Wilhelmshaven-class Panzerschiffe

## KMS Wilhelmshaven

Side profile of the sole completed ship of the class.

### Fate

Sunk in Kiel Canal by air attack during the "Final Stand", May 1945. Wreck above water broken up 1950.

The Wilhelmshaven-class were to be a class of Panzerschiffe ("armored ships"), a form of heavily armed cruiser, laid down for the German Kreigsmarine in 1935. Compared to the preceding Deutschland-class, they were slightly faster, more compact, more heavily armed and better protected. Due to their compact layout, some naval historians considered this class to be one of the few actually efficiently designed vessels of the Kreigsmarine, although they were still arguably overweight.

Due to the Kreigsmarine's approval of several other Panzerschiffe classes in 1935, only one of 3 planned ships was completed, Wilhelmshaven, which served in World War II.

## Design

The Wilhelmshaven-class displaced 20,000 tons at full load, compared to the 16,020 of the preceding Deutschland-class. They were 160m long overall, had a beam of 25m and a draft of 8.91m. These compact dimensions, owing to ongoing construction in the Kiel Canal, resulted in the class having a visibly cramped superstructure layout.

The ships were protected by 150mm of armour on the main belt, conning tower and main battery turrets, as well as a thin 30mm end belt and a 50mm upper belt. The deck ranged in thickness from 25 to 50mm. An unusual distribution of 10 MAN diesel engines provided 65800 SHP to 3 shafts. While Wilhelmshaven's design speed was 26.7 knots, on trials the vessel apparently reached speeds of 28.9 knots. However, due to a short hullform and bow design, the vessel was very wet forwards at these speeds, sometimes making the forward turret difficult to operate.

Wilhelmshaven carried 9 28cm L54.5 SK C34 guns in 3 turrets, the same main battery firepower of a Scharnhorst-class battleship. This was supplemented by 4 twin turrets carrying 15cm/55 SK C28 guns and 6 twin 10cm/65 SK C33 dual purpose guns.

## Service History

The only ship of the class, Wilhelmshaven, was laid down in May 1935 at the Kriegsmarinewerft in the ship's namesake city. His first captain insisted that the vessel was to be referred to as male. This was never entirely accepted, and the actual "gender" of the ship remains in dispute. The vessel shall be referred to as male for the rest of this article for the sake of not giving the author headaches.

### World War II

On September 1, 1939, Wilhelmshaven was moored in Danzig with the old battleship (Kaiser Friedreich? Scheisse?) and other Kreigsmarine warships under the guise of a ceremonial visit. As the invasion of Poland began, he became the second or third to shoot in World War II. Unfortunately, noone really cares about anything but the first in regards to this matter. Wilhelmshaven continued to support German action off the coast of Poland. When the Polish Navy, including the cruiser Buława made their breakout, Wilhelmshaven was detached to pursue, but by then had already been overtaken, and was further hampered by her speed and issues with seakeeping. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for the Polish forces soon would be joined by two Royal Navy fast battleships of the Redoubtable-class in the resulting battle of (?).

Wilhelmshaven returned to his original duties, joining the cruiser Admiral Hipper in supporting the invasion of Norway through Operation Weserübung. In the morning of 8 April 1940, Hipper and Wilhelmshaven encountered the lone British destroyer HMS Glowworm. Wilhelmshaven, the second ship in the line with Hipper, opened fire on Glowworm, striking her twice, with one shell causing substantial damage to the aft superstructure of the destroyer. However, Wilhelmshaven's position put him directly ahead of one spread of torpedoes fired by Glowworm. Evasive action was taken, but a single torpedo struck the tip of Wilhelmshaven's bow, tearing the forward 5m of the vessel open. Though structural impact was relatively minor, this damage significantly hampered Wilhelmshaven's already poor seakeeping performance at speed, and warranted her return to Hamburg's Blohm & Voss shipyard for repairs.

In late August 1940, the repaired Wilhelmshaven was dispatched for the Atlantic with a lightly reconstructed bow which improved her seakeeping at speed. He successfully navigated the Denmark Strait and headed South, intending to intercept British convoys. In September 1940, he was ordered further south to rendezvous with, and assist the return of, other Kreigsmarine ships, including cruiser Köln and fellow Panzerschiffe Seeadler. This force was engaged by the Royal Navy on 18 September as it headed back north, resulting in the Naval Battle of Madeira, in which Seeadler was badly damaged. Wilhelmshaven then found himself ironically escorting the German auxiliaries, rather than sinking British ones.