SMS Schlesien SMS " Schlesien " was one of the five pre - dreadnought battleship s built for the Kaiserliche Marine between 1904 and 1906 . Named after the German province of Schlesien , she was built at the Schichau - Werke shipyard in Danzig , where she was launched on 28 May 1906 . She was commissioned into the navy on 5 May 1908 . The ships of her class were already outdated by the time they entered service , being inferior in size , armor , firepower and speed to the revolutionary new battleship . After commissioning , " Schlesien " was assigned to the I Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet . She served with the fleet throughout the first two years of World War I ; by this time she had been transferred to the II Battle Squadron alongside her four sister ships . " Schlesien " was present at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916 , where she was actively engaged only briefly . After Jutland , she was relegated to guard duties before being withdrawn altogether in 1917 , when she became a training ship . The Treaty of Versailles permitted the German navy to retain eight obsolete battleships , which included " Schlesien " , to defend the German coast . She saw extensive service with the reorganized Reichsmarine ; in the 1920s and 30s the ship was rebuilt and eventually converted back into a training ship . " Schlesien " saw limited combat during World War II , including the invasion of Norway in 1940 . After the conclusion of the operation , the ship was again given secondary duties . She ended her career as an anti - aircraft ship in the Baltic ; in April 1945 " Schlesien " was steaming to Swinemünde to restock her ammunition and evacuate wounded soldiers when she struck a mine . She sank in shallow water , though much of her superstructure , including her main battery , remained above water . In the remaining months of the war , " Schlesien " used her heavy artillery to provide support for retreating German ground troops . In May 1945 , she struck a mine off Swinemünde and had to be grounded to avoid sinking . After the end of the war , she was broken up , though some parts of the ship remained until the 1970s . Construction . " Schlesien " was intended to fight in the line of battle with the other battleships of the High Seas Fleet . She was laid down on 19 November 1904 at the Schichau dockyard in Danzig . She was launched on 28 May 1906 , and in March 1908 was sent to Kiel , where her fitting out work was completed . She was commissioned for trials on 5 May , though these were interrupted from 6 July to 5 September when the ship was temporarily used as a torpedo trials vessel . " Schlesien " joined the fleet after the torpedo trials were completed in September . The British battleship — armed with ten 12 inch ( 30 . 5 cm ) guns — had already been commissioned nearly two years prior , in December 1906 . " Dreadnought " s revolutionary design rendered obsolete every ship of the German navy , including the newer " Schlesien " . " Schlesien " was long , had a beam of , and a draft of . She had a full - load displacement of . She was equipped with three - shaft triple expansion engines and twelve coal - fired water - tube boilers that produced a rated and a top speed of . In addition to being the fastest ship of her class , " Schlesien " was the most fuel efficient . At a cruising speed of , she could steam for . She had a standard crew of 35 officers and 708 enlisted men . The ship ' s primary armament consisted of four 28 cm SK L / 40 gun s in two twin turrets ; one turret was placed forward and the other aft . She was also equipped with fourteen guns mounted in casemates and twenty guns in pivot mounts . The ship was fitted with six torpedo tubes , all submerged in the hull . One was in the bow , one in the stern , and four on the broadside . Her armored belt was thick amidships and she had a thick armored deck . The main battery turrets had thick sides . Service history . After commissioning , " Schlesien " was assigned to the I Battle Squadron . Her first year of service , 1909 , saw a pattern of fleet maneuvers in the North and Baltic Seas as well as the Atlantic Ocean . Her first cruise into the Atlantic was conducted from 7 July to 1 August . Another round of exercises followed in the autumn . The I Battle Squadron was transferred from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven in April 1910 . The following month , in May 1910 , the fleet conducted training maneuvers in the Kattegat , between Norway and Denmark . For the first time , the annual summer cruise went to Norway . Fleet training followed , and a training cruise into the Baltic took place at the end of the year . On 3 November 1911 , " Schlesien " was transferred to the II Battle Squadron with the rest of her sister ships . Training maneuvers in 1911 and 1912 followed the same pattern as in 1910 , with the exception of the summer cruise in 1912 ; owing to the Agadir Crisis that year , the cruise only went into the Baltic , rather than to Norway . World War I . " Schlesien " remained with the High Seas Fleet throughout the first two years of the war . At the outbreak of war , the ship was deployed to guard the German Bight . She then rejoined the High Seas Fleet as part of the battleship support for the battlecruisers that bombarded Scarborough , Hartlepool , and Whitby on 15 – 16 December 1914 . During the operation , the German battle fleet of some 12 dreadnoughts and 8 pre - dreadnoughts came to within of an isolated squadron of six British battleships . However , skirmishes between the rival destroyer screens convinced Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl that he was confronted with the entire Grand Fleet , and so he broke off the engagement and turned for home . Two resultless fleet advances followed on 17 – 18 and 21 – 23 April 1915 . Another followed on 17 – 18 May , and another on 23 – 24 October . On 24 – 25 April 1916 , " Schlesien " and her sisters joined the dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet to support the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group on a raid of the English coast . While en route to the target , the battlecruiser was damaged by a mine . The battlecruisers conducted a short bombardment of the ports of Yarmouth and Lowestoft . Visibility was poor , so the operation was soon called off before the British fleet could intervene . Battle of Jutland . Admiral Scheer immediately planned another foray into the North Sea , but the damage to " Seydlitz " delayed the operation until the end of May . " Schlesien " was the second ship in the IV Division of the II Battle Squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Franz Mauve , positioned at the rear of the German line . " Schlesien " was the second to last ship in the German line , followed only by " Schleswig - Holstein " . During the " Run to the North , " Admiral Reinhard Scheer , the commander of the fleet , ordered the fleet to pursue the British V Battle Squadron at top speed . The slower " Deutschland " - class ships could not keep up with the faster dreadnoughts and quickly fell behind . Later on the first day of the battle , the hard - pressed battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group were being pursued by their British opponents . " Schlesien " and the other so - called " five - minute ships " came to their aid by steaming in between the opposing battlecruiser squadrons . " Schlesien " and her sisters could barely make out a target in the darkness . Due to the poor visibility their shooting was ineffective . The British battlecruisers scored several hits on the German ships ; in the brief melee a near miss from a large - caliber gun sprayed shell splinters onto " Schlesien " s decks , killing one man and wounding another . Admiral Mauve ordered an 8 - point turn to the south , and the British did not follow . Late on the 31st , the fleet organized for the night march back to Germany ; " Schlesien " and " Schleswig - Holstein " fell in behind the mauled battlecruisers and at the rear of the line . British destroyers conducted a series of attacks against the fleet , some of which targeted " Schlesien " . Regardless , the High Seas Fleet punched through the British destroyer forces and reached Horns Reef by 4 : 00 on 1 June . The German fleet reached Wilhelmshaven a few hours later , where the undamaged dreadnoughts of the and es took up defensive positions . Inter - war years . Following the German defeat in World War I , the German navy , reorganized as the Reichsmarine , was permitted to retain three of the " Deutschland " - class battleships : " Hannover " , " Schleswig - Holstein " and " Schlesien " , along with several of the " Braunschweig " - class battleships . " Deutschland " , the oldest and least advanced ship of the class , was instead scrapped in 1922 . " Schlesien " and " Schleswig - Holstein " were modernized in the 1920s , a process that included replacement of the ships ' 17 cm guns with pieces . " Schlesien " and " Schleswig - Holstein " continued in their battleship configuration with the active fleet , while " Hannover " was intended to be rebuilt as a target ship , although this never occurred . " Schleswig - Holstein " was the flagship of the fleet until 1932 when she was taken in for another reconstruction that converted her into a training vessel . As a result , " Schlesien " held the position of fleet flagship afterward . In 1932 , Wilhelm Canaris took command of the ship , a post he held for two years . In May 1935 , the Reichsmarine was again reorganized as the Kriegsmarine . Shortly after , " Schlesien " took part in extensive fleet maneuvers with the new heavy cruiser " Deutschland " . Later that year , " Schlesien " was converted into a training ship . Among the modifications were the installation of additional anti - aircraft guns and replacement of the ship ' s boilers . The newer boilers were more efficient , which allowed fewer of them to be used ; the additional space this created was used as crew compartments for the cadets and an instruction room . The crew was also altered ; the standard crew had been 35 officers and 708 enlisted men ; after the conversion , this was reduced to 29 officers and 559 sailors , supplemented by 214 cadets . The following year , " Schlesien " toured the Americas ; in March 1937 the ship stopped in Halifax , Nova Scotia . Later that year in December , she stopped in Mar del Plata , Argentina . In 1938 , the ship visited Samaná Bay in the Dominican Republic . World War II . During the invasion of Poland in September 1939 , " Schlesien " initially remained in her training ship role , though she briefly acted as an icebreaker for U - boat s . Later in the month , " Schlesien " joined her sister " Schleswig - Holstein " to bombard Polish positions along the Baltic coast ; the bombardments lasted from 25 – 27 September . After the operation , " Schlesien " had six of her 15 cm guns removed to arm the new surface raider . In 1940 , " Schlesien " took part in Operation Weserübung , the German invasion of Denmark and Norway . " Schlesien " operated in Danish waters throughout the operation . After the occupations were complete , " Schlesien " resumed her ice - breaking duties . In March 1941 , " Schlesien " escorted mine - layers in the Baltic . After returning from this operation , she was to be converted into a barracks ship in Gotenhafen . On 4 April 1942 , " Schlesien " departed for Gotenhafen in company with the battleship and the icebreaker . In mid 1944 , " Schlesien " s and " Schleswig - Holstein " s anti - aircraft armaments were considerably strengthened so they could used as air defense ships in the port of Gotenhafen . In April 1945 , " Schlesien " was moved to Swinemünde to restock her ammunition supply as well as evacuate 1 , 000 wounded soldiers from the front . On 3 May she struck a mine at Zinnowitz outside Swinemünde and beached in shallow water . Much of the ship remained above water , including her main armament ; she was able to provide artillery support for retreating German units . Between 1949 and 1956 , the wreck was demolished and then scrapped " in situ " by an East German company . However , some remains from the ship were still visible in 1970 .