SMS König Albert

SMS König Albert

SMS König Albert was the fourth vessel of the Kaiser class of battleships of the Imperial German Navy. The ship was equipped with ten 30. 5-centimeter guns in five twin turrets, and had a top speed of 22. 1 knots. She 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, Kaiser, Friedrich der Grosse, Kaiserin, and Prinzregent Luitpold, she participated in most of the major fleet operations of the war.

About SMS König Albert in brief

Summary SMS König AlbertSMS König Albert was the fourth vessel of the Kaiser class of battleships of the Imperial German Navy. The ship was equipped with ten 30. 5-centimeter guns in five twin turrets, and had a top speed of 22. 1 knots. She 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, Kaiser, Friedrich der Grosse, Kaiserin, and Prinzregent Luitpold, she participated in most of the major fleet operations of the war. After Germany’s defeat in the war and the signing of the Armistice in November 1918, the ships were interned by the Royal Navy 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, days before the treaty was signed, 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. In July 1935, the ship was raised in July 1935 and subsequently broken up for scrap in 1936. The last ship in her class to be launched, she was the last to be commissioned, owing to turbine damage on Kaiser and Strassburg. The Kaiser class was placed alongside her sister cruiser and light cruiser under the special Detached Division, alongside the Kaiser cruiser and the light cruiser Kaiserin.

She served in World War II as a training ship and was the only battleship in the fleet that missed the Battle of Jutland during the first half of the conflict. She also participated in Operation Albion, an amphibious assault on the Russian-held islands in the Gulf of Riga, in late 1917. Her main armored belt was 350 mm thick in the central portion, and was composed of Krupp cemented armor. Her main battery gun turrets were protected by 300 mm of KCA on the sides and faces. She had a crew of 41 officers and 1,043 enlisted, and a beam of 29 m and a draft of 9. 10 m forward and 8. 80 m aft. She carried 3,600 metric tons of coal, which enabled a maximum range of 7,900 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 12 knots. She was powered by three sets of Schichau turbines, supplied with steam by sixteen coal-fired boilers, and displaced a maximum of 27,000 metric tons at full load. Her conning tower was heavily armored, with 400 mm  sides, and the ship’s hull was covered with 400 mm sides. She was ordered under the contract name Ersatz Ägir as a replacement for the obsolete coastal defense ship SMS KÄggir, which was laid down on 17 July 1910.