German Battleships 1914–18 (1) by Gary Staff

Author:Gary Staff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: German Battleships 1914–18 (1): Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes
ISBN: 9781780962719
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2011-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

Nassau being attended by the Lifting Crane I, more popularly known as ‘Long Heinrich’, which had a lifting capacity of 250 tonnes.

Nassau was not one of the ships interned at Scapa Flow, but, after the Germans scuttled those vessels, she was demanded as a replacement by the Entente and was awarded to Japan. She was sold to an English company and was wrecked at Dordrecht in 1920.

Westfalen

Namesake: Prussian province.

The keel for the battleship Westfalen was struck at A.G. Weser in Bremen on 12 August 1907, and on 1 July 1908 the ship was launched from the cradle. In mid-September 1909, the fitting-out work had progressed so far that Westfalen could be transferred to Wilhelmshaven for final fitting out, with a dockyard crew. At this time of year, the River Weser was so low that six pontoons had to be fitted to the hull to reduce the draught, but it was only with the second attempt that the ship was successfully transferred. Westfalen took part in the opening ceremonies for the new III Entrance. On 16 November 1909, she was commissioned and trials began, but these were interrupted when the ship took part in the fleet manoeuvres in February 1910. Trials continued until 3 May 1910, when Westfalen joined I Squadron, and on 5 May 1910 she became flagship of the squadron chief, who transferred his flag from Hannover. For the autumn of 1914, it was planned that Westfalen would go to II Squadron, but with the outbreak of war this plan came to nothing.

After the outbreak of war, Westfalen participated in all the major operations of I Squadron from 1914 to 1916, except the fleet advance of 29–30 March 1915, when she was in the dockyard. In August 1915, she participated in the attack on the Riga Gulf in the Baltic and supported the break-in to the Gulf by her sisterships.

In 1916 Westfalen took part in the Skagerrak battle and was particularly active during the night engagement. With the rear march, Westfalen became lead ship of the entire line and was especially active fending off the attacks by British destroyers. She was hit twice by medium-calibre shells and suffered two dead. On the next operation, on 19 August, she was the last ship in line when at 0600hrs, located 55 nautical miles north of Terschelling, she was hit by a torpedo fired by the British submarine E23. Westfalen took on 800 tonnes of water, but the anti-torpedo bulkhead saved her. Under the escort of three torpedo boats, she headed back to the German Bight and maintained a speed of 14 knots. Dockyard repairs were completed on 26 September 1916 and Westfalen went to the Baltic for training, before returning to the North Sea on 4 October so that she could participate in the fleet advance to the Dogger Bank on 19–20 October.

During 1917 there were no special events to report. During the Ösel operation she lay off Apenrade from 23 September to 20 October 1917 to oppose any attempted intervention by the British fleet, although none was forthcoming.

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