The final pre-dreadnought design
Completed as HMS Dreadnought changed naval warfare, the class entered service already overshadowed by a new generation of capital ships.
14218 tMaximum displacement
127,6 mOverall length
19,1 knMaximum speed
743Complement
Design and service
The story of Schleswig Holstein
The five ships of the Deutschland class were the last pre-Dreadnougth battleships build in Germany. Based on the previous Braunschweig class, the new ships were slightly better protected, but lost a bit of the good maneuverability. The artillery of those ships was kept quite similar to the one of their predescessors.
With their old fashioned design, those ships were only use as second line battleships during World War I, but all took part in the Battle of Jutland. Because of their age those ships were among the few battleships, Germany was allowed to keep after World War I, two of them even saw action in World War II. For more information on this, see the Kriegsmarine page about Schleswig Holstein and Schlesien.
At a glance
Technical profile
Dimensions, armament, protection and performance.
Dimensions
- Size (Max)
- 14218 t
- Length (Total)
- 127,6 m
- Length (Waterline)
- 125,9 m
- Beam
- 22,2 m
- Draft
- 8,21 m
- Crew
- 743
Armament
- 28 cm L/40
- 4
- 17 cm L/35
- 14 (until 1919)
- 15 cm L/45
- 14 (until 1931, 12 between 1931 - 1935, 10 between 1935 - 1939, 0 since 1939)
- 10,5 cm
- 6 (since 1918)
- 8,8 cm L/30
- 20 (until 1919, 4 between 1919- 1927, 2 until 1930)
- 3,7 cm
- 4 (since 1937)
- 2 cm
- 4 (scine 1937, 32 since 1944)
- Machine guns
- 4 (unitl 1919)
- 45 cm torpedo tubes
- 6
Armor
- Deck
- 40mm
- Belt
- 240 mm (max)
- Main guns
- 280 mm (max)
Machinery
- Shafts
- 3
- Engines
- 3
- Type
- 3-cyl expansion engines
Performance
- Total Performance
- 19330 shp
- Speed
- 19,1 kn
- Range
- 4800 miles at 10 kn
Construction record
Schleswig Holstein
- Laid down
- Germaniawerft Kiel, August 1905
- Launched
- 07.12.1906
- Commissioned
- 06.07.1908
- Fate
- scuttled 25.06.1947