SMS was the third vessel of the of dreadnought battleships of the Imperial German Navy. s keel was laid in November 1910 at the Howaldtswerke dockyard in Kiel. She was launched on 11 November 1911 and was commissioned into the fleet on 14 May 1913. The ship was equipped with ten guns in five twin turrets, and had a top speed of . was assigned to III Battle Squadron and later IV Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet for the majority of her career, including World War I.
Along with her four sister ships, , , , and , participated in all of the major fleet operations of World War I, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. The ship was also involved in Operation Albion, an amphibious assault on the Russian-held islands in the Gulf of Riga, in October 1917. She later saw action during the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917.
After Germany's defeat in the war and the signing of the Armistice in November 1918, the Royal Navy interned and most of the capital ships of the High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow. The ships were disarmed and reduced to skeleton crews while the Allied powers negotiated the final version of the Treaty of Versailles. On 21 June 1919, the commander of the interned fleet, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, ordered the fleet to be scuttled to ensure that the British would not be able to seize the ships. was raised in May 1936 and subsequently broken up for scrap.
Design
The ship was long overall and displaced a maximum of at full load. She had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft. was powered by three sets of Parsons steam turbines, each of which drove a single screw propeller; they were supplied with steam by sixteen coal-fired water-tube boilers. The powerplant produced a top speed of . She carried of coal, which enabled a maximum range of at a cruising speed of .
was armed with a main battery of ten 30.5 cm SK L/50 guns in five twin turrets. The ship dispensed with the inefficient hexagonal turret arrangement of previous German battleships; instead, three of the five turrets were mounted on the centerline, with two of them arranged in a superfiring pair aft. The other two turrets were placed en echelon amidships, such that both could fire on the broadside. The ship was also armed with a secondary battery of fourteen 15 cm SK L/45 guns in casemates amidships. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried eight SK L/45 guns in casemates. The ship was also armed with four 8.8 cm L/45 anti-aircraft guns. The ship's armament was rounded out by five torpedo tubes, all mounted in the hull; one was in the bow, and the other four were on the broadside.
Her main armored belt was thick in the central citadel, and was composed of Krupp cemented armor (KCA). Her main battery gun turrets were protected by of KCA on the sides and faces. s conning tower was heavily armored, with sides.
Service history
Ordered under the contract name as a replacement for the obsolete coastal defense ship , was laid down at the Howaldtswerke dockyard in Kiel in November 1910. She was launched on 11 November 1911, after which fitting-out work was completed. At the launching ceremony, Admiral Hans von Koester gave a speech and Princess Victoria Louise christened the ship. A dockyard crew delivered the ship to the Navy on 13 May 1913; she was commissioned into the fleet the following day. During trials the ship's turbine engines were damaged, and did not join the fleet until 13 December 1913.
After joining III Battle Squadron in December 1913, participated in the routine fleet training exercises. Squadron exercises were conducted in February, followed by fleet maneuvers, both in the North Sea. The fleet trained again in May, in both the North and Baltic Seas. left Germany on 7 July for the annual summer cruise to Norway, but was recalled prematurely on 22 July because of rising international tensions following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Upon returning to Germany, steamed to Brunsbüttel on 24 July, where she was the first battleship to traverse the recently deepened Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. The voyage required lightening, and in just under twelve hours exited the locks at Holtenau in Kiel where she met the rest of her squadron. On 31 July, the entire squadron returned to the North Sea via the Canal. At midnight on 4 August, the United Kingdom, with its powerful Grand Fleet, declared war on Germany.