The Battleship Book. Robert M. Farley
warships, mostly completed after Dreadnought, and including the British Lord Nelsons, the French Dantons, and the Austrian Radetzkys. These ships generally carried a more coherent armament, better armor, and could make a higher speed than previous pre-dreadnoughts.
SMS Schleswig-Holstein. Photo taken from USS Arkansas at Kiel, Germany, July 1930.
No one knew quite what to do with pre-dreadnought battleships after the completion of Dreadnought. The USN continued to employ pre-dreadnoughts in front line roles until it operated enough dreadnoughts to push the older battleships into the second line. Some pre-dreadnoughts, like the Radetzky class, had the speed to keep up with their dreadnought cousins, and could stay in a fleet role. The British employed pre-dreadnoughts in any number of different roles, including coastal defense, cruiser hunting, and in the Dardanelles operation. By 1914, Germany had an embarrassment of dreadnoughts for any mission other than fighting the Royal Navy. Most German pre-dreadnoughts were committed to training operations or coastal defense. The Deutschland class, however, were retained as a squadron in the High Seas Fleet, and regularly performed maneuvers with the German dreadnought fleet.
Thus, Schleswig-Holstein was part of the High Seas Fleet in late May of 1916, when the German Navy sortied in an effort to catch and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy. The inclusion of the six pre-dreadnoughts (the five Deutschlands and the earlier Hessian) was controversial; these ships were slower than the German dreadnoughts, and many believed that they didn’t add enough firepower to be of consequence. Scheer included them because of the overwhelming firepower deficit the High Seas Fleet suffered respective to the Grand Fleet. Schleswig-Holstein and her sisters were at the end of the German line, and did not suffer from severe gunfire damage. However, one of their number, Pommern, was hit by a torpedo and sank, taking 839 sailors with her.
After the High Seas Fleet returned to port, Schleswig-Holstein and her sisters were removed from the front line in favor of other duties. At the end of the war, the best of the High Seas Fleet was dispatched to Scapa Flow, where it eventually scuttled itself. The rest of the German dreadnoughts were turned over to other allied powers, which either sank the German ships as targets or sold them as scrap. By the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was allowed to keep only a few pre-dreadnought battleships, including Schleswig-Holstein. The replacements allowed for these ships were even smaller than the pre-dreadnoughts themselves. Thus, the Kriegsmarine retained Schleswig-Holstein as an active unit for the entire interwar period.
In late August 1939, Schleswig-Holstein was dispatched to Gdansk for a “courtesy visit.” On the morning of September 1, 1939 the aging battleship opened fire on a Polish Army barracks, opening World War II. Schleswig-Holstein continued to bombard Polish positions for the next five days, taking some damage from Polish shore batteries in the process. The rest of Schleswig-Holstein’s career was relatively uneventful, although she did participate in the occupation of Denmark in early 1940. The Kriegsmarine used the old battleship as a training ship for the rest of the war.
On December 19, 1944, Schleswig-Holstein was hit by three bombs, caught fire, and sank in shallow water. The crew later set off scuttling charges, causing some additional damage. This damage did not dissuade Russia from refloating Schleswig-Holstein, renaming her Borodino, and turning her into a target ship. She continued in that service until 1948, when the Soviet Navy scuttled her. The wreck remained visible above water for almost two decades, continuing to provide a target for Soviet marksmanship.
Author’s Note
Schleswig-Holstein is notable mainly for an era-spanning career. A contemporary of Dreadnought, Schleswig-Holstein fought at Jutland, survived the Treaty of Versailles, delivered the first shots of World War II, managed to make it almost to the end of the conflict, and even played a useful role in the post-war era. Only a very few ships have experiences as varied.
It’s interesting that the Germans didn’t devote greater resources to modernization in the intewar period. There was obviously a hard limit on what could be done, but Schleswig-Holstein and her sister were the largest platforms available. The Kriegsmarine decided to conserve resources, but a more aggressive modernization strategy might have increased their speed and considerably modified their armament.
Related Entries:
Contemporary of… HMS Dreadnought
Related to… Admiral Scheer
Fought at… Jutland
Danton
Laid Down: 1906
Launched: 1909
Completed: July, 1911
Displacement: 18,750 tons
Main Armament: four 12” guns (two twin turrets)
Secondary Armament: twelve 9.5” guns (six twin turrets)
Speed: 19.5 knots
Major Actions: None
Treaty: Pre-Washington Naval Treaty
Fate: Sunk by German U-boat, March 19, 1917
The Dantons were the last pre-dreadnoughts constructed by the French Navy. They were also the only pre-dreadnoughts to employ turbines, and the only twentieth-century battleships to have five funnels. In addition to her main armament of 12” guns, Danton carried a very heavy secondary armament of 9.5” guns arrayed in twin turrets, rather than in casemates. The French believed that Tsushima demonstrated the decisiveness of a large secondary armament, but no other major battleship builder shared this view. The speed and armament made the ships a good match for the Austro-Hungarian Radetzkys, which were about a knot faster but carried reciprocating machinery. Danton was named for Georges Danton, first President of the Committee of Public Safety. At the time, French battleships were named after major figures from French history, and the Dantons came into service at a moment in which the Revolution was held in high esteem.
Danton. Brassey’s Naval Annual 1915.
The Dantons were excellent specimens of the pre-dreadnoughts, but suffered all of the basic limitations of the type. The biggest problem with the six ships of the Danton class was that they occupied the main French building slips for about two years each, meaning that France lost critical time in the dreadnought race. It is commonly argued that they were obsolete prior to completion; in fact, despite their heavy armament and good speed, they were obsolete prior to being laid down. Dreadnought was larger, faster, and carried more guns and heavier armor. The Courbets (the first French dreadnoughts) were not competitive with the second generation American, British, or German designs when they entered service in 1913 and 1914.
Georges Jacques Danton.
Danton’s World War I career was largely uneventful. The French Navy had come to a pre-war agreement with the Royal Navy to concentrate in the Mediterranean, while the British managed the North Sea. Danton and the other French battleships spent most of their time protecting convoys traveling to and from North Africa. Especially in the early part of the war, the French were concerned that the Austro-Hungarian Navy would sally forth and attack the convoys. No such operation ever materialized, however.
Danton. Histoire de la Marine française illustrée, Marius Bar.
Danton also helped guard the Dardanelles in order to prevent a sortie by Yavuz Sultan Selim, the former