SMS was the first battlecruiser built for the German (Imperial Navy), as well as Germany's first major turbine-powered warship. At the time of her construction, was the fastest dreadnought-type warship afloat, capable of reaching speeds in excess of . She was designed in response to the British . While the German design had slightly lighter guns—, compared to the Mark X mounted on the British ships— was faster and significantly better-armored. She set the precedent of German battlecruisers carrying much heavier armor than their British equivalents, albeit at the cost of smaller guns.
participated in a number of fleet actions during the First World War, including several bombardments of the English coast. She was present at the Battle of Jutland, where she destroyed the British battlecruiser in the opening minutes of the engagement. was hit several times by large-caliber shells during the battle, and at one point in the engagement, the ship had all of her main battery guns out of action either due to damage or malfunction. Nevertheless, the damage was quickly repaired and the ship returned to the fleet in two months.
Following the end of the war in November 1918, , along with most of the High Seas Fleet, was interned at Scapa Flow pending a decision by the Allies as to the fate of the fleet. The ship met her end in 1919 when German caretaker crews scuttled their ships to prevent their division among Allied navies. The wreck was raised in 1930, and scrapped at Rosyth from 1931 to 1934.
Development Background
The genesis of the battlecruiser Von der Tann began on 17 May 1906 with an order from Kaiser Wilhelm II for a design competition for a fast battleship that combined the speed of earlier armored cruisers with the firepower of a battleship. Wilhelm directed that the new ship should have a primary armament of at least four guns and a top speed of at least faster than the latest battleships. He envisioned the new ship forming a fast division of the main fleet, which could also perform reconnaissance duties. He stated that the s then under development should be used as a basis for the new ship. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, then the State Secretary of the (Imperial Navy Office), opposed the concept for a number of reasons, but the announcement on 31 May that the British Royal Navy's latest armored cruisers, the , would be armed with eight guns brushed aside Tirpitz's objections.
The Kaiser's design competition could not be carried out, as the navy's design department was already busy completing work on what would become the Nassau class of dreadnought battleships. They would also soon need to begin work on the next armored cruiser, designated "F", to follow the latest cruiser , which was to be laid down in early 1907. But the Kaiser and his supporters would nevertheless significantly shape the project for cruiser "F". The General Navy Department agreed that future armored cruisers must be capable of fighting in the line of battle as a fast wing, which required battleship-grade armament. They suggested a ship armed with six or eight guns and capable of . Arguments continued, including the publication of an article in the journal Marine-Rundschau in July 1906 by Waldemar Vollerthun, who argued that the two types—battleships and armored cruisers—were fundamentally incompatible due to their differing tactical roles.
Senior officers disagreed over the intended role of the new ship; Tirpitz envisioned the new ship as a replication of the British Invincibles, mounting heavier guns, lighter armor, and higher speed with the intention of using the ship as a fleet scout and to destroy the opposing fleet's cruisers. Tirpitz had no intention of using the ship in the main battle line. Wilhelm II however, along with most of the RMA, was in favor of incorporating the ship into the battle line after initial contact was made, which necessitated much heavier armor. The insistence upon the capability to fight in the battle line was a result of the numerical inferiority of the German High Seas Fleet to the Royal Navy. Initial proposals suggested a main battery of guns, but financial limitations necessitated the use of smaller, less expensive weaponry. The same 28 cm twin-gun turrets that had been developed for the last two -class battleships would be used for cruiser "F".
Design preparation As the reality of the British introduction of the battlecruiser type sank in over the summer of 1906, Tirpitz eventually concluded on 18 July that he could no longer maintain his objections for military and political reasons. He instructed the General Navy Department, Construction Department, and the Weapons Department to prepare designs for a new cruiser armed with eight 30.5 cm guns, along with a new battleship armed with twelve of the guns. The projected cost of the former led Tirpitz to quickly abandon it, while latter became the . But on 4 September, he requested another cruiser design, this time with the armament scaled back to 28 cm guns. Other requirements included a secondary battery of eight or ten guns, displacement and price no greater than , and improved armor protection compared to .
Several proposals were presented in a meeting on 15 September, which resolved many of the disagreements over the ship's design. Rudolf von Eickstedt, the naval architect in charge of the Construction Department, argued that since the explosive trials for the proposed protection systems for had not been completed, the construction should be postponed to allow for any alterations to the design for cruiser "F". He also argued that guns of 21 cm or caliber would be sufficient to penetrate the armor of the new British battlecruisers. However, Admiral August von Heeringen, of the General Navy Department, stated that for the ship to be able to engage battleships, the 28 cm guns were necessary. Admiral Eduard von Capelle, the deputy director of the RMA, stated that depending on tests of the underwater protection system slated to be carried out in November, the main battery might have to be reduced in caliber to offset the weight of any improvements to the protection system that might need to be made. Tirpitz rejected the idea of a reduction in caliber, even if it required increasing displacement over the agreed-upon .
Among the preliminary designs were options that carried the secondary guns either in four twin-gun turrets or in casemates in a central battery. Those proposals with turret-mounted secondary guns were rejected, leaving two for further consideration: Project I and Project II. The former carried its main guns in two twin turrets, fore and aft, and four single turrets, two per side amidships. Project II carried its guns in four twin turrets, two of which were amidships. Eickstedt submitted a competing proposal for a ship with six 28 cm guns and a secondary battery of guns. These would have been mounted on the centerline, which provided the same broadside as the other two designs, but at about less displacement. Tirpitz rejected the idea, citing the political problem of responding to an eight-gun British ship with a six-gun German vessel.
By 28 September, the design staff had submitted three basic arrangements to the Kaiser: "1a", with two twin turrets and four single turrets; "2a", with four twin turrets; and "5a", with three twin turrets on the centerline and two single mounts in forward wing positions. All three variants mounted their secondary guns in a casemate battery. The Kaiser approved "2a", which the design staff continued to refine, producing "2b" by moving the wing turrets to an en echelon arrangement that provided a theoretical broadside of all eight guns (though severe blast effects prevented this in practice). During a meeting on 7 November, the navy's senior leadership reviewed the two proposals, along with an updated version of "5a"; the General Navy Department preferred the greater firepower granted by "5a", and cited the blast effects in their objection to "2b". Tirpitz argued that "5a" would require a significant increase in displacement to match the speed of "2b". He and Eickstedt settled on "2b" as their preferred design, which finally settled the matter. At the same meeting the decision was made to switch from triple-expansion steam engines to steam turbines for the propulsion system, which would increase speed to ; this produced the "2a1" variant; improvements to the protection scheme and increases to the designed horsepower resulted in the final version, "2c1".
On 22 June 1907, the Kaiser authorized construction of cruiser "F", to be named , after Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, a Bavarian general who fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The contract was awarded to the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg on 26 September 1907. The ship cost 36.523 million Marks, an increase of thirty-three percent over and a doubling of the price of the previous armored cruiser . The significant increases in price caused major problems for the German fleet, as the Naval Laws that governed the construction program assumed that prices would remain fairly stable over time.
Design
General characteristics
was long at the waterline and long overall. She had a beam of , which was increased to with the installation of anti-torpedo nets. Her draft measured forward and aft. She displaced as designed and up to at full load. Her hull was constructed with transverse and longitudinal steel frames and was divided into fifteen watertight compartments, with a double bottom that ran for 75 percent of the length of the hull.
The ship was a good sea boat with gentle motion, though she had a slight weather helm. Steering was controlled by a pair of rudders placed side by side. She was difficult to control while steaming in reverse. With the rudder hard over, she lost up to sixty percent speed and heeled up to eight degrees. Frahm anti-roll tanks were fitted during construction, but these proved to be ineffective and they only reduced rolling by 33%. Bilge keels were later added to improve stability, and the space previously used for the anti-roll tanks was instead used as extra fuel storage. The ship was able to carry an additional 180 t (200 short tons) of coal in the voids used by the anti-roll tanks.
The ship's crew compartments were arranged such that the officers were accommodated in the forecastle. This arrangement was found to be unsatisfactory, and not repeated in later classes. Interior decks were covered with linoleum, while exposed decks received of teak planking. was designed to be fitted with a lattice mast, but the ship was completed with standard pole masts instead. In 1914, spotting posts were attached to the masts in order to observe the fall of artillery fire. The ship was equipped with eight searchlights for use in night fighting; four were placed on the forward and aft conning towers apiece. In 1915, seaplane trials were conducted on , and a crane was attached on the aft deck to lift the seaplane aboard the ship. Early in her career, was equipped with anti-torpedo nets, but these were removed towards the end of 1916.
Machinery
was the first large German warship to use steam turbines. Her propulsion system consisted of four steam turbines arranged in two sets: high pressure turbines, which ran the outer two shafts, and low pressure turbines, which powered the inner two shafts. Each shaft drove a 3-bladed screw propeller that was in diameter. The turbines were divided into three engine rooms. Steam for the turbines was provided by eighteen coal-fired double-ended water-tube boilers that were split into five boiler rooms. The boilers were ducted into two widely spaced funnels, one just aft of the fore mast and the other amidships.