The small cruiser SMS Stuttgart belonged to the Königsberg class, which consisted of a total of 4 ships and were built mainly for the German colonies in East Africa, but were used in the First World War together with the sister ship SMS Stettin in the North Sea.
Launching and design:
The development of the ships of the Königsberg class go back to the experience of the Bremen class. The development was begun in 1903, the ships of this class are still among the last ships of the imperial navy had a Rammbug.
The launch of the SMS Stuttgart took place on 22 September 1906, the commissioning on 1 February 1908.
History of SMS Stuttgart:
After commissioning, the first test drives were made. However, these had to be stopped due to lack of staff already on 9 April 1908 and the ship was first in the dry dock.
Only on 16 February 1909, the ship was put back into service and replaced the small cruiser SMS Nymphe as a training ship for machine guns at the ship artillery inspection.
The Stuttgart was then assigned to the reserve, but participated in the annual maneuvers.
Use in the war:
With the outbreak of the First World War, the SMS Stuttgart was assigned to the IV. reconnaissance group and undertook several operations in the security service and in the laying of mine locks in the North Sea.
Until the spring of 1916, various operations took place in the North Sea and in the Baltic Sea with subsequent overhaul in the shipyard in Wilhelmshaven.
From May 31 to June 1, 1916, Stuttgart was involved in the Battle of the Skagerrak, but received no hits or other damage.
On December 15, 1916, the SMS Stuttgart finally put out of service and the crew changed to the modern small cruiser SMS Emden. From February 1918, extensive reconstruction work was carried out. Since the Stuttgart should serve as aircraft mother ship, two hangars were built in which a total of 2 aircraft had space. A 3rd aircraft could be placed outside the hangars on the deck. Further, 6 of the 10.5cm guns were removed and in return 2 8.8cm anti-aircraft guns installed. On May 16, 1918, the conversion was completed and until the end of the war, the Stuttgart was used in the Baltic Sea.
Whereabouts:
After the war, the SMS Stuttgart was decommissioned on December 17, 1918 and deleted on November 5, 1919 from the list of warships.
On July 20, 1920, the ship had to be delivered as reparation to Britain. However, these had no use for the ship and scrap it.
Ship data:
Name: |
SMS Stuttgart |
Country: |
German Empire |
Ship Type: |
Small cruiser |
Class: |
Königsberg-Class |
Boatyard: |
Imperial shipyard, Gdansk |
Building-costs: |
5.488.000 Mark |
Launched: |
September 22nd, 1906 |
Commissioning: |
February 1st, 1908 |
Whereabouts: |
Scrapped in Britain in 1920 |
Length: |
117,4 meters |
Width: |
13,3 meters |
Draft: |
Max. 5,4 meters |
Displacement: |
Max. 4.002 Tons |
Crew: |
322 Men |
Drive: |
11 Marine Boiler |
Power: |
13.146 PS (9.669 kW) |
Maximum speed: |
23,9 kn (44 km/h) |
Armament: |
10 × Rapid Fire Gun 10,5 cm L / 40 (1.500 shots) 8 × Rapid Fire Gun 5,2 cm L / 55 (4.000 shots) 2 × Torpedo tube ⌀ 45 cm (5 shots) |
Armor: |
Armor deck: 20-80 mm |
You can find the right literature here:
German Battleships 1914–18 (1): Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes (New Vanguard)
Supported by official documents, personal accounts, official drawings and specially commissioned artwork, this volume is an enlightening history of the Deutschland to Osfriesland classes. Detailing the last of the pre-dreadnaught battleship classes, this book goes on to explain the revolutionary developments that took place within the German Imperial Navy as they readied themselves for war. This included creating vessels with vast increases in size and armament. This account of design and technology is supplemented by individual ship histories detailing combat experience complete with first-hand accounts. The specially commissioned artwork also brings this history to life with recreations of the battleship Pommern fighting at Jutland and ships of the Osfriesland class destroying HMS Black Prince in a dramatic night-time engagement.
The Imperial German Navy of World War I, Vol. 1 Warships: A Comprehensive Photographic Study of the Kaiser’s Naval Forces
The Imperial German Navy of WWI is a series of books (Warships, Campaigns, & Uniforms) that provide a broad view of the Kaiser's naval forces through the extensive use of photographs. Every effort has been made to cover all significant areas during the war period. In addition to the primary use of photographs, technical information is provided for each warship along with its corresponding service history; with a special emphasis being placed on those warships that participated in the Battle of Skagerrak (Jutland). Countless sources have been used to establish individual case studies for each warship; multiple photos of each warship are provided. The entire series itself is unprecedented in its coverage of the Kaiser's navy.
German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design, Construction and Operations
This is the most comprehensive, English-language study of the German Imperial Navy's battlecruisers that served in the First World War. Known as Panzerkreuzer, literally "armored cruiser," the eight ships of the class were to be involved in several early North Sea skirmishes before the great pitched battle of Jutland where they inflicted devastating damage on the Royal Navy's battlecruiser fleet. This book details their design and construction, and traces the full service history of each ship, recounting their actions, drawing largely from first-hand German sources and official documents, many previously unpublished in English.
The Kaiser's Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871-1918
The battleships of the Third Reich have been written about exhaustively, but there is little in English devoted to their Second Reich predecessors. This new book fills an important gap in the literature of the period by covering these German capital ships in detail and studying the full span of battleship development during this period. The book is arranged as a chronological narrative, with technical details, construction schedules, and ultimate fates tabulated throughout, thus avoiding the sometimes disjointed structure that can result from a class-by-class approach. Heavily illustrated with line drawings and photographs, many from German sources, the book offers readers a fresh visual look at these ships. A key objective of the book is to make available a full synthesis of the published fruits of archival research by German writers found in the pre-World War II books of Koop & Schmolke, Großmer's on the construction program of the dreadnaught era, Forstmeier & Breyer on World War I projects, and Schenk & Nottelmann's papers in Warship International. As well as providing data not available in English-language books, these sources correct significant errors in standard English sources.
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