Bayern - class battleship The " Bayern " class was a class of four super - dreadnought battleship s built by the German Kaiserliche Marine ( Imperial Navy ) . The class comprised , , " Sachsen " , and " Württemberg " . Construction started on the ships shortly before World War I ; " Baden " was laid down in 1913 , " Bayern " and " Sachsen " followed in 1914 , and " Württemberg " , the final ship , was laid down in 1915 . Only " Baden " and " Bayern " were completed , due to shipbuilding priorities changing as the war dragged on . It was determined that U - boat s were more valuable to the war effort , and so work on new battleships was slowed and ultimately stopped altogether . As a result , " Bayern " and " Baden " were the last German battleships completed by the Kaiserliche Marine . " Bayern " and " Baden " were commissioned into the fleet in July 1916 and March 1917 , respectively . This was too late for either ship to take part in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916 . " Bayern " was assigned to the naval force that drove the Imperial Russian Navy from the Gulf of Riga during Operation Albion in October 1917 , though the ship was severely damaged from a mine and had to be withdrawn to Kiel for repairs . " Baden " replaced as the flagship of the High Seas Fleet , but saw no combat . Both vessels were interned in Scapa Flow following the Armistice in November 1918 . Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter , the commander of the interned German fleet , ordered his ships be sunk on 21 June 1919 ; " Bayern " was successfully scuttled , though British guards managed to beach " Baden " to prevent her from sinking . The ship was eventually expended as a gunnery target in 1921 . " Sachsen " and " Württemberg " , both at various stages of completion when the war ended , were broken up for scrap metal . Design . The " Bayern " - class ships were a result of the fourth Naval Law , which was passed in 1912 . Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz used public outcry over the British involvement in the Agadir Crisis of 1911 to pressure the Reichstag into appropriating additional funds for the Navy . The Fourth Naval Law secured funding for three new dreadnoughts , two light cruiser s , and an increase of an additional 15 , 000 officers and men in the ranks of the Navy for 1912 . The capital ships laid down in 1912 were the s ; funding for " Bayern " and " Baden " was allocated the following year . Funding for " Sachsen " was allocated in the 1914 budget , while " Württemberg " was funded in the War Estimates . The last remaining pre - dreadnought , , was to be replaced , as well as two elderly pre - dreadnoughts , and . " Baden " was ordered as " Ersatz Wörth " , " Württemberg " as " Ersatz Kaiser Wilhelm II " , and " Sachsen " as " Ersatz Kaiser Friedrich III " ; " Bayern " was regarded as an addition to the fleet , and was ordered under the provisional name " T " . The design for the ships was drawn up between 1910 and 1912 . Consideration was given to equipping the new ships with triple turrets mounting the 30 . 5 cm ( 12 in ) guns of the preceding s , but after examining the gun turrets of the Austro - Hungarian dreadnoughts of the , it was determined that the triple gun turrets still had too many problems . Among these deficiencies were increased weight , reduced ammunition supply and rate of fire , and loss of fighting capability if one of the turrets was disabled . It was therefore decided to arm the new vessels with eight 38 cm guns instead of twelve 30 . 5 cm guns . General characteristics . " Bayern " and " Baden " were long at the waterline , and an even long overall . " Sachsen " and " Württemberg " were slightly longer : m at the waterline and overall . All four ships had a beam of , and had a draft of between 9 . 3 and 9 . 4 m ( 30 . 5 – 30 . 8 ft ) . " Bayern " and " Baden " were designed to displace at a normal displacement ; at full combat load , the ships displaced up to . " Württemberg " and " Sachsen " were slightly heavier , at 28 , 800 t normal and 32 , 500 t fully laden . The ships were constructed with transverse and longitudinal steel frames , over which the outer hull plates were riveted . The hull was divided into 17 watertight compartments , and included a double bottom that ran for 88 percent of the length of the hull . " Bayern " and " Baden " were regarded as exceptional sea boats by the German navy . " Bayern " and her sisters were stable and very maneuverable . The ships suffered slight speed loss in heavy seas ; with the rudders hard over , the ships lost up to 62 % speed and heeled over 7 degrees . With a metacentric height of , larger than that of their British equivalents , the vessels were stable gun platforms for the confined waters of the North Sea . The ships of the " Bayern " class had a standard crew of 42 officers and 1 , 129 enlisted men ; when serving as a squadron flagship , an additional 14 officers and 86 men were required . The vessels carried several smaller craft , including one picket boat , three barges , two launches , two yawls , and two dinghies . Machinery . " Bayern " and " Baden " were equipped with 11 coal - fired Schulz - Thornycroft boilers and three oil - fired Schulz - Thornycroft boilers in nine boiler rooms . Three sets of Parsons turbines drove three - bladed screws that were in diameter . " Bayern " s and " Baden " s power plant was designed to run at at 265 revolutions per minute ; on trials the ships achieved and , respectively . Both ships were capable of a maximum speed of . The first two ships were initially designed to carry of coal and of oil , though fuel bunkerage was subsequently increased to of coal and of oil . This enabled a range of at a speed of . At , the range decreased to , at the range fell to , and at the ships could steam for only . The ships carried eight diesel generators ; these supplied each ship with a total of 2 , 400 kilowatts of electrical power at 220 volts . " Sachsen " and " Württemberg " were intended to be one knot faster than the earlier pair of ships . " Württemberg " received more powerful machinery that would have produced for a designed speed of 22 knots . On " Sachsen " , a MAN diesel engine producing 12 , 000 ihp was installed on the center shaft , while steam turbines powered the outboard shafts . The combined power plant would have produced for a designed speed of 22 . 5 knots . Armament . The " Bayern " - class battleships were armed with a main battery of eight 38 cm ( 15 in ) SK L / 45 guns in four Drh LC / 1913 twin gun turret s . These turrets could train 150 degrees to either side of the centerline , and their guns could depress to −8 degrees . As the Germans thought that conditions in the North Sea would dictate short - range actions , the guns initially could elevate only to 16 degrees , which allowed a maximum range of 20 , 400 m . The gun mountings were modified to allow elevation up to 20 degrees , increasing the range to 23 , 200 m . The main battery was supplied with a total of 720 shells or 90 rounds per gun . The guns had a rate of fire of around 2 . 5 shells per minute . Post - war tests conducted by the British Royal Navy showed that the guns on " Baden " could be ready to fire again 23 seconds after firing ; this was significantly faster than their British contemporaries , the , which took 36 seconds between salvos . The German weapons were , however , less accurate than earlier German weapons , and fired a lighter shell than the equivalent British guns . The German armor - piercing shell weighed 750 kg ( 1 , 653 lb ) and was driven by a 277 kg ( 610 . 7 lb ) RPC / 12 propellant charge in a brass cartridge . The shells were fired at a muzzle velocity of 800 mps ( 2 , 625 fps ) . Each gun was expected to fire 300 shells before replacement of the barrel was required . The guns that had been constructed for the battleships " Sachsen " and " Württemberg " were eventually used as coastal guns in occupied France and Belgium ; these guns were referred to as Langer Max . The ships were also armed with a secondary battery of sixteen 15 cm ( 5 . 9 in ) SK L / 45 quick - firing guns , each mounted in MPL C / 13 casemate s in the side of the top deck . These guns were intended for defense against torpedo boats , and were supplied with a total of 2 , 240 shells . The guns could engage targets out to 13 , 500 m , and after improvements in 1915 , their range was extended to 16 , 800 m . The guns had a sustained rate of fire of 5 to 7 rounds per minute . The shells were 45 . 3 kg ( 99 . 8 lb ) , and were loaded with a 13 . 7 kg ( 31 . 2 lb ) RPC / 12 propellant charge in a brass cartridge . The guns fired at a muzzle velocity of 835 meters per second ( 2 , 740 ft / s ) . The guns were expected to fire around 1 , 400 shells before they needed to be replaced . " Bayern " and " Baden " were also equipped with a pair of 8 . 8 cm ( 3 . 45 in ) L / 45 flak guns , which were supplied with 800 rounds . The guns were emplaced in MPL C / 13 mountings , which allowed depression to −10 degrees and elevation to 70 degrees . These guns fired 9 kg ( 19 . 8 lb ) shells , and had an effective ceiling of 9 , 150 m at 70 degrees . As was customary on capital ships of the period , the " Bayern " - class ships were armed with five 60 cm ( 24 in ) submerged torpedo tubes . One tube was mounted in the bow and two on each broadside . A total of 20 torpedoes were carried per ship . However , both " Bayern " and " Baden " struck mines in 1917 ; the damage incurred revealed structural weaknesses caused by the torpedo tubes ; both ships had their lateral tubes removed . The torpedoes were the H8 type , which were long and carried a 210 kg ( 463 lb ) Hexanite warhead . The torpedoes had a range of 6 , 000 m ( 6 , 550 yd ) when set at a speed of 36 knots ; at a reduced speed of 30 knots , the range increased significantly to 14 , 000 m ( 15 , 310 yd ) . Armor . The " Bayern " - class ships were protected with Krupp cemented steel armor , as was the standard for German warships of the period . They had an armor belt that was thick in the central citadel of the ship , where the most important parts of the ship were located . This included the ammunition magazines and the machinery spaces . The belt was reduced in less critical areas , to forward and aft . The bow and stern were not protected by armor at all . A - thick torpedo bulkhead ran the length of the hull , several meters behind the main belt . The main armored deck was thick in most places , though the thickness of the sections that covered the more important areas of the ship was increased to . The forward conning tower was protected with heavy armor : the sides were thick and the roof was 170 mm thick . The rear conning tower was less well armored ; its sides were only 170 mm thick and the roof was covered with of armor plate . The main battery gun turrets were also heavily armored : the turret sides were 350 mm thick and the roofs were 200 mm thick . The 15 cm guns had 170 mm thick armor plating on the casemates ; the guns themselves had 80 mm thick shields to protect their crews from shell splinters . Construction . The class was planned to include four ships . was built by Howaldtswerke in Kiel under construction number 590 ; she was laid down in 1913 , launched on 18 February 1915 , and completed on 15 July 1916 . was built by the Schichau shipyard in Danzig , under construction number 913 . The ship was launched on 30 October 1915 and commissioned into the fleet on 14 March 1917 . " Sachsen " was laid down at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel , under construction number 210 . She was launched on 21 November 1916 , but not completed . " Sachsen " was by then 9 months from completion . " Württemberg " was built by the AG Vulcan shipyard in Hamburg , under construction number 19 . She was launched on 20 June 1917 , but she too was not completed . At the time of cancellation , the ship was approximately 12 months from completion . Service history . Fleet sortie of 18 – 19 August 1916 . During the fleet sortie on 18 – 19 August 1916 , the I Scouting Group , which was the battlecruiser reconnaissance force of the High Seas Fleet and commanded by Admiral Franz von Hipper , was to bombard the coastal town of Sunderland in an attempt to draw out and destroy Beatty ' s battlecruisers . As and were the only two remaining German battlecruisers still in fighting condition after the Battle of Jutland , three dreadnoughts were assigned to the unit for the operation : " Bayern " , and the two ships and . Admiral Scheer and the rest of the High Seas Fleet , with 15 dreadnoughts of its own , would trail behind and provide cover . The British were aware of the German plans and sortied the Grand Fleet to meet them . By 14 : 35 , Scheer had been warned of the Grand Fleet ' s approach and , unwilling to engage the whole of the Grand Fleet just 11 weeks after the decidedly close call at Jutland , turned his forces around and retreated to German ports . Operation Albion . In early September 1917 , following the German conquest of the Russian port of Riga , the German navy decided to evict the Russian naval forces that still held the Gulf of Riga . To this end , the " Admiralstab " ( the Navy High Command ) planned an operation to seize the Baltic islands of Ösel , particularly the Russian gun batteries on the Sworbe peninsula . On 18 September , the order was issued for a joint Army - Navy operation to capture Ösel and Moon islands ; the primary naval component was to comprise the flagship , the battlecruiser , along with the III Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet . The V Division included the four s , and was by this time augmented with " Bayern " . The VI Division consisted of the five s . Along with nine light cruisers , 3 torpedo boat flotillas , and dozens of mine warfare ships , the entire force numbered some 300 ships , and were supported by over 100 aircraft and 6 zeppelins . The invasion force amounted to approximately 24 , 600 officers and enlisted men . Opposing the Germans were the old Russian pre - dreadnought s and , the armored cruiser s , , and , 26 destroyers , and several torpedo boats and gunboats . The garrison on Ösel numbered some 14 , 000 men . The operation began on 12 October , when " Moltke " , " Bayern " , and the " König " s began firing on the Russian shore batteries at Tagga Bay . Simultaneously , the " Kaiser " s engaged the batteries on the Sworbe peninsula ; the objective was to secure the channel between Moon and Dagö islands , which would block the only escape route of the Russian ships in the gulf . Both " Grosser Kurfürst " and " Bayern " struck mines while maneuvering into their bombardment positions ; damage to the former was minimal , and the ship remained in action . However , " Bayern " was severely damaged , and temporary repairs proved ineffective . The ship had to be withdrawn to Kiel for repairs ; the return trip took 19 days . Fleet sortie of 23 – 24 April 1918 . In late 1917 , the High Seas Fleet began to conduct anti - convoy raids with light craft in the North Sea between Britain and Norway . On 17 October , the German light cruiser s and intercepted a convoy of twelve ships escorted by a pair of destroyers and destroyed it ; only three transports managed to escape . On 12 December , four German destroyers intercepted and annihilated another convoy of five ships and two escorting destroyers . This prompted Admiral David Beatty , the Commander in Chief of the Grand Fleet , to detach several battleships and battlecruisers to protect the convoys in the North Sea . This presented to Admiral Scheer the opportunity for which he had been waiting the entire war : the chance to isolate and eliminate a portion of the Grand Fleet . At 05 : 00 on 23 April 1918 , the entire High Seas Fleet , including " Bayern " and " Baden " , left harbor with the intention of intercepting one of the heavily escorted convoys . Wireless radio traffic was kept to a minimum to prevent the British from learning of the operation . However , at 05 : 10 on 24 April , the battlecruiser " Moltke " suffered severe mechanical problems and had to be towed back to Wilhelmshaven . By 14 : 10 , the convoy had still not yet been located , and so Scheer turned the High Seas Fleet back towards German waters . In fact , there was no convoy sailing on 24 April ; German naval intelligence had miscalculated the sailing date by one day . Wilhelmshaven mutiny . In October 1918 , Admiral Hipper , now the commander of the entire High Seas Fleet , planned for a final battle with the Grand Fleet . Admiral Reinhard Scheer , the Chief of the Naval Staff , approved the plan on 27 October ; the operation was set for the 30th . However , when the fleet was ordered to assemble in Wilhelmshaven on 29 October , war - weary crews began to desert or openly disobey their orders . Crews aboard , , and demonstrated for peace . The crew aboard was the first to openly mutiny ; and joined as well . By the evening of the 29th , red flags of revolution flew from the masts of dozens of warships in the harbor . In spite of this , Hipper decided to hold a last meeting aboard " Baden " — his flagship — to discuss the operation with the senior officers of the fleet . The following morning , it was clear the mutiny was too far gone to permit a fleet action . In an attempt to suppress the revolt , he ordered one of the battle squadrons to depart for Kiel . By 5 November , red flags had been raised on every battleship in the harbor except " König " , though it too was commandeered by a sailors ' council on 6 November . Fate . Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918 , the majority of the High Seas Fleet was to be interned in the British naval base in Scapa Flow . " Bayern " was listed as one of the ships to be handed over , though " Baden " initially was not . The battlecruiser , which the British believed to be completed , was requested instead . When it became apparent to the Allies that " Mackensen " was still under construction , " Baden " was ordered to replace it . On 21 November 1918 , the ships to be interned , under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter , sailed from their base in Germany for the last time . The fleet rendezvoused with the light cruiser , before meeting a massive flotilla of some 370 British , American , and French warships for the voyage to Scapa Flow . " Baden " arrived at Scapa Flow separately on 14 December 1918 . Once the ships were interned , they had their guns disabled through the removal of their breech blocks . The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced the Versailles Treaty . It became apparent to Reuter that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June , which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty . To prevent this , he decided to scuttle his ships at the first opportunity . On the morning of 21 June , the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers ; at 11 : 20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships . " Bayern " sank at 14 : 30 , but " Baden " was run aground by British guards ; she was the only capital ship that was not sunk . After being refloated and thoroughly examined , " Baden " was expended as a gunnery target , finally being sunk on 16 August 1921 to the southwest of Portsmouth . " Bayern " was eventually raised for scrapping on 1 September 1934 and broken up over the following year in Rosyth . Both " Sachsen " and " Württemberg " were stricken from the German Navy under the terms of of the Versailles Treaty . " Sachsen " was sold for scrapping in 1920 to ship breakers at the Kiel Arsenalmole . " Württemberg " was sold the following year in 1921 , and broken up in Hamburg . References . Online sources