SMS Posen

SMS Posen was a German battleship built in 1907 and launched in 1910. She had twelve 11 inch guns in six turrets.

The ship sailed during most of the First World War, in the North Sea. The main battle she was in was the Battle of Jutland where she hit another German ship which then sank. 

The ship served with her three sister ships for the majority of World War I. She saw extensive service in the North Sea, where she took part in several fleet sorties. These culminated in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, where Posen was heavily engaged in night-fighting against British light forces. In the confusion, the ship accidentally rammed the light cruiser SMS Elbing, which suffered serious damage and was scuttled later in the night.

The ship also conducted several deployments to the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. In the first of these, Posen supported a German naval assault in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga. The ship was sent back to the Baltic in 1918 to support the White Finns in the Finnish Civil War. At the end of the war, Posen remained in Germany while the majority of the fleet was interned in Scapa Flow. In 1919, following the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow, she was ceded to the British as a replacement for the ships that had been sunk. She was then sent to ship-breakers in the Netherlands and scrapped in 1922.

 About

Line drawing of a Nassau-class battleship showing the disposition of the main battery

Posen was 146 m long and 27 m wide. She weighed 18,873 tonnes. Her crew was 40 officers and 968 sailors, 1008 total. She had three coal engines and could go at 20 knots or 9600 miles at 12 knots.

Her guns were 28 cm wide and were in six twin turrets in a hexagon shape around the ship. She also had 15cm and 8.8 cm anti aircraft guns. She carried six torpedo which she could shoot out the front, back and sides. She had thick armour along both sides, 30cm thick in most places.^[1]

 History

Posen and the rest of the I Battle Squadron in Kiel before the war

Posen was first ordered in 1906 as the Ersatz Baden. She started being built on 11 June 1907 in secret. She sailed for the first time in December 1908. She cost the German government 36,920,000 Marks.

She went to Wilhelmshavenin 1910 and sailed out of there for the next 4 years. In World War 1 she spent a lot of time in the North Sea, and sometimes going down to the Baltic sea to fight the Russian Navy. She was part of the Battle of Jutland, and in the fight she hit another German ship and made it sink.^[2]

References

1. Gröner, p. 23.
2. Staff, p. 11.

Bibliography

• Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6. OCLC 22101769.
• Staff, Gary (2010). German Battleships: 1914–1918. Vol. 1. Oxford: Osprey Books. ISBN 978-1-84603-467-1. OCLC 705750106.