 and commissioned into the fleet nearly three years later. The ships of her class were already outdated by the time they entered service, being inferior in size, armor, firepower and speed to the new generation of dreadnought battleships.
Schleswig-Holstein fought in both World Wars. During World War I, she saw front-line service in II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet, culminating in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. Schleswig-Holstein saw action during the engagement, and was hit by one large-caliber shell. After the battle, Schleswig-Holstein was relegated to guard duty in the mouth of the Elbe River before being decommissioned in late 1917. As one of the few battleships permitted for Germany by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Schleswig-Holstein was again pressed into fleet service in the 1920s. In 1935, the old battleship was converted into a training ship for naval cadets.
Schleswig-Holstein fired the first cannon shots of World War II when she bombarded the Polish base at Danzig's Westerplatte in the early morning hours of 1 September 1939. The ship was used as a training vessel for the majority of the war, and was sunk by British bombers in Gotenhafen in December 1944. Schleswig-Holstein was subsequently salvaged and then beached for use by the Soviet Navy as a target. As of 1990, the ship's bell was on display in the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden.
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