SMS Rheinland was one of four Nassau-class battleships built for the German Imperial Navy. The ship carried twelve 28 cm SK L45 guns in an unusual hexagonal configuration. She saw service with the High Seas Fleet during World War I, including the Battle of Jutland. She ran aground shortly after arriving in the Baltic in 1918, and was decommissioned to be used as a barracks ship for the remainder of the war.
About SMS Rheinland in brief
SMS Rheinland was one of four Nassau-class battleships built for the German Imperial Navy. She was laid down in June 1907, launched the following year in October, and commissioned in April 1910. The ship carried twelve 28 cm SK L45 guns in an unusual hexagonal configuration. She saw service with the High Seas Fleet during World War I, including the Battle of Jutland. She ran aground shortly after arriving in the Baltic in 1918, and was decommissioned to be used as a barracks ship for the remainder of the war. In 1919, following the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow, the Allies sold the vessel to ship-breakers in the Netherlands, and she was eventually broken up for scrap metal starting in 1920. Her bell is on display at the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden. She is the only ship of the Nassau class to have been named after a German city, the city of Rheinfelden, where the ship was named after the city’s first mayor, who died in 1883. The name “Rheinlands” means “the Rheins” in German, which means “red” or “the redoubt” in English. The word “rhein” is a German word for “redoubt” and means “to hold back” or to protect against the threat of a threat of an enemy attack, such as a large-caliber gun or an enemy submarine. The vessel was also known as the “Redoubt of the Redoubt” because she was protected by a large amount of armor, including 280mm of plating on the main battery turrets.
It was the first German battleship to be armed with a main battery of 28cm guns, outclassing the previous German battleships of the Deutschland class with their 17 cm secondaries. She retained 3-shaft triple expansion engines instead of more advanced turbine engines. This type of machinery was chosen at the request of both Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz and the Navy’s construction department, as the latter stated in 1905 that the use of turbines in heavy warships does not recommend itself. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm and 16 8 cm guns. One tube was mounted in the bow, another in the stern, and two on each broadside, on both ends of the bulkheads, in the central portion of the hull, and the conning tower was protected with 400mm of armor plating. She also was armed with six submerged torpedo tubes on both broadsides, one in each end of the bow and one on the broadside of the stern. She had a draft of 8.9 m, and displaced 18,873 t with a normal load, and 20,535 t fully laden. She served with the Allies until 1919, when she was ceded to the Allies who, in turn, sold her to the Netherlands.
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This page is based on the article SMS Rheinland published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
