Wittelsbach was the lead ship of the Wittelsbach class of pre-dreadnought battleships, built for the Imperial German Navy. She was the first capital ship built under the Navy Law of 1898, brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. The ship served in I Squadron of the German fleet for the majority of her peacetime career, which spanned from 1902 to 1910. She served in the Baltic Sea, including during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915, but saw no combat with Russian forces.
About SMS Wittelsbach in brief
Wittelsbach was the lead ship of the Wittelsbach class of pre-dreadnought battleships, built for the Imperial German Navy. She was the first capital ship built under the Navy Law of 1898, brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. The ship served in I Squadron of the German fleet for the majority of her peacetime career, which spanned from 1902 to 1910. She served in the Baltic Sea, including during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915, but saw no combat with Russian forces. After the war, she was converted into a tender for minesweepers in 1919. In July 1921, the ship was sold and broken up for scrap metal. Her main battery turrets had 250 millimeters of armor plating in the central portion that protected her magazines and machinery spaces and the deck was 225 millimeters thick in the main battery. She had a cruising radius of 5,000 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The ship’s powerplant was rated at 14,000 metric horsepower, which generated a top speed of 18 knots. The ship had a crew of 30 officers and 650 enlisted men. Her armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm guns in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure. She displaced 11,774 t as designed and up to 12,798 t at full load. Her armored belt was 50 millimeters thick in the central portion of the deck that protected the magazines and her machinery spaces.
She also had a 50 mm thick armored plating on the deck, which protected her decks and machinery spaces. Her hull was protected with Krupp armor plate, which was 50 thick in thecentral portion of her deck and protected her magazines and machinery spaces and the deck and cavities from enemy fire. She was decommissioned in September 1910, but was reactivated in 1911 for training ship duties, which lasted through 1914. By late 1915, crew shortages and the threat from British submarines forced the Kaiserliche Marine to withdraw older battleships like Wittels Bach from service. She then saw service in auxiliary roles, first as a training ship and then as a ship’s tender. The last two ships of the class, as well as the five ships of Witelsbach class, were ordered under contract under the contract name \”C\”, as a new unit for the fleet in July 1900, with Kaiser Wilhelm II in attendance; Rupprecht rammed the ironclad Wittelsach in July 3, 1900. The ships were completed in September 1899. The first battleship to be named after the Bavaria Crown Prince, Wittelbach, gave a speech at her launching ceremony due to a collision with the Ironclad Baden, which accidentally rammed Baden rammed in July 1901. The Wittelsbachs were broadly similar to the Kaiser Friedrichs, carrying the same armament but with a more comprehensive armor layout.
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