SMS Posen SMS " Posen " was one of four battleship s in the , the first dreadnought s built for the German Imperial Navy ( " Kaiserliche Marine " ) . The ship was laid down at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel on 11 June 1907 , launched on 13 December 1908 , and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 31 May 1910 . She was equipped with a main battery of twelve guns in six twin turrets in an unusual hexagonal arrangement . 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 , 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 . Construction . " Posen " was ordered under the provisional name " Ersatz Baden " , as a replacement for the , one of the elderly s . She was laid down on 11 June 1907 at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel . As with her sister , construction proceeded under absolute secrecy ; detachments of soldiers guarded the shipyard and also guarded contractors that supplied building materials , such as Krupp . The ship was launched a year and a half later , on 12 December 1908 . Wilhelm August Hans von Waldow - Reitzenstein gave a speech at her launching , and " Posen " was christened by Johanna von Radolin , the wife of Hugo Fürst von Radolin , a German diplomat who hailed from the ship ' s namesake province . Initial trials were conducted through April 1910 , followed by final fitting - out in May . The ship was commissioned into the fleet on 31 May . Sea trials were conducted afterward and completed by 27 August . In total , her construction cost the German government 36 , 920 , 000 marks . " Posen " was long , wide , and had a draft of . She displaced with a standard load , and fully laden . The ship had a crew of 40 officers and 968 enlisted men . " Posen " retained three - shafted triple expansion engines with coal - fired boilers instead of more advanced turbine engines . Her propulsion system was rated at and provided a top speed of . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . This type of machinery was chosen at the request of both Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz and the Navy ' s construction department ; the latter stated in 1905 that the " use of turbines in heavy warships does not recommend itself . " This decision was based solely on cost : at the time , Parsons held a monopoly on steam turbines and required a 1 million gold mark royalty fee for every turbine engine . German firms were not ready to begin production of turbines on a large scale until 1910 . " Posen " carried twelve SK L / 45 guns in an unusual hexagonal configuration . Her secondary armament consisted of twelve SK L / 45 guns and sixteen SK L / 45 guns , all of which were mounted in casemate s . Later in her career , two of the 8 . 8 cm guns were replaced with high - angle Flak mountings of the same caliber for defense against aircraft . The ship was also armed with six submerged torpedo tube s . One tube was mounted in the bow , another in the stern , and two on each broadside , on either ends of the torpedo bulkhead . The ship ' s belt armor was thick in the central portion of the hull , and the armored deck was thick . The main battery turrets had thick sides , and the conning tower was protected with of armor plating . Service history . After completing her trials in August 1910 , " Posen " left Kiel for Wilhelmshaven , where she arrived on 7 September . As the German Imperial Navy had chronic shortages of trained sailors , many of the crew were then assigned to other ships . These crewmembers were replaced with personnel from the old pre - dreadnought , which was decommissioned on 20 September . After their commissioning , all four " Nassau " - class ships served as a unit , the II Division of I Battle Squadron , with " Posen " as the flagship . " Posen " participated in several training exercises with the rest of the fleet before the outbreak of war . In late 1910 the fleet conducted a training cruise into the Baltic Sea . The following year the fleet conducted maneuvers in May ; the annual summer cruise to Norway followed in July . The fleet participated in another round of fleet exercises in the Baltic in September , followed by another set at the end of the year . The next year followed a similar pattern , though the summer cruise to Norway was interrupted by the Agadir crisis ; as a result , the summer cruise only went into the Baltic . The September exercises were conducted off Helgoland in the North Sea ; another winter cruise into the Baltic followed at the end of the year . The training schedule returned to normal for 1913 and 1914 , and the summer cruises again went to Norway . For the 1914 cruise , the fleet departed for Norwegian waters on 14 July , some two weeks after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo . The probability of war cut the cruise short ; " Posen " and the rest of the fleet were back in Wilhelmshaven by 29 July . World War I . At midnight on 4 August , the United Kingdom declared war on Germany . " Posen " and the rest of the fleet conducted several advances into the North Sea to support Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper ' s I Scouting Group battlecruiser s . The battlecruisers raided British coastal towns in an attempt to lure out portions of the Grand Fleet where they could be destroyed by the High Seas Fleet . The first such operation was the raid on Scarborough , Hartlepool and Whitby on 15 – 16 December 1914 . On the evening of 15 December , the German battle fleet of 12 dreadnoughts — including " Posen " and her three sisters — and eight pre - dreadnoughts came to within of an isolated squadron of six British battleships . Skirmishes between the rival destroyer screens in the darkness convinced the German fleet commander , Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl , that he was faced with the Grand Fleet , now deployed in its battle formation . Under orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II to avoid risking the fleet unnecessarily , von Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battlefleet back toward Germany . Battle of the Gulf of Riga . In August , a special unit from the German fleet attempted to clear the Russian - held Gulf of Riga in order to assist the German Army , which was planning an assault on Riga . To do so , the German planners intended to drive off or destroy the Russian naval forces in the Gulf , which included the pre - dreadnought battleship and some smaller gunboat s and destroyers . The German battle fleet was accompanied by several mine - warfare vessels . These ships were tasked with clearing Russian minefields and laying a series of their own minefields in the northern entrance to the gulf , to prevent Russian naval reinforcements from reaching the area . The assembled German flotilla included " Posen " and her three sister ships , the four s , the battlecruisers , , and , and several pre - dreadnoughts , operating under the command of von Hipper , now a Vice Admiral . The eight battleships were to provide cover for the forces engaging the Russian flotilla . The first attempt on 8 August was unsuccessful , as it had taken too long to clear the Russian minefields to allow the minelayer to lay a minefield of her own . On 16 August 1915 , " Posen " and " Nassau " led a second attempt to breach the defenses of the gulf , with " Posen " as Admiral Schmidt ' s flagship . The two dreadnoughts were accompanied by 4 light cruisers and 31 torpedo boats . On the first day of the assault the Germans broke through the Russian forces , but two German light craft — the minesweeper and the destroyer — were sunk . " Posen " and " Nassau " engaged a pair of Russian gunboats , and . " Sivuch " was sunk that day and " Korietz " was severely damaged ; the ship managed to limp away but had to be scuttled the following day . On the 17th , " Posen " and " Nassau " engaged " Slava " at long range ; they scored three hits on the Russian ship and forced her to return to port . By 19 August , the Russian minefields had been cleared and the flotilla entered the Gulf . Reports of Allied submarines in the area prompted the Germans to call off the operation the following day . Admiral Hipper later remarked , " To keep valuable ships for a considerable time in a limited area in which enemy submarines were increasingly active , with the corresponding risk of damage and loss , was to indulge in a gamble out of all proportion to the advantage to be derived from the occupation of the Gulf " before " the capture of Riga from the land side . " In fact , the battlecruiser " Moltke " had been torpedoed that morning . On 21 August , Schmidt had his flag hauled down from " Posen " and disbanded the special unit . Return to the North Sea . By the end of August " Posen " and the rest of the High Seas Fleet had returned to their anchorages in the North Sea . The next operation conducted was a sweep into the North Sea on 11 – 12 September , though it ended without any action . Another fleet sortie followed on 23 – 24 October without encountering any British forces . On 4 March 1916 , " Posen " , " Nassau " , " Westfalen " , and " Von der Tann " steamed out to the Amrumbank to receive the auxiliary cruiser , which was returning from a raiding mission . Another uneventful advance into the North Sea took place on 21 – 22 April . A bombardment mission followed two days later ; " Posen " joined the battleship support for Hipper ' s battlecruisers while they attacked Yarmouth and Lowestoft on 24 – 25 April . During this operation , the battlecruiser " Seydlitz " was damaged by a British mine and had to return to port prematurely . Due to the poor visibility , the operation was soon called off , leaving the British fleet no time to intercept the raiders . Battle of Jutland . Admiral Reinhard Scheer , who had succeeded Admirals von Ingenohl and Hugo von Pohl as the fleet commander , immediately planned another attack on the British coast . The damage to " Seydlitz " and condenser trouble on several of the III Battle Squadron dreadnoughts delayed the plan until the end of May . The German battlefleet departed the Jade at 03 : 30 on 31 May . " Posen " was assigned to the II Division of the I Battle Squadron as the flagship of Rear Admiral W . Engelhardt . " Posen " was the first ship in the division , ahead of her three sisters . The II Division was the last unit of dreadnoughts in the fleet ; they were followed by only the elderly pre - dreadnoughts of the II Battle Squadron . Between 17 : 48 and 17 : 52 , " Posen " and ten other German battleships engaged the British 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron , though the range and poor visibility prevented effective fire . Shortly thereafter , two British destroyers — and — came under intense fire from the German line . " Posen " fired at " Nestor " with both her main battery and secondary guns . At 18 : 35 , " Nestor " exploded and sank under the combined fire of eight battleships . By 20 : 15 , the German fleet had faced the Grand Fleet for a second time and was forced to turn away ; in doing so , the order of the German line was reversed . " Posen " was now the fourth ship in the line , astern of her three sisters . At around 21 : 20 , " Posen " and her sister ships were engaged by the battlecruisers of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron . " Posen " was the only ship on the I Battle Squadron to be able to make out a target , which turned out to be the battlecruisers and . " Posen " opened fire at 21 : 28 at a range of ; she scored one hit on " Princess Royal " at 21 : 32 and straddled " Indomitable " several times , surrounding her with a salvo of shells , before ceasing fire at 21 : 35 . At about 00 : 30 , the leading units of the German line encountered British destroyers and cruisers . A violent firefight at close range ensued ; the leading German battleships , including " Posen " , opened fire on several British warships . In the confusion , the light cruiser passed through the German line directly in front of " Posen " and was rammed . " Posen " was undamaged , but both of " Elbing " s engine rooms were flooded and the ship came to a halt . Two and a half hours later , " Elbing " spotted several approaching British destroyers , and her captain gave the order to scuttle the ship . Shortly before 01 : 00 , the German line engaged a flotilla of British destroyers . " Posen " spotted the destroyers , , and at very close range ; she opened fire on the first two ships at ranges between , seriously damaging " Porpoise " . " Fortune " quickly sank under fire from " Posen " and several other battleships , but not before firing two torpedoes which " Posen " had to evade . At 01 : 25 , " Westfalen " illuminated the destroyer and opened fire ; " Posen " joined her shortly thereafter and reported several hits at ranges of . Despite the ferocity of the night fighting , the High Seas Fleet punched through the British destroyer forces and reached Horns Reef by 04 : 00 on 1 June . The German fleet reached Wilhelmshaven a few hours later , where " Posen " and several other battleships from the I Battle Squadron took up defensive positions in the outer roadstead . Over the course of the battle , the ship had fired fifty - three 28 cm shells , sixty - four 15 cm rounds , and thirty - two 8 . 8 cm shells . The ship and her crew emerged from the battle completely unscathed by enemy fire . Beginning in June 1917 , Wilhelm von Krosigk served as the ship ' s commanding officer ; he held this position until the end of the war in November 1918 . Expedition to Finland . In February 1918 , the German navy decided to send an expedition to Finland to support German army units to be deployed there . The Finns were engaged in a civil war ; the White Finns sought a conservative government free from the influence of the newly created Soviet Union , while the Red Guards preferred Soviet - style communism . On 23 February , two of " Posen " s sister ships — " Westfalen " and " Rheinland " — were assigned as the core of the " Sonderverband Ostsee " ( Special Unit Baltic Sea ) . The two ships embarked the 14th Jäger Battalion . They departed for the Åland Islands on the following morning . Åland was to be a forward operating base , from which the port of Hanko would be secured . From Hanko , the German expedition would assault the capital of Helsingfors . The task force reached the Åland Islands on 5 March , where they encountered the Swedish coastal defense ship s , , and . Negotiations ensued , which resulted in the landing of the German troops on Åland on 7 March ; " Westfalen " then returned to Danzig , where " Posen " was stationed . On 31 March " Posen " and " Westfalen " left Danzig ; the ships arrived at Russarö , which was the outer defense for Hanko , by 3 April . The German army quickly took the port . The task force then proceeded to Helsingfors ; on 11 April the ship passed into the harbor at Helsingfors and landed the soldiers . This included a detachment from the ship which was landed two days later on 13 April . During the operation , " Posen " s crew suffered four men killed and twelve wounded . From 18 to 20 April , " Posen " assisted with the efforts to free " Rheinland " , which had been grounded . Two days later , " Posen " struck a sunken wreck in Helsingfors harbor , which caused minor damage . On 30 April the ship was detached from the " Sonderverband Ostsee " . The ship returned to Germany , reaching Kiel by 3 May , where she entered drydock . Repair work lasted until 5 May . Later actions in the North Sea . On 11 August 1918 , " Posen " , " Westfalen " , , and sortied from Wilhelmshaven to support torpedo boats on patrol off Terschelling . On 2 October , " Posen " moved out into the outer roadsteads of the Jade to provide cover for the returning U - boat s of the Flanders Flotilla . " Posen " was to have taken part in the last fleet operation of the war , planned for 30 October . The operation was intended to inflict as much damage as possible on the British navy , in order to retain a better bargaining position for Germany , whatever the cost to the fleet . War - weary sailors mutinied , which led to the operation being canceled . In an attempt to suppress the spread of mutinous sentiments , Admiral Hipper ordered the fleet dispersed . " Posen " and the other ships of the I Battle Squadron were sent out into the roadstead on 3 November , then returned to Wilhelmshaven on 6 November . Fate . On 11 November 1918 , the Armistice took effect ; according to its terms , eleven battleships and five battlecruisers were to be interned in Scapa Flow for the duration of negotiations for the peace treaty . " Posen " was not among the ships interned , and she was instead decommissioned on 16 December . The ships in Scapa Flow were scuttled by their crews on 21 June 1919 to prevent them from being seized by the Allies . As a result , " Posen " and the other battleships that remained in Germany were seized as replacements for the ships that had been lost . On 5 November , " Posen " was stricken from the German navy list to be handed over to Great Britain . The ship was transferred on 13 May 1920 ; the British subsequently sold her to ship - breakers in the Netherlands . " Posen " was broken up in Dordrecht in 1922 . Notes . Footnotes Citations