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The ''Nassau'' class was a group of four
dreadnought The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...
battleships built for the German ''
Kaiserliche Marine {{italic title The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control. The term wa ...
'' (Imperial Navy) in the mid-1900s. The class comprised , the
lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...
, , , and . All four ships were laid down in mid-1907, and completed by late 1910. Though commonly perceived as having been built in response to the British , their design traces its origin to 1903; they were in fact a response to ''Dreadnought''s predecessors of the . The ''Nassau''s adopted a
main battery A main battery is the primary weapon or group of weapons around which a warship is designed. As such, a main battery was historically a gun or group of guns, as in the broadsides of cannon on a ship of the line. Later, this came to be turreted ...
of twelve guns in six twin-
gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...
s in an unusual hexagonal arrangement. Unlike many other dreadnoughts, the ''Nassau''-class ships retained
triple-expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up ...
s instead of more powerful steam turbines. After entering service, the ''Nassau''-class ships served as II Division, I Battle Squadron of the
High Seas Fleet The High Seas Fleet (''Hochseeflotte'') was the battle fleet of the German Imperial Navy and saw action during the First World War. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet (''Heimatflotte'') was renamed as the High Seas ...
for the duration of their careers. From 1910 to 1914, the ships participated in the normal peacetime routine of the German fleet, including various squadron exercises, training cruises, and fleet maneuvers every August–September. Following the outbreak of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in July 1914, the ships took part in numerous fleet operations intended to isolate and destroy individual elements of the numerically superior British
Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from the F ...
. These frequently consisted of sailing as distant support to the battlecruisers of
I Scouting Group The I Scouting Group (german: I. Aufklärungsgruppe) was a special reconnaissance unit within the German Kaiserliche Marine. The unit was famously commanded by Admiral Franz von Hipper during World War I. The I Scouting Group was one of the most ...
as they raided British coastal towns. These operations culminated in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, where the ships helped to sink the
armored cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast eno ...
. The ships also saw service in the
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against the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
during the war; ''Nassau'' and ''Posen'' engaged the Russian
pre-dreadnought Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, protec ...
during the inconclusive
Battle of the Gulf of Riga The Battle of the Gulf of Riga was a World War I naval operation of the German High Seas Fleet against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea in August 1915. The operation's objective was to destroy the Russian naval for ...
in 1915. ''Rheinland'' and ''Westfalen'' were sent to Finland to support White Finnish forces in the
Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...
, though ''Rheinland'' ran aground and was badly damaged. Following Germany's defeat, all four ships were ceded as
war prize A prize of war is a piece of enemy property or land seized by a belligerent party during or after a war or battle, typically at sea. This term was used nearly exclusively in terms of captured ships during the 18th and 19th centuries. Basis in inte ...
s to the victorious Allied powers and
broken up Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of Interchangeable parts, parts, which can be sold for re-use, ...
in the early 1920s.


Design


Initial designs

Though the ''Nassau'' class is commonly cited as a response to the revolutionary , the decision to adopt an all-big-gun
main battery A main battery is the primary weapon or group of weapons around which a warship is designed. As such, a main battery was historically a gun or group of guns, as in the broadsides of cannon on a ship of the line. Later, this came to be turreted ...
predated the construction of the British vessel. Design work on what would eventually become the ''Nassau'' class began in 1903, with work scheduled to begin in 1906.
Kaiser Wilhelm II , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...
argued that the navy ought to build large
armored cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast eno ...
s as a single
capital ship The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they are generally the larger ships when compared to other warships in their respective fleet. A capital ship is generally a leading or a primary ship in a naval fleet. Strategic im ...
type. In December 1903, Wilhelm II suggested a new ship, of about
displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
, to be armed with four guns and eight guns. Speed was to be . He requested the Construction Office submit proposals based on his ideas; by January 1904, three such designs had been prepared: "5A", "5B", and "6". The first two mounted eight 21 cm guns, in four single-
gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...
s and four casemates for "5A" and in four twin-gun turrets in "5B". The "6" design carried ten of the guns in four casemates and the remaining six in a central battery. Though the naval command felt "5B" offered the best firing arcs, they forwarded the "6" design for further consideration. Evaluation of the design led to a conclusion that it offered no significant improvement over the preceding s. The Kaiser intervened again in February with a request for a ship with
secondary batteries A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to a disposable or prim ...
of ten 21 cm or guns; the Construction Department and the ''Kaiserliche Werft'' (Imperial Shipyard) in
Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
submitted proposals. The first, "6B-D", was a variant on the earlier "6" design, while two others, "10A" and "10B" featured the larger guns; the submissions from Kiel have not survived and their details are not known. Wilhelm interrupted this design work by suggesting that speed should be increased significantly at the price of reducing the main battery to 24 cm guns, which resulted in further design studies that were completed by April. All of these were deemed unacceptable and further design work was carried out within the ''
Reichsmarineamt The Imperial Naval Office (german: Reichsmarineamt) was a government agency of the German Empire. It was established in April 1889, when the German Imperial Admiralty was abolished and its duties divided among three new entities: the Imperial Na ...
'' (Imperial Naval Office). The officers there observed that the secondary battery should be limited to 21 cm guns, since the increased weight of the 24 cm weapons limited the number of guns. This resulted in "Project I", armed with twelve of the guns, "Project II", armed with sixteen of the guns, and "Project III", which carried eight 24 cm guns. All three variants kept a 28 cm main battery. During deliberations in late April, "Project I" emerged as the favored design since it would be cheaper than "II" (which would also require widening of the
Kaiser Wilhelm Canal The Kiel Canal (german: Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, literally "North- oEast alticSea canal", formerly known as the ) is a long freshwater canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The canal was finished in 1895, but later widened, and links the ...
). The design was refined into two versions, "IA" and "IB", with the former using casemates and the latter using single turrets. Wilhelm approved "IA" in May, though the arrangement of the secondary guns proved to be contentious, and in December another variant, "7D", which moved eight of the guns to twin turrets and adopted an improved underwater protection system was submitted, which the Kaiser approved on 7 January 1904. These plans were disrupted immediately when the Germans learned of the characteristics of the British s, which carried a secondary battery of ten guns, and estimates of the next class of battleships, which were to carry an even more powerful armament. This meant that "7D" would be insufficient to counter the next generation of British battleships, and the design staff would have to start over.


All-big-gun proposals

Variants with six 21 cm twin-turrets were submitted, along with the first German all-big-gun battleships; these featured a battery of eight 28 cm guns, four in standard twin turrets and the rest in single-gun turrets. Wilhelm approved the all-big-gun version on 18 March 1905, after which further design refinement was carried out, which included increasing the
beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
, rearranging the secondary battery of eight guns, and improved turrets for the main battery guns. The Kaiser again attempted to meddle in the design process after he learned of the Italian s, which were capable of ; he pressed the navy to build a similar vessel, along the same lines as the type he had suggested in 1903. Admiral
Alfred von Tirpitz Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz (19 March 1849 – 6 March 1930) was a German grand admiral, Secretary of State of the German Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the German Imperial Navy from 1897 until 1916. Prussi ...
pointed out that merging the battleship and armored cruiser categories would not be possible under the Naval Law of 1900, and that the Construction Office was too busy with other projects to take on another one. During this period, Tirpitz worked to secure the passage of the next Naval Law; he had originally requested six new battleships and six armored cruisers, along with a number of miscellaneous smaller craft. As capital ship designs continued to grow in size and power, their cost spiraled upward. Opposition to budget increases in the ''Reichstag'' (Imperial Diet) forced Tirpitz to reduce his request to six armored cruisers—one of which was to have been placed in reserve—and 48 torpedo boats, dropping his request for new battleships completely; the reduced proposal was voted through on 19 May 1906 as the First Amendment to the Naval Law. A week after the amendment was passed, funds for two 18,000-ton battleships and a 15,000-ton armored cruiser were allocated to the Navy. Funds were also provided to widen the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal and enlarge dock facilities to accommodate the larger ships. The design staff continued to refine the new ship, and by September 1905, several variants had been proposed, including "F", which replaced the four single-gun turrets with an equal number of twin-gun turrets. The 17 cm guns were also replaced with twelve guns on the basis that they offered a much higher rate of fire. An improved underwater protection system was adopted as well, resulting in the design finalized as "G", which was approved on 4 October. Internal rearrangements to the
magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...
and boiler rooms resulted in "G2", while an attempt to move all of the gun turrets to the
broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...
was presented as "G3", but this proved to be unworkable. "G2" was chosen for continued refinement, becoming "G7" and then "G7b", which the Kaiser approved on 3 March 1906. The initial arrangement with three funnels was altered to just two, and a new bow was incorporated, securing approval from the Kaiser on 14 April as "G7d". Construction of the first vessel was authorized on 31 May; another member was added shortly thereafter, with another two authorized for the 1907 construction program.


Specifications


General characteristics

The ships were long, wide, and had a draught of . The ships had a length to width ratio of 5.45, which was somewhat "stubby" compared to contemporary designs. To some extent, the greater than normal width was due to the four wing turrets, which necessitated a wider hull. They displaced with a standard load, and fully laden. The ships had nineteen
watertight compartment A compartment is a portion of the space within a ship defined vertically between decks and horizontally between bulkheads. It is analogous to a room within a building, and may provide watertight subdivision of the ship's hull important in retaini ...
s, with the exception of ''Nassau'', which only had sixteen. All four ships had a double bottom for eighty-eight percent of the
keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
. Steering was controlled by a pair of
rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...
s mounted side-by-side. The ships carried a number of boats, including a
picket boat A picket boat is a type of small naval craft. These are used for harbor patrol and other close inshore work, and have often been carried by larger warships as a ship's boat. They range in size between 30 and 55 feet. Patrol boats, or any craft en ...
, 3 admiral's barges, 2 launches, 2 cutters, and 2
dinghies A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which ...
. The ships' standard crews numbered 40 officers and 968 enlisted men; while serving as squadron flagships, this was augmented by 13 officers and 66 enlisted men, and as divisional flagships, with 2 officers and 23 enlisted sailors. As designed, the ships did not handle particularly well, even in calm seas, and their motion was quite stiff. The ships experienced severe rolling due to the weight of the wing turrets. The heavy wing turrets caused the ships to have a large
metacentric height The metacentric height (GM) is a measurement of the initial static stability of a floating body. It is calculated as the distance between the centre of gravity of a ship and its metacentre. A larger metacentric height implies greater initial stabi ...
, which should have made them very stable gun platforms, but their roll period proved to coincide with that of the average North Sea swell.
Bilge keel A bilge keel is a nautical device used to reduce a ship's tendency to roll. Bilge keels are employed in pairs (one for each side of the ship). A ship may have more than one bilge keel per side, but this is rare. Bilge keels increase hydrodynamic r ...
s were later added, which helped to improve the rolling problem. Despite the tendency to roll, the ''Nassau''-class ships were maneuverable and had a small turning radius. They suffered minor speed loss in heavy seas, but up to 70 percent at hard rudder. The roll keels that had been fitted to improve handling caused a portion of the speed loss at hard rudder.


Propulsion

The Imperial German Navy was slow to adopt the advanced Parsons
turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating ...
engines used in the British ''Dreadnought'', primarily due to the resistance of both Tirpitz and the Navy's construction department. In 1905, the latter stated that the "use of turbines in heavy warships does not recommend itself." This decision was based solely on cost: at the time,
Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingt ...
held a monopoly on steam turbines and required a 1 million mark royalty fee for every turbine engine made. German firms were not ready to begin production of turbines on a large scale until 1910. The ''Nassau'' class therefore retained three vertical, 3-cylinder
triple-expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up ...
s, each in its own
engine room On a ship, the engine room (ER) is the compartment where the machinery for marine propulsion is located. To increase a vessel's safety and chances of surviving damage, the machinery necessary for the ship's operation may be segregated into var ...
, with each driving a 3-bladed
screw propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
that was in diameter. Steam for the engines was provided by twelve coal-fired, Schulz-Thornycroft
water-tube boiler A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-gen ...
s that were divided into three boiler rooms. The wing turrets and their magazines further divided the machinery into three separated groups, thereby increasing survivability. The boilers were ducted into a pair of funnels. The propulsion system was rated at for a top speed of , though in service, all four ships exceeded these figures by a wide margin. Power output ranged from , with top speeds of . By comparison, ''Dreadnought''s steam turbines provided a rated speed of . Electrical power was provided by eight turbo-generators, producing at 225 V. The ships had a normal capacity of of coal, though at full load they could carry up to . At a cruising speed of , the ships could steam for ; increasing speed to reduced their range to , and at their radius of action fell significantly, to . While steaming at , the ships could steam for . In 1915, the boilers were fitted with supplementary oil firing, along with storage for of fuel oil; this allowed oil to be sprayed on the coal to improve combustion rates.


Armament

The vertical triple expansion engines consumed large amounts of internal space that could otherwise have been used for magazines. Without sufficient magazine capacity to support superfiring centerline turrets, designers were compelled to distribute six twin-gun turrets in an unusual hexagonal configuration. Two twin turrets were mounted fore and aft (one on each end), and two were mounted on each flank of the ship. Firing directly forward and aft, the ships could bring six guns to bear and eight on the broadside; this was the same theoretical capability as ''Dreadnought'', but the ''Nassau''-class ships required two additional guns to achieve it. The German designers considered that this arrangement provided a useful reserve of heavy guns that were shielded from enemy fire. While the arrangement was relatively common with
semi-dreadnought The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...
battleships, the only other navy to adopt it for their dreadnoughts were the Japanese with their s. Each ship carried twelve SK L/45 guns. The wing turrets were Drh LC/1906 mounts, as were the centerline turrets on the first two ships of the class, ''Nassau'' and ''Westfalen''. ''Posen'' and ''Rheinland'' carried their centerline guns in Drh LC/1907 turrets, which had a longer trunk than the LC/1906 design. The Drh LC/1906 turrets and 28 cm SK/L45 guns were designed specifically for the new German dreadnoughts in 1907. Both mountings allowed for elevation up to 20 degrees, but the LC/1907 mounts could depress an additional two degrees, down to −8. The main battery propellant magazines were placed above shell rooms, with the exception of the centerline turrets of ''Nassau'' and ''Westfalen''. These guns fired 666 lb shells, with a fore propellant charge in silk bags and a main charge in a brass case. The guns fired the shells at a muzzle velocity of and they had a maximum range of . The ships' secondary armament consisted of twelve SK L/45 guns, which were mounted individually in casemates. Six of these were placed on either side of the ship at main deck level on either broadside. These guns fired armor-piercing shells at a rate of 4 to 5 per minute. The guns could depress to −7 degrees and elevate to 20 degrees, for a maximum range of . The shells weighed and were fired at a muzzle velocity of . The guns were manually elevated and trained. For close-range defense against
torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...
s, the ships also carried sixteen SK L/45 guns, also in casemates. Four of these were in
sponson Sponsons are projections extending from the sides of land vehicles, aircraft or watercraft to provide protection, stability, storage locations, mounting points for weapons or other devices, or equipment housing. Watercraft On watercraft, a spon ...
s forward of the main battery, two on either side. Another four were in the forward superstructure, and the other four were in sponsons in the stern. These guns fired a 22-lb projectile at 2,133 ft/s (650 m/s), and could be trained up to 25 degrees for a maximum range of 10,500 yards (9,600 m). After 1915, two 8.8 cm guns were removed and replaced by two 8.8 cm Flak guns, and between 1916 and 1917, the remaining twelve 8.8 cm casemated guns were removed. These anti-aircraft guns fired a slightly lighter 21.2 lb shell at 2,510 ft/s (765 m/s). They could be elevated to 45 degrees and could hit targets 12,900 yards (11,800 m) away. The ''Nassau''-class ships were also armed with six submerged
torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s. One tube was mounted in the bow, another in the stern, and two on each broadside, on either ends of the
torpedo bulkhead A torpedo bulkhead is a type of naval armour common on the more heavily armored warships, especially battleships and battlecruisers of the early 20th century. It is designed to keep the ship afloat even if the hull is struck underneath the belt ar ...
. These were supplied with C/06D torpedoes; they had a range of with a speed of , and they carried a warhead. The bow tube could be trained thirty degrees to either side and the broadside tubes could be aimed thirty degrees forward and sixty degrees aft.


Armor

The ''Nassau''-class ships were protected with Krupp cemented steel armor. The basic armor layout divided the ships into three sections: the bow, the stern, and the central
citadel A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. I ...
, the latter extending from the fore to the aft main battery
barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protectio ...
. The citadel consisted of the main section of
belt armor Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating to ...
, connected at either end by transverse armored bulkheads, and supported by a curved armor deck at mid-deck level. It protected the ships' vitals, including their propulsion machinery spaces and ammunition magazines. On either end of the citadel, the belt was considerably reduced in thickness and the deck was lowered to
waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that indi ...
level forward, though aft it remained at mid-deck level. The need for improved underwater protection had been demonstrated during the
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
of 1904–1905, during which several battleships of both sides had been badly damaged or sunk by
naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...
s and
torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...
es; also of major importance was the severe damage to the battleship in 1901 after having struck an uncharted rock. The main section of belt armor was for a height of , increased to abreast the engine rooms, though it tapered to on the bottom edge, which was below the waterline. It also thinned at the top edge to at upper deck level. Toward the bow, it was reduced to and then to . Aft of the citadel, the belt reduced to to before terminating at another transverse bulkhead that was also 9 cm thick. Behind the main belt was a torpedo bulkhead thick; there was some difficulty mounting the torpedo bulkhead, due to the four wing turrets and their barbettes, which took up considerable space close to the edge of the hull. The casemate battery, located directly above the central portion of the belt, was protected by a
strake On a vessel's hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of planking or plating which runs from the boat's stempost (at the bows) to the sternpost or transom (at the rear). The garboard strakes are the two immediately adjacent to the keel on ea ...
of armor that was 16 cm thick. This portion of the side armor was also capped on either end by a bulkhead that was thick. The ships' main armor deck was thick in the central citadel, and the sides of the deck sloped downward to connect to the bottom edge of the belt. The sloped portion increased in thickness to , and the resulting compartment created was used as a coal bunker, which would provide additional protection for the ships' interiors when the bunkers were full. Compartments on either side of the torpedo bulkhead, which were set back about , were similarly used to store coal. In the bow and stern sections, the deck was thickened to ; it was increased further to over the steering compartment. The
forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...
deck was over the secondary battery and 2 to 3 cm above the torpedo bulkhead. The forward conning tower had a roof that was thick; the sides were 30 cm thick. Atop the conning tower was the smaller gunnery control tower, which had a curved face that was thick. The aft conning tower was less well protected, with a thick roof and sides. The main battery turrets had 28 cm thick faces, sides, and rear plates to balance the turrets. Their roofs consisted of two parts: a sloped front section that was 9 cm and a flat rear section that was thick. The casemated secondary battery was protected by the upper belt and had 8 cm thick gun shields; each gun was divided by a 2 cm transverse screen to prevent shell fragments that might hit one gun from entering the adjacent casemate. The ships were also fitted with
anti-torpedo net Torpedo nets were a passive ship defensive device against torpedoes. They were in common use from the 1890s until the Second World War. They were superseded by the anti-torpedo bulge and torpedo belts. Origins With the introduction of the Whitehe ...
s, but these were removed after 1916.


Construction


Service history


Pre-war service

After entering service in early 1910, ''Nassau'' and ''Westfalen'' joined I Battle Squadron, with the latter serving as the flagship. Later that year, they were joined by ''Posen'' and ''Rheinland'' as they were commissioned for service. Over the next four years, the ships took part in a routine of squadron and fleet maneuvers, gunnery practice, and training cruises. Each year typically culminated in a summer training cruise in July, frequently to Norwegian waters, followed by the annual fleet maneuvers held in late August and early September. The one exception to this was 1912, when the summer training cruise remained in the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...
owing to increased tensions with Britain and France as a result of the
Agadir Crisis The Agadir Crisis, Agadir Incident, or Second Moroccan Crisis was a brief crisis sparked by the deployment of a substantial force of French troops in the interior of Morocco in April 1911 and the deployment of the German gunboat to Agadir, a ...
. The ships were in Norway during the
July Crisis The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe in the summer of 1914, which led to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918). The crisis began on 28 June 1914, when Gavrilo Pri ...
in 1914 and were hastily recalled to begin the
mobilization Mobilization is the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war. The word ''mobilization'' was first used in a military context in the 1850s to describe the preparation of the Prussian Army. Mobilization theories and ...
for war when it became apparent that conflict between
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
and Serbia would not be avoided.


World War I

After the start of the war, the German fleet embarked on a campaign of raids of the British coast intended to draw out portions of the British
Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from the F ...
or force the British to disperse their forces to stop the raids. The High Seas Fleet would then be able to concentrate its own ships to destroy isolated elements, thereby reducing the numerical superiority of the British fleet. The first of these was the
raid on Yarmouth The Raid on Yarmouth, on 3 November 1914, was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British North Sea port and town of Great Yarmouth. German shells only landed on the beach causing little damage to the town, after German ships laying m ...
on 2–3 November 1914, which was conducted by the battlecruisers of ''
Konteradmiral ''Konteradmiral'', abbreviated KAdm or KADM, is the second lowest naval flag officer rank in the German Navy. It is equivalent to ''Generalmajor'' in the '' Heer'' and ''Luftwaffe'' or to '' Admiralstabsarzt'' and '' Generalstabsarzt'' in the ' ...
'' (''KAdm''—Rear Admiral)
Franz von Hipper Franz Ritter von Hipper (13 September 1863 – 25 May 1932) was an admiral in the German Imperial Navy (''Kaiserliche Marine''). Franz von Hipper joined the German Navy in 1881 as an officer cadet. He commanded several torpedo boat units an ...
's
I Scouting Group The I Scouting Group (german: I. Aufklärungsgruppe) was a special reconnaissance unit within the German Kaiserliche Marine. The unit was famously commanded by Admiral Franz von Hipper during World War I. The I Scouting Group was one of the most ...
while the battleships provided distant support. The operation failed to locate any significant British forces. It was followed by the
raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby The Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914 was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. The bombardments caused hundreds of civilian casualties a ...
on 15–16 December. During the night, the fleet destroyer screen encountered British warships—a squadron of six battleships and their escorts—but the German commander, ''
Vizeadmiral (abbreviated VAdm) is a senior naval flag officer rank in several German (language), German-speaking countries, equivalent to Vice admiral. Austria-Hungary In the Austro-Hungarian Navy there were the flag-officer ranks ''Kontreadmiral'' (al ...
'' (''VAdm''—Vice Admiral)
Friedrich von Ingenohl Gustav Heinrich Ernst Friedrich von Ingenohl (30 June 1857 – 19 December 1933) was a German admiral from Neuwied best known for his command of the German High Seas Fleet at the beginning of World War I. He was the son of a tradesman. H ...
believed he was confronting the entire Grand Fleet and disengaged. The ''Nassau''s and the rest of the fleet got underway to relieve the battlecruisers after they were ambushed in the Battle of Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915, but they arrived too late to intervene. The fleet conducted several sweeps in to the North Sea to try to locate British patrols in March, April, and May but did not encounter any. In August, I Battle Squadron and three battlecruisers were detached from the fleet to temporarily reinforce the German fleet in the Baltic Sea. The Germans planned to clear the
Gulf of Riga The Gulf of Riga, Bay of Riga, or Gulf of Livonia ( lv, Rīgas līcis, et, Liivi laht) is a bay of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia. The island of Saaremaa (Estonia) partially separates it from the rest of the Baltic Sea. The main c ...
to facilitate the capture of the city by the Imperial German Army. The Russian Baltic Fleet had stationed the pre-dreadnought and a number of gunboats and destroyers in the gulf, the entrances to which were protected by a series of minefields. The first attempt during the
Battle of the Gulf of Riga The Battle of the Gulf of Riga was a World War I naval operation of the German High Seas Fleet against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea in August 1915. The operation's objective was to destroy the Russian naval for ...
to breach the minefields and enter the gulf on 8 August was as it had taken too long to clear the Russian minefields to allow the minelayer to lay a minefield of her own. They made another attempt beginning on 16 August, led by ''Nassau'' and ''Posen'', along with four
light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...
s and thirty-one torpedo boats. A minesweeper and destroyer were sunk that day, and the next day ''Nassau'' and ''Posen'' engaged in an artillery duel with ''Slava'', forcing her to withdraw after scoring three hits. The remaining minesweepers cleared a path into the gulf, but reports of Allied submarines prompted a German withdrawal. The ships then returned to the High Seas Fleet in the North Sea. After returning to the North Sea, the fleet conducted another sortie in the hope of catching a British squadron in October, with further operations beginning in March 1916, now under the direction of ''VAdm''
Reinhard Scheer Carl Friedrich Heinrich Reinhard Scheer (30 September 1863 – 26 November 1928) was an Admiral in the Imperial German Navy (''Kaiserliche Marine''). Scheer joined the navy in 1879 as an officer cadet and progressed through the ranks, commandin ...
. These operations included the attack on Yarmouth and Lowestoft in April. Unknown to the Germans, the British were aware of their intentions before embarking on these raids; the German light cruiser had run aground in the Baltic in August 1914, and Russian forces had salvaged German code books from the wreck and passed a copy to their British allies. With the ability to decode German
wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
signals, they could send forces to attack the High Seas Fleet under conditions favorable to themselves, as they had done at Dogger Bank. This led to the Battle of Jutland on 31 May, when the British sought to catch the German fleet far enough away from port that it could be cut off and destroyed.


Battle of Jutland

The German fleet sortied in the early hours of 31 May, intending to make a demonstration with Hipper's battlecruisers to draw out his British counterparts of the
Battle Cruiser Fleet The Battle Cruiser Fleet, (BCF), later known as Battle Cruiser Force, a naval formation of fast battlecruisers of the Royal Navy, operated from 1915 to 1919. History The Fleet was formed on 11 February 1915 when the Admiralty ordered the deployme ...
. The British, aware of Scheer's plans, were already at sea, having left their base at Scapa Flow late on 30 May. The four ''Nassau''s and the rest of I Battle Squadron formed the center of the German
line of battle The line of battle is a tactic in naval warfare in which a fleet of ships forms a line end to end. The first example of its use as a tactic is disputed—it has been variously claimed for dates ranging from 1502 to 1652. Line-of-battle tacti ...
, astern of ''KAdm''
Paul Behncke Paul Behncke (13 August 1869 – 4 January 1937) was a German admiral during the First World War, most notable for his command of the III Battle Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet during the Battle of Jutland. Naval career He was born in Lü ...
's
III Battle Squadron The III Battle Squadron was a unit of the German High Seas Fleet before and during World War I. The squadron saw action throughout the war, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, where it formed the front of the German line ...
and ahead of the old pre-dreadnoughts of ''KAdm'' Franz Mauve's
II Battle Squadron The II Battle Squadron was a unit of the German High Seas Fleet before and during World War I. The squadron saw action throughout the war, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, where it formed the rear of the German line ...
. ''Posen'' served as the flagship of II Division under ''KAdm'' Walter Engelhardt. The initial phase of the action, which began at 16:00 on 31 May, consisted of a running battle between the opposing battlecruiser squadrons as Hipper lured the British commander, Vice Admiral David Beatty, south toward Scheer's fleet. Upon spotting the German fleet, Beatty turned north, leading the Germans toward the approaching Grand Fleet under Admiral
John Jellicoe Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, (5 December 1859 – 20 November 1935) was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutlan ...
. As the fleets converged close to 18:00, the German battleships, including the ''Nassau''s, engaged British light cruisers and destroyers, with ''Posen'' contributing to the destruction of the destroyer . By 18:30, the Grand Fleet had arrived on the scene, and was deployed into a position that would cross Scheer's "T" from the northeast. To extricate his fleet from this precarious position, Scheer ordered a 16-point turn to the south-west. At 18:55, Scheer decided to conduct another 16-point turn to launch an attack on the British fleet but was quickly forced to break off and withdraw. The Germans then maneuvered to disengage from the Grand Fleet and return to port; as darkness fell, the High Seas Fleet attempted to pass astern of the Grand Fleet as the latter steamed south, before turning south themselves to reach
Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsh ...
. At around 21:20, lookouts aboard ''Posen'' spotted a group of British battlecruisers and she opened fire, scoring a hit on and straddling , though her
sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...
could not make out targets and held their fire. Shortly thereafter, ''Nassau'' and ''Westfalen'' engaged British light cruisers and forced them to withdraw. At around midnight on 1 June, ''Nassau'' came in contact with the British destroyer , and in the confusion, attempted to ram her. ''Spitfire'' tried to evade, but could not maneuver away fast enough, and the two ships collided. ''Nassau'' fired her forward 11-inch guns at the destroyer, but they could not depress low enough for ''Nassau'' to be able to score a hit. Nonetheless, the blast from the guns destroyed ''Spitfire''s bridge. At that point, ''Spitfire'' was able to disengage from ''Nassau'', and took with her a 20-foot (6 m) portion of ''Nassau''s side plating. The collision disabled one of her 5.9-inch guns, and left an 11.5-foot (3.5 m) gash above the waterline; this slowed the ship to 15 knots until it could be repaired. At approximately the same time, ''Posen'' accidentally rammed the light cruiser and holed her below the waterline. ''Elbing'' was damaged so severely that her engine room was completely flooded and she was unable to move; the captain of the ship ordered ''Elbing'' be scuttled to prevent her capture by the British. Shortly after 01:00, ''Nassau'' and encountered the British armored cruiser . ''Thüringen'' opened fire first, and pummeled ''Black Prince'' with a total of 27 large-caliber shells and 24 shells from her secondary battery. ''Nassau'' and joined in, followed by ; the combined weight of fire destroyed ''Black Prince'' in a tremendous explosion. The wreck of the ship was directly in the path of ''Nassau''; to avoid it, the ship had to steer sharply towards III Battle Squadron. It was necessary for the ship to steam at full speed astern in order to avoid a collision with . ''Nassau'' then fell back into a position between the pre-dreadnoughts and . Following the return to German waters, ''Nassau'', ''Posen'', and ''Westfalen'', along with the ''Helgoland''-class battleships and ''Thüringen'', took up defensive positions in the Jade roadstead for the night, while ''Rheinland'' refueled and rearmed. The ''Nassau''-class ships suffered only a handful of secondary battery hits from the opposing
Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from the F ...
; ''Nassau'' was hit twice, ''Westfalen'' and ''Rheinland'' each once, and ''Posen'' escaped completely unscathed. Not a single ship of the four was struck by a heavy-caliber shell.


Later operations

Less than three months after Jutland, Scheer embarked on another operation in the North Sea; in the resulting
action of 19 August 1916 The action of 19 August 1916 was one of two attempts in 1916 by the German High Seas Fleet to engage elements of the British Grand Fleet, following the mixed results of the Battle of Jutland, during the First World War. The lesson of Jutland f ...
, ''Westfalen'' was torpedoed by the British submarine , but suffered minimal damage and was soon repaired. Further operations took place in September and October, though the fleet saw little activity in 1917. While the bulk of the fleet conducted
Operation Albion Operation Albion was a World War I German air, land and naval operation against the Russian forces in October 1917 to occupy the West Estonian Archipelago. The land campaign opened with German landings at the Tagalaht bay on the island of ...
in the Gulf of Riga in October 1917, the four ''Nassau''s patrolled the eastern Baltic to block a potential British incursion to support Russia. In February 1918, ''Westfalen'' and ''Rheinland'' were detached from the High Seas Fleet and ordered into the Baltic Sea. A civil war had broken out in the newly independent
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
between the German-aligned Whites and Russia-aligned Reds, and the two ships were to aid the Whites. ''Posen'' joined them there in early April. On 11 April, ''Rheinland'' ran aground off
Åland Åland ( fi, Ahvenanmaa: ; ; ) is an autonomous and demilitarised region of Finland since 1920 by a decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by area and population, with a size of 1,580 km2, and a populat ...
. Approximately 6,000 tons of guns, belt armor, and coal were removed in order to lighten her enough to be refloated, which was not accomplished until 9 July. ''Rheinland'' was never repaired, and instead saw the remainder of her service as a
barracks ship A barracks ship or barracks barge or berthing barge, or in civilian use accommodation vessel or accommodation ship, is a ship or a non-self-propelled barge containing a superstructure of a type suitable for use as a temporary barracks for s ...
in Kiel. ''Westfalen'' and ''Posen'' participated in the
Battle of Helsinki The Battle of Helsinki was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought in 12–13 April between the German troops and Finnish Whites against the Finnish Reds in Helsinki, Finland. Together with the battles of Tampere and Vyborg, it was one of the ...
, transporting German troops and providing artillery support. In late 1917, German light forces had begun raiding British convoys to Norway, prompting the British to send heavy escorts. This provided the German fleet with the opportunity for which it had been waiting the entire war: a chance to destroy an isolated portion of the Grand Fleet. The Germans had mistaken intelligence about the timing of the convoys, however, and failed to intercept one when they sortied in April 1918; ''Nassau'' was the only member of the class to take part in the operation. While returning from Finland in August, ''Westfalen'' was removed from active service for use as a gunnery
training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house class ...
. The fleet saw little activity in the final months of the war and morale plummeted, leading to the Wilhelmshaven mutiny when it became clear that Scheer and Hipper intended to mount a last-ditch attack on the Grand Fleet in the last days of the war. Following the end of the First World War in 1918, eleven battleships of the , , and es and all five battlecruisers, along with a number of light cruisers and destroyers, were interned in Scapa Flow, while their fate was determined in the negotiations over the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
. The ''Nassau'' and ''Helgoland''-class battleships were left in Germany. Following the scuttling of the German fleet in June 1919, all four ships were allotted to the victorious Allied powers as replacements for the scuttled ships. ''Nassau'' was ceded to Japan, Britain received ''Westfalen'' and ''Posen'', and ''Rheinland'' was sold directly to the breakers at
Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...
. Between 1920 and 1924, ''Westfalen'' was scrapped at Birkenhead and the remaining ships were scrapped at Dordrecht.


Footnotes


Notes


Citations


References

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Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nassau-class battleship Battleship classes World War I battleships of Germany