Small cruiser SMS Stettin

The small cruiser SMS Stettin belonged to the Königsberg class, which consisted of a total of 4 ships and were built mainly for the German colonies in East Africa, but were used in World War I together with the sister ship SMS Stuttgart in the North Sea.

 

Launching and design:

The development of the ships of the Königsberg class go back to the experience of the Bremen class. The development was begun in 1903, the ships of this class are still among the last ships of the imperial navy had a Rammbug.

The launch of the SMS Stettin took place on 7 March 1907, the commissioning on 29 October 1907.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History of SMS Stettin:

After commissioning and the subsequent test drives the Stettin was divided to the Association of Reconnaissance ships and replaced there the small cruiser SMS Frauenlob.

Already from 17 June 1908, the ship was then mainly used to accompany the imperial yacht. The trips led among others to Norway and the Mediterranean and ended on July 30, 1910.

From 11 May to 29 June 1912 was then carried out, together with the battlecruiser SMS Moltke and the small cruiser SMS Bremen, a visit to the United States.

Until shortly before the First World War, some maneuvers were carried out until the ship was stationed as a guide ship of the II Submarine Flotilla in Helgoland.

 

 

 

 

Use in the war:

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, SMS Stettin was involved in the naval battle at Helgoland on 28 August 1914, when British ships attacked the German outpost ships. In this battle, the ship received several hits from the British cruiser HMS Fearless and had 2 deaths to complain. Subsequently, the Stettin was assigned to the IV. reconnaissance group and carried out several attempts in the North Sea to the trade war.

In May 1915 a brief transfer to the Baltic Sea took place in order to participate in the operation to occupy Latvia.

From May 31 to June 1, 1916, the Stettin was involved in the Battle of the Skagerrak, where the ship received several hits and had 8 dead to complain. Afterwards, the damages were repaired in Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg.

By July 1917, the ship was again involved in the North Sea on several advances and the laying of mine locks. Thereafter, the transfer to the Baltic Sea to serve as a target ship for submarines. With a break in December 1917 for repair work, remained the Stettin until the war in the Baltic Sea.

 

 

 

Whereabouts:

On 19 December 1918, the SMS Stettin was decommissioned. Since the ship was already too old, it did not have to be interned in Scapa Flow.

On November 5, 1919 then the deletion from the list of warships and on September 15, 1920, it had to be handed over as reparation to Britain. These could do nothing more with the ship and had it scrapped from 1921 to 1923 in Copenhagen.

 

 

 

Ship data:

Name:	SMS Stettin
Country:	German Empire
Ship Type:	Small cruiser
Class:	Königsberg-Class
Boatyard:	AG Vulcan, Szczecin
Building-costs:	6.398.000 Mark
Launched:	March 7th, 1907
Commissioning:	October 29th, 1907
Whereabouts:	Scrapped in Copenhagen between 1921 and 1923
Length:	117,4 meters
Width:	13,3 meters
Draft:	Max. 5,17 meters
Displacement:	Max. 3.822 Tons
Crew:	322 Men
Drive:	11 Marine Boiler 2 set of Parsons turbines
Power:	21.670 PS (15.938 kW)
Maximum speed:	25,2 kn (47 km/h)
Armament:	10 × Rapid Fire Gun 10,5 cm L / 40 (1.500 rounds) 8 × Rapid Fire Gun 5,2 cm L / 55 (4.000 rounds) 2 × Torpedo tube ⌀ 45 cm (5 shots)
Armor:	Armor deck: 20 - 80 mm Sole: 100 mm Command tower: 20 - 100 mm Shields: 50 mm

 

 

 

 

 

You can find the right literature here:

 

German Battleships 1914–18 (1): Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes (New Vanguard)

Supported by official documents, personal accounts, official drawings and specially commissioned artwork, this volume is an enlightening history of the Deutschland to Osfriesland classes. Detailing the last of the pre-dreadnaught battleship classes, this book goes on to explain the revolutionary developments that took place within the German Imperial Navy as they readied themselves for war. This included creating vessels with vast increases in size and armament. This account of design and technology is supplemented by individual ship histories detailing combat experience complete with first-hand accounts. The specially commissioned artwork also brings this history to life with recreations of the battleship Pommern fighting at Jutland and ships of the Osfriesland class destroying HMS Black Prince in a dramatic night-time engagement.

Click here!

 

 

The Imperial German Navy of World War I, Vol. 1 Warships: A Comprehensive Photographic Study of the Kaiser’s Naval Forces

The Imperial German Navy of WWI is a series of books (Warships, Campaigns, & Uniforms) that provide a broad view of the Kaiser's naval forces through the extensive use of photographs. Every effort has been made to cover all significant areas during the war period. In addition to the primary use of photographs, technical information is provided for each warship along with its corresponding service history; with a special emphasis being placed on those warships that participated in the Battle of Skagerrak (Jutland). Countless sources have been used to establish individual case studies for each warship; multiple photos of each warship are provided. The entire series itself is unprecedented in its coverage of the Kaiser's navy.

Click here!

 

 

German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design, Construction and Operations

This is the most comprehensive, English-language study of the German Imperial Navy's battlecruisers that served in the First World War. Known as Panzerkreuzer, literally "armored cruiser," the eight ships of the class were to be involved in several early North Sea skirmishes before the great pitched battle of Jutland where they inflicted devastating damage on the Royal Navy's battlecruiser fleet. This book details their design and construction, and traces the full service history of each ship, recounting their actions, drawing largely from first-hand German sources and official documents, many previously unpublished in English.

Click here!

 

 

The Kaiser's Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871-1918

The battleships of the Third Reich have been written about exhaustively, but there is little in English devoted to their Second Reich predecessors. This new book fills an important gap in the literature of the period by covering these German capital ships in detail and studying the full span of battleship development during this period. The book is arranged as a chronological narrative, with technical details, construction schedules, and ultimate fates tabulated throughout, thus avoiding the sometimes disjointed structure that can result from a class-by-class approach. Heavily illustrated with line drawings and photographs, many from German sources, the book offers readers a fresh visual look at these ships. A key objective of the book is to make available a full synthesis of the published fruits of archival research by German writers found in the pre-World War II books of Koop & Schmolke, Großmer's on the construction program of the dreadnaught era, Forstmeier & Breyer on World War I projects, and Schenk & Nottelmann's papers in Warship International. As well as providing data not available in English-language books, these sources correct significant errors in standard English sources.

Click here!

 

 

 

 

 

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