SMS Lothringen

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SMS Lothringen in the Kiel Canal passing under the Levensau High Bridge

History

Germany

Name Lothringen

Namesake Lorraine ("Lothringen" in German)

Builder Schichau, Danzig

Laid down 1 December 1902

Launched 27 May 1904

Commissioned 18 May 1906

Out of service 2 March 1920

Stricken 31 March 1931

Fate Scrapped in 1931

General characteristics

Class and type Braunschweig-class pre-dreadnought battleship

Displacement

Normal: 13,208 t (12,999 long tons)

Full load: 14,394 t (14,167 long tons)

Length 127.7 m (419 ft) (loa)

Beam 22.2 m (73 ft)

Draft 8.1 m (27 ft)

Installed power

16,000 metric horsepower (15,781 ihp; 11,768 kW)

8 × water-tube boilers

6 × cylindrical boilers

Propulsion

3 × triple-expansion steam engines

3 × screw propellers

Speed 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)

Range 5,200 nautical miles (9,600 km; 6,000 mi); 10 knots (20 km/h; 10 mph)

Complement

35 officers

708 enlisted men

Armament

4 × 28 cm (11 in) SK L/40 guns

14 × 17 cm (6.7 in) SK L/40 guns

18 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/35 guns

6 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes

Armor

Belt: 110 to 250 mm (4.3 to 9.8 in)

Turrets: 250 mm (9.8 in)

Deck: 40 mm (1.6 in)

SMS Lothringen[a] was the last of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class, built for
the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). She was laid down in December 1902, was launched in
May 1904, and was commissioned in May 1906. She was named for Lothringen (now Lorraine), a
province of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The ship was armed with a battery of four 28 cm (11
in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Like all other pre-dreadnoughts built
around the turn of the century, Lothringen was quickly made obsolete by the launching of the
revolutionary HMS Dreadnought in 1906; as a result, her career as a front-line battleship was cut short.

Lothringen's peacetime career centered on squadron and fleet exercises and training cruises with II
Battle Squadron. Scheduled to be withdrawn from service in July 1914 and replaced by newer
dreadnought battleships, the outbreak of World War I that month prevented her retirement. She spent
the first two years of the war primarily serving as a guard ship in the German Bight. She and the rest of II
Squadron joined the dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet to support the raid on Scarborough,
Hartlepool, and Whitby in December 1914. In poor condition by 1916, she was withdrawn from fleet
service in February. She thereafter patrolled the Danish straits until she was replaced by the battleship
Hannover in September 1917. She spent the rest of the war as a disarmed training ship.

After the war, Lothringen was retained by the re-formed Reichsmarine and converted into a depot ship
for F-type minesweepers from 1919 to 1920. After the task of clearing the wartime minefields in the
North Sea was completed, she was placed in reserve in March 1920. The ship remained inactive for the
next decade and was stricken from the naval register in March 1931 and sold to ship breakers later that
year.

Design

Main article: Braunschweig-class battleship

Plan and profile drawing of the Braunschweig class

With the passage of the Second Naval Law under the direction of Vizeadmiral (VAdm—Vice Admiral)
Alfred von Tirpitz in 1900, funding was allocated for a new class of battleships, to succeed the
Wittelsbach-class ships authorized under the 1898 Naval Law. By this time, Krupp, the supplier of naval
artillery to the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), had developed quick-firing, 28-centimeter (11 in)
guns; the largest guns that had previously incorporated the technology were the 24 cm (9.4 in) guns
mounted on the Wittelsbachs. The Design Department of the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office)
adopted these guns for the new battleships, along with an increase from 15 cm (5.9 in) to 17 cm (6.7 in)
for the secondary battery, owing to the increased threat from torpedo boats as torpedoes became more
effective.[1][2]

Though the Braunschweig class marked a significant improvement over earlier German battleships, its
design fell victim to the rapid pace of technological development in the early 1900s. The British
battleship HMS Dreadnought—armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—was commissioned in December
1906, just six months after Lothringen entered service.[3] Dreadnought's revolutionary design rendered
every capital ship of the German navy obsolete, including Lothringen.[4]

Lothringen was 127.7 m (419 ft) long overall and had a beam of 22.2 m (73 ft) and a draft of 8.1 m (27 ft)
forward. She displaced 13,208 t (12,999 long tons) as designed and 14,394 t (14,167 long tons) at full
load. Her crew consisted of 35 officers and 708 enlisted men. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder
vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by eight naval and six
cylindrical Scotch marine boilers, all of which burned coal. Lothringen's powerplant was rated at 16,000
metric horsepower (15,781 ihp; 11,768 kW), which generated a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21
mph). She could steam 5,200 nautical miles (9,600 km; 6,000 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19
km/h; 12 mph).[5]

Lothringen's armament consisted of a main battery of four 28 cm (11 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun
turrets,[b] one fore and one aft of the central superstructure.[7] Her secondary armament consisted of
fourteen 17 cm (6.7 inch) SK L/40 guns in armored casemates and eighteen 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/35
quick-firing guns in single pivot mounts. The armament suite was rounded out with six 45 cm (17.7 in)
torpedo tubes, all mounted submerged in the hull.[8] One tube was in the bow, two were on each
broadside, and the final tube was in the stern.[9] Lothringen was protected with Krupp armor. Her
armored belt was 110 to 250 millimeters (4.3 to 9.8 in) thick, with the heavier armor in the central
citadel that protected her magazines and propulsion machinery spaces, and the thinner plating at either
end of the hull. Her deck was 40 mm (1.6 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 250 mm of armor
plating.[10]

Service history

Construction through 1907

Lothringen, sometime before World War I

Lothringen was laid down on 1 December 1902, at the Schichau-Werke in Danzig under construction
number 716. The fifth and final unit of her class, she was ordered under the contract name "M" as a new
unit for the fleet.[c] Lothringen was launched on 27 May 1904 and the launching speech was given by
Prince Hermann of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the Reichsstatthalter (Imperial governor) of Alsace-Lorraine.
She was commissioned into the fleet on 18 May 1906 and thereafter began sea trials. The ship formally
joined II Battle Squadron on 1 July.[11][12]

The German fleet was occupied with extensive training exercises and cruises abroad during the early
1900s. The fleet, including Lothringen, began its usual summer cruise to Norway in mid-July, and it was
present for the birthday of Norwegian King Haakon VII on 3 August. The German ships departed the
following day for Helgoland, to join exercises being conducted there. The fleet was back in Kiel by 15
August, where preparations for the autumn maneuvers began. On 22–24 August, the fleet took part in
landing exercises in Eckernförde Bay outside Kiel. The maneuvers were paused from 31 August to 3
September when the fleet hosted vessels from Denmark and Sweden, along with a Russian squadron
from 3 to 9 September, in Kiel. The maneuvers resumed on 8 September and lasted five more days.[13]

The ship participated in the uneventful winter cruise into the Kattegat and Skagerrak from 8 to 16
December. The first quarter of 1907 followed the previous pattern and, on 16 February, the Active Battle
Fleet was re-designated the High Seas Fleet.[14] Lothringen participated in the festival celebrating the
300th anniversary of the birth of the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter, steaming from Kiel to Vlissingen
on 19 March 1907.[11] From the end of May to early June the fleet went on its summer cruise in the
North Sea, returning to the Baltic via the Kattegat. This was followed by the regular cruise to Norway
from 12 July to 10 August, after which the fleet conducted the annual autumn maneuvers, which lasted
from 26 August to 6 September. The exercises included landing exercises in northern Schleswig with IX
Corps.[15] Lothringen won the Kaiser's Schießpreis (shooting prize) for excellence in gunnery in II
Squadron that year.[11]

1908–1914

Lothringen in port, c. 1908

The fleet conducted training exercises in the Baltic in February 1908. In July, Lothringen and the rest of
the fleet sailed into the Atlantic Ocean to conduct a major training cruise. Prince Heinrich, commander
of the fleet, had pressed for such a cruise the previous year, arguing that it would prepare the fleet for
overseas operations and would break up the monotony of training in German waters, though tensions
with Britain over the developing Anglo-German naval arms race were high. The fleet departed Kiel on 17
July, passed through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to the North Sea, and continued to the Atlantic through
the English Channel. The fleet returned to Germany on 13 August. The autumn maneuvers followed
from 27 August to 12 September. Later that year, the fleet toured coastal German cities as part of an
effort to increase public support for naval expenditure.[16] Another cruise into the Atlantic was
conducted from 7 July to 1 August 1909. On the way back to Germany, the High Seas Fleet was received
by the British Royal Navy in Spithead.[17]

Later that year, Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff became the fleet commander. Holtzendorff's tenure
was marked by strategic experimentation, owing to the increased threat the latest underwater weapons
posed and the fact that the new Nassau-class battleships were too wide to pass through the Kaiser
Wilhelm Canal. Accordingly, the fleet was transferred from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven on 1 April 1910.[18] In
May 1910, the fleet conducted training maneuvers in the Kattegat. These were following Holtzendorff's
strategy, which envisioned drawing the Royal Navy into the narrow waters there. The annual summer
cruise was to Norway and was followed by fleet training, during which another fleet review was held in
Danzig on 29 August. A training cruise into the Baltic followed at the end of the year. In March 1911, the
fleet held exercises in the Skagerrak and Kattegat, and the year's autumn maneuvers were confined to
the Baltic and the Kattegat. Another fleet review was held during the exercises for a visiting Austro-
Hungarian delegation that included Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Admiral Rudolf Montecuccoli.[18]

Lothringen was sent into the Little Belt in February 1912 to assist merchant vessels threatened by heavy
sea ice and bad weather. In mid-1912, due to the Agadir Crisis, the summer cruise was confined to the
Baltic, to avoid exposing the fleet during the period of heightened tension with Britain and France.
Lothringen visited Memel from 3 to 7 August that year. On 30 January 1913, Holtzendorff was relieved
as the fleet commander, owing in large part to Kaiser Wilhelm II's displeasure with his strategic vision. In
late August, the squadron steamed through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal at the start of the autumn
maneuvers to reach the island of Helgoland; the voyage through the canal was notable because the
canal had been closed for over a year while it was enlarged to allow the passage of larger dreadnought
battleships. Further training exercises were conducted in November.[11][19][20]

Lothringen participated in ceremonies at Sonderburg on 2 May 1914 to celebrate the 50th anniversary
of the Battle of Dybbøl of the Second Schleswig War; she was joined by her sister ships Hessen and
Preussen, the battleship Schlesien, and the armored cruiser Blücher.[19][20] The ship was present
during the fleet cruise to Norway in July 1914, which was cut short by the July Crisis following the
assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand the month before and during the rise in
international tensions it caused. On 25 July the ship's crew was made aware of Austria-Hungary's
ultimatum to Serbia; Lothringen left Norway to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet the following day.
[21] The ship had been scheduled to be removed from service on 30 July, but the outbreak of war
interrupted that plan and she remained in service.[11]

World War I
Map of the North and Baltic Seas in 1911

After the outbreak of war in July 1914, the German command deployed II Squadron in the German Bight
to defend Germany's coast from a major attack from the Royal Navy that the Germans presumed was
imminent. Lothringen and her squadron mates were stationed in the mouth of the Elbe to support the
vessels on patrol duty in the Bight.[22] Once it became clear that the British would not attack the High
Seas Fleet, the Germans began a series of operations designed to lure out a portion of the numerically
superior British Grand Fleet and destroy it.[23] By achieving a rough equality of forces, the Germans
hoped that their fleet could then force a decisive battle in the southern portion of the North Sea.[24]

The first such operation in which the High Seas Fleet participated was the raid on Scarborough,
Hartlepool, and Whitby on 15–16 December 1914.[25] The main fleet acted as distant support for
Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Franz von Hipper's battlecruiser squadron while it raided the coastal
towns. On the evening of 15 December, the fleet came to within 10 nmi (19 km; 12 mi) of an isolated
squadron of six British battleships. However, skirmishes between the rival destroyer screens in the
darkness convinced the German fleet commander, VAdm Friedrich von Ingenohl, that the entire Grand
Fleet was deployed before him. Under orders from Wilhelm II to avoid battle if victory was not certain,
Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battlefleet back towards Germany.[26]

In February 1916, the Admiralstab (Admiralty Staff) decided that the pre-dreadnoughts were no longer
effective warships in the face of more modern vessels, and so the ships of II Squadron were gradually
removed from the High Seas Fleet and reassigned solely to coastal defense duties in the Danish straits
and the German Bight. Accordingly, Lothringen was the first vessel of the unit to be withdrawn, on 19
February, to have anti-torpedo nets installed to protect her from submarines in the confined waters of
the Danish straits. Additionally, she was in poor condition by that time and required extensive repairs.
After these were completed, she returned to service on 14 July and replaced Hessen in the straits in late
August.[11][27]

Lothringen served in a guard ship role in the straits until September 1917, when she was replaced by the
battleship Hannover. Lothringen proceeded to Wilhelmshaven, where she was decommissioned on 15
September. Over the next month, she was disarmed and converted into a training ship. She began
service in this role on 16 October with a reduced crew. In addition to training new crews, she was used
to train engine-room personnel. Lothringen remained in service until the end of the war on 11
November 1918. From 17 November to 16 December, she served as a headquarters ship for IV Battle
Squadron.[8][11]

Post-war career

Following the German defeat in World War I, the German Navy was reorganized as the Reichsmarine
according to the Treaty of Versailles. The new navy was permitted to retain eight pre-dreadnought
battleships for coastal defense under Article 181, two of which would be in reserve.[28] Lothringen was
among those ships chosen to remain on active service with the newly reformed Reichsmarine.[8] Like
her sister Preussen, Lothringen was converted into a parent ship for F-type minesweepers at the
Reichsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven in 1919; the ship was disarmed and platforms for holding the
minesweepers were installed.[29]
Lothringen served in this capacity, carrying fourteen of the F-boats from the 10th Half-Flotilla, until the
minesweeping work required by the Treaty of Versailles was completed. On 2 March 1920, the ship was
placed in reserve and remained out of service until 24 March 1931, when Reichspräsident (President of
the Realm) Paul von Hindenburg issued an order to dispose of Lothringen. She was accordingly stricken
from the naval register on 31 March. The Reichsmarine then sold her, minus her armor plating, to ship
breakers that year for 269,650 Reichsmarks. Lothringen was subsequently broken up for scrap; the
location of her disposal is uncertain. According to naval historian Erich Gröner, Lothringen was scrapped
by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, but the historians Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz
state that she was broken up in Wilhelmshaven.[8][11]

Footnotes

Notes

"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff" (English: His Majesty's Ship).

In Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnelladekanone) denotes that the gun is quick
firing, while the L/40 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/40 gun is 40 caliber, meaning that
the gun is 40 times as long as its bore is.[6]

German naval contracts were either authorized as replacements for another vessel on the register,
designated as "Ersatz [Name of the ship to be replaced]", or as additions to the fleet's authorized
strength, denoted by a single letter. For example, the five Braunschweig-class ships were ordered under
the 1900 Naval Law that had doubled the number of battleships authorized for the fleet, and thus their
contracts were awarded under single letters.[5]

Citations

Herwig, pp. 43–44.

Staff, p. 4.

Campbell & Sieche, pp. 21–22.

Herwig, p. 57.

Gröner, p. 18.

Grießmer, p. 177.

Hore, p. 68.

Gröner, p. 20.

Dodson, p. 51.

Gröner, p. 19.

Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, p. 235.

Gröner, pp. 18, 20.

Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, pp. 59–60.

Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, p. 60.

Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 5, pp. 60–61.

Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, p. 238.

Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, pp. 235, 238.

Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, pp. 240–241.

Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 7, pp. 248–249.

Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 2, pp. 243–244.

Scheer, p. 8.

Hildebrand, Röhr, & Steinmetz Vol. 7, p. 249.

Tarrant, p. 27.

Campbell & Sieche, p. 136.

Tarrant, p. 31.

Tarrant, pp. 31–33.

Scheer, p. 140.

Sieche, p. 218.

Gröner, pp. 18–20.

References

Campbell, N. J. M. & Sieche, Erwin (1986). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.).
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 134–189. ISBN
978-0-85177-245-5.

Dodson, Aidan (2014). "Last of the Line: The German Battleships of the Braunschweig and Deutschland
Classes". In Jordan, John; Dent, Stephen (eds.). Warship 2014. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 49–
69. ISBN 978-1-59114-923-1.

Grießmer, Axel (1999). Die Linienschiffe der Kaiserlichen Marine: 1906–1918; Konstruktionen zwischen
Rüstungskonkurrenz und Flottengesetz [The Battleships of the Imperial Navy: 1906–1918; Constructions
between Arms Competition and Fleet Laws] (in German). Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. ISBN 978-3-
7637-5985-9.

Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Vol. I: Major Surface Vessels. Annapolis: Naval
Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6.

Herwig, Holger (1998) [1980]. "Luxury" Fleet: The Imperial German Navy 1888–1918. Amherst:
Humanity Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-286-9.

Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe:
Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships:
Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 2. Ratingen:
Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0287-9.

Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe:
Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships:
Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 5. Ratingen:
Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7822-0456-9.
Hildebrand, Hans H.; Röhr, Albert & Steinmetz, Hans-Otto (1993). Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe:
Biographien – ein Spiegel der Marinegeschichte von 1815 bis zur Gegenwart [The German Warships:
Biographies − A Reflection of Naval History from 1815 to the Present] (in German). Vol. 7. Ratingen:
Mundus Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8364-9743-5.

Hore, Peter (2006). The Ironclads. London: Southwater Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84476-299-6.

Scheer, Reinhard (1920). Germany's High Seas Fleet in the World War. London: Cassell and Company.
OCLC 2765294.

Sieche, Erwin (1980). "Germany". In Gardiner, Robert & Chesneau, Roger (eds.). Conway's All the
World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 218–254. ISBN 978-0-87021-913-
9.

Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918 (1). Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 978-1-84603-467-1.

Tarrant, V. E. (2001) [1995]. Jutland: The German Perspective. London: Cassell Military Paperbacks. ISBN
978-0-304-35848-9.

Further reading

Dodson, Aidan; Cant, Serena (2020). Spoils of War: The Fate of Enemy Fleets after the Two World Wars.
Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4198-1.

Koop, Gerhard & Schmolke, Klaus-Peter (2001). Die Panzer- und Linienschiffe der Brandenburg-, Kaiser
Friedrich III-, Wittlesbach-, Braunschweig- und Deutschland-Klasse [The Armored and Battleships of the
Brandenburg, Kaiser Friedrich III, Wittelsbach, Braunschweig, and Deutschland Classes] (in German).
Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7637-6211-8.

vte

Braunschweig-class battleships

BraunschweigElsassHessenPreussenLothringen

Preceded by: Wittelsbach classFollowed by: Deutschland class

List of battleships of Germany

Categories: Braunschweig-class battleships1904 shipsShips built by SchichauShips built in DanzigWorld

War I battleships of Germany

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