SMS Bayern SMS " Bayern " was the lead ship of the of battleship s in the German Imperial Navy . The vessel was launched in February 1915 and entered service in July 1916 , too late to take part in the Battle of Jutland . Her main armament consisted of eight 38 cm ( 15 in ) guns in four turrets , which was a significant improvement over the preceding s ten 30 . 5 cm ( 12 inch ) guns . The ship was to have formed the nucleus for a fourth battle squadron in the High Seas Fleet , along with three of her sister ships . However , only one of the other ships — — was completed ; the other two were canceled later in the war when production requirements shifted to U - boat construction . As she had been commissioned late in the war , " Bayern " had a limited service career . The first operation in which the ship took part was an abortive fleet advance into the North Sea on 18 – 19 August 1916 , just a month after she had been commissioned . The ship also participated in Operation Albion in the Gulf of Riga , but shortly after the German attack began on 12 October 1917 , " Bayern " was mined and had to be withdrawn for repairs . She was interned with the majority of the High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow in November 1918 following the end of World War I . On 21 June 1919 , Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered the fleet to be scuttled ; " Bayern " sank at 14 : 30 . In September 1934 , the ship was raised and towed to Rosyth , where she was scrapped . Construction . " Bayern " was ordered with the provisional name " T " in 1912 , under the fourth and final Naval Law , which was passed that year . Work began at the Howaldtswerke Dockyard in Kiel under construction number 590 . The ship was laid down in 1913 and launched on 18 February 1915 . After fitting - out and sea trials , the ship was commissioned into service on 15 July 1916 , a month and a half too late for her to participate in the Battle of Jutland . She had cost the Imperial German Government 49 million Goldmarks . " Bayern " would later be joined in service by one sister ship , . Two other ships of this class , " Sachsen " and " Württemberg " , were canceled before they were completed . " Bayern " was long at the waterline , and an even long overall . She had a beam of and a draft of 9 . 3 – 9 . 4 m ( 30 . 5 – 30 . 8 ft ) . " Bayern " displaced at a normal displacement ; at full combat load , she displaced up to . " Bayern " was powered by three Parsons steam turbines rated at and three oil - fired and eleven coal - fired Schulz - Thornycroft boilers , and on trials achieved ; she had a maximum speed of . The ship could carry up to of coal and of fuel oil , which provided a maximum range of at a cruising speed of . The ship was the first German warship armed with eight 38 cm ( 15 in ) guns . The primary battery guns were arranged in four twin gun turret s : two superfiring turrets each fore and aft . Her secondary armament consisted of sixteen 15 cm ( 5 . 9 in ) guns , six 8 . 8 cm ( 3 . 45 in ) guns and five 60 cm ( 23 . 6 in ) underwater torpedo tubes , one in the bow and two on each beam . Upon commissioning , she carried a crew of 42 officers and 1 , 129 enlisted men . Service history . " Bayern " joined the III Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet on 15 July 1916 , just six weeks after the Battle of Jutland . The ship would have been available for the operation , but the ship ' s crew , composed largely of the crew from the recently decommissioned battleship , was given leave . At the time of her commissioning , " Bayern " s commander was " Kapitän zur See " ( Captain at Sea ) Max Hahn . Ernst Lindemann , who would go on to command the battleship during its only combat sortie during World War II , served aboard the ship as a wireless operator . Admiral Reinhard Scheer planned a fleet advance for 18 – 19 August 1916 ; the operation consisted of a bombardment conducted by the I Scouting Group . This was an attempt to draw out and destroy Admiral David Beatty ' s battlecruisers . As and were the only two German battlecruisers still in fighting condition , 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 , including 15 dreadnoughts , were to 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 . Another sortie into the North Sea followed on 18 – 20 October , though the German fleet again encountered no British naval forces . 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 consisted of the flagship and the III Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet . At this time , the V Division included the " Bayern " and four s . The VI Division consisted of the five s . Along with 9 light cruisers , 3 torpedo boat flotillas , and dozens of mine warfare ships , the entire force numbered some 300 ships , supported by over 100 aircraft and 6 zeppelin s . 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 " Bayern " , along with " Moltke " and the four " König " s , began firing on the Russian shore batteries at Tagga Bay . Simultaneously , the five " 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 . " Bayern " role in the operation was cut short when she struck a naval mine at 5 : 07 while moving into her bombardment position at Pamerort . The mine explosion killed one " Unteroffizier " and six sailors , allowed of water into the ship and caused the forecastle to sink by . Despite the damage inflicted by the mine , " Bayern " engaged the naval battery at Cape Toffri on the southern tip of Hiiumaa . " Bayern " was released from her position at 14 : 00 . Preliminary repairs were made on 13 October in Tagga Bay . The temporary repairs proved ineffective , and " Bayern " had to be withdrawn to Kiel for repairs ; the return trip took 19 days . Repairs lasted from 3 November to 27 December , during which the forward torpedo tube room was stripped of its equipment and the torpedo ports were sealed . The room was then turned into an additional watertight compartment . Four anti - aircraft guns were also installed during the repairs process . On 16 October , two " König " - class battleships and a number of smaller vessels were sent to engage the Russian battleships in the Gulf of Riga . The following day , and engaged the Russian battleships — " König " dueled with " Slava " and " Kronprinz " fired on both " Slava " and the cruiser " Bayan " . The Russian vessels were hit dozens of times , until at 10 : 30 the Russian naval commander , Admiral Bakhirev , ordered their withdrawal . " Slava " had taken too much damage , and was unable to make good her escape ; instead , she was scuttled and her crew was evacuated on a destroyer . By 20 October , the naval operations were effectively over ; the Russian fleet had been destroyed or forced to withdraw , and the German army held the islands in the gulf . Subsequent operations . Following her return to the fleet , " Bayern " was assigned to security duties in the North Sea . Admiral Scheer had used light surface forces to attack British convoys to Norway beginning in late 1917 . As a result , the Royal Navy attached a squadron of battleships to protect the convoys , which presented Scheer with the possibility of destroying a detached squadron of the Grand Fleet . Scheer remarked that " A successful attack on such a convoy would not only result in the sinking of much tonnage , but would be a great military success , and would . . . force the English to send more warships to the northern waters . " Scheer instituted strict wireless silence in preparation for the planned attack . This denied the British the ability to intercept and decrypt German signals , which had previously been a significant advantage . The operation called for Hipper ' s battlecruisers to attack the convoy and its escorts on 23 April while the battleships of the High Seas Fleet stood by in support . On 22 April , " Bayern " and the rest of the German fleet assembled in the Schillig Roads outside Wilhelmshaven and departed the following morning at 06 : 00 . Heavy fog , however , forced the Germans to remain inside their defensive minefields for half an hour . Hipper ' s forces were some west of Egerö , Norway , by 05 : 20 on the 24th . Despite the success in reaching the convoy route undetected , the operation failed due to faulty intelligence . Reports from U - boats indicated to Scheer that the convoys sailed at the start and middle of each week , but a west - bound convoy had left Bergen on Tuesday the 22nd and an east - bound group left Methil , Scotland , on the 24th , a Thursday . As a result , there was no convoy for Hipper to attack . The same day , one of " Moltke " screws slipped off , which caused serious damage to the power plant and allowed some of water into the ship . " Moltke " was forced to break radio silence in order to inform Scheer of the ship ' s condition , which alerted the Royal Navy to the High Seas Fleet ' s activities . Beatty sortied with a force of 31 battleships and four battlecruisers , but was too late to intercept the retreating Germans . The Germans reached their defensive minefields early on 25 April , though approximately off Helgoland " Moltke " was torpedoed by the submarine . " Moltke " successfully returned to port . Fate . " Bayern " was to have taken part in what would have amounted to the " death ride " of the High Seas Fleet shortly before the end of World War I . The bulk of the High Seas Fleet was to have sortied from its base in Wilhelmshaven to engage the British Grand Fleet . Scheer — by now the " Großadmiral " of the fleet — intended to inflict as much damage as possible on the British navy , in order to obtain a better bargaining position for Germany , whatever the cost to the fleet . While the fleet was consolidating in Wilhelmshaven , war - weary sailors began rioting . On 24 October 1918 , the order was given to sail from Wilhelmshaven . Starting on the night of 29 October , sailors on several battleships mutinied ; three ships from the III Squadron refused to weigh anchors , and acts of sabotage were committed on board the battleships and . The order to sail was rescinded in the face of this open revolt . In an attempt to suppress the mutiny , the battleship squadrons were dispersed . 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 . 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 British light cruiser , before meeting a massive flotilla of some 370 British , American , and French warships for the voyage to Scapa Flow . 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 . Unaware that the deadline had been extended to the 23rd , Reuter ordered his ships to be sunk . 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 . The ship was raised on 1 September 1934 and was broken up the following year in Rosyth . The ship ' s bell was eventually delivered to the German Federal Navy and is on display at Kiel Fördeklub . Footnotes . Footnotes Citations