page_title: Sachsen-class ironclad
section_title: Armament and armor
hierarchical_section_title: Sachsen-class ironclad / Design / Armament and armor
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: SMSSachsen aus: von Kronenfels, J. F.: Das schwimmende Flottenmaterial der Seemächte. Eine kurzgefasste Beschreibung der wichtigsten europäischen, amerikanischen und asiatischen Kriegsschiffe der neueren und neuesten Zeit. A. Hartleben's Verlag, Wien. Pest. Leipzig 1881.
context_page_description: The Sachsen class of armored frigates was a class of four ships built by the Imperial German Navy in the late 1870s to early 1880s. The ships—Sachsen, Bayern, Württemberg, and Baden—were designed to operate as part of an integrated coastal defense network. The ships were intended to sortie from fortified bases to break up an enemy blockade or landing attempt. Armed with six 26 cm guns, they were also intended to fight hostile ironclads on relatively equal terms.
  Following their commissionings in 1878–1883, the four ships served with the fleet on numerous training exercises and cruises in the 1880s and 1890s. They also participated in several cruises escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II on state visits to Great Britain and to various cities in the Baltic Sea in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In the late 1890s, the four ships were extensively rebuilt; their secondary batteries were modernized and they received upgraded propulsion systems. They were removed from active duty between 1902 and 1910 and relegated to secondary duties. Sachsen and Bayern became target ships while Württemberg became a torpedo training ship. The three ships were broken up for scrap in 1919–1920.
context_section_description: The Sachsen-class ships were armed with a main battery of six 26 cm (10.2 in) L/22 guns mounted in two armored barbettes, one forward and one amidships. Two guns were placed in the forward barbette and four were mounted in the amidships position. These guns were supplied with 480 rounds of ammunition. They could depress to −7° and elevate to 16.5°; this enabled a maximum range of 7,400 m (8,100 yd). The barbette arrangement would have theoreticaly provided a total of four guns firing forward during a ramming attack, but the blast damage from the ships' own guns proved to be too serious to permit this in practice. For defense against torpedo boat attacks, the ships were also equipped with six 8.7 cm (3.4 in) L/24 guns and eight 3.7 cm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannons.
  The ships' armor was made of wrought iron and backed with teak. The armored belt was composed of four alternating layers of wrought iron and teak. The outer iron layer was 203 mm (8 in) thick amidships, backed with 200 mm (7.9 in) of teak. The inner iron layer was 152 mm (6 in) thick and was backed with 230 mm (9.1 in) of teak. It was capped with 254 mm (10 in) thick bulkheads on either end of the belt. The thickness of the deck armor ranged from 50 to 75 mm (2 to 3 in). The forward conning tower had 140 mm (5.5 in) thick sides, though after their modernization, this was increased to 200 mm (7.9 in) thick sides and a 50 mm (2 in) roof was added. A rear conning tower was also added, with only splinter protection: 15 mm (0.59 in) thick sides and a 12 mm (0.47 in) thick roof. The barbettes for the main battery guns had 254 mm of wrought iron backed with 250 mm of teak.
caption: Diagram showing the layering of the ships' armor
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