SMS Elsass

SMS Elsass. was the second of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the in the German Imperial Navy laid down in 1901 and commissioned 1904. She was named for the German province of Elsass, now the French region of Alsace. Her sister ships were SMS Braunschweig, SMS Hessen, SMS Preussen (1903) and SMS Lothringen.

The ship served in the II Squadron of the German fleet after commissioning, though by the outbreak of World War I she had been moved to the IV Squadron. Elsass saw action in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. In August 1915, the ship participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, during which she engaged the Russian battleship RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP Slava. In 1916, the ship was placed in reserve owing to crew shortages. She spent the remainder of World War I as a training ship.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, she was retained after the end of the war and modernized in 1923–24. Elsass served in the reformed Reichsmarine with the surface fleet until 1930, when she was again placed in reserve. She was stricken in 1931 used for a short time as a hulk in Wilhelmshaven. She was sold to Norddeutscher Lloyd in late 1935 and subsequently broken up for scrap the following year.

Construction
Elsass was laid down in 1901, at the Schichau-Werke in Danzig under construction number 97. The second unit of her class, she was ordered under the contract name "J" as a new unit for the fleet. The ship cost 24,373,000 marks. Elsass was launched on 26 May 1903 and commissioned into the fleet on 29 November 1904.

The ship was 127.7 m long overall and had a beam of 22.2 m and a draft of 8.1 m forward. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by eight naval and six cylindrical boilers, all of which burned coal. Elsass's powerplant was rated at 16000 ihp, which generated a top speed of 18 kn.

Elsass's armament consisted of a main battery of four 28 cm (11 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure. Her secondary armament consisted of fourteen 17 cm (6.7 inch) SK L/40 guns and eighteen 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/35 quick-firing guns. The armament suite was rounded out with six 45 cm torpedo tubes, all mounted submerged in the hull.

Service history
Upon commissioning in November 1904, Elsass was assigned to the IV Division of the II Squadron of the German fleet. She joined her sister SMS Braunschweig and the old battleship SMS Weissenburg. The German Navy in 1905 consisted of four divisions of three battleships each, with two divisions per squadron. This was supported by a cruiser division, composed of two armored cruisers and six protected cruisers. Kapitän zur See Reinhard Scheer assumed command of the vessel in 1907; he would go on to command the entire High Seas Fleet at the Battle of Jutland and eventually serve as the Chief of Naval Staff. Scheer held command of the ship for two years.

In 1909, the ship was transferred to the III Division, II Squadron alongside her sisters SMS Hessen and SMS Preussen (1903); by this time, enough battleships had been built to increase the size of each division from three to four vessels. In March 1909, a mine exploded aboard the ship during training in Kiel. Two sailors were killed and another six men were wounded.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Elsass was assigned to the IV Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet. The squadron was commanded by Vice Admiral Ehrhard Schmidt. In July 1915, following the loss of the minelaying cruiser SMS Albatross (1907) in the Baltic, the IV Squadron ships were transferred to reinforce the German naval forces in the area. On 11 and 19 July, German cruisers, with the IV Squadron ships in support, conducted sweeps in the Baltic, though without engaging Russian forces.

In August 1915, the German fleet attempted to clear the Gulf of Riga of Russian naval forces, in order to aid the German Army advancing on the city. The IV Squadron was joined by the I Squadron, which consisted of the eight and s, from the High Seas Fleet, along with three battlecruisers and a host of smaller craft. The task force was placed under command of Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper, though operational command remained with Vice Admiral Schmidt. On the morning of 8 August, the Germans made their initial push into the Gulf; Elsass and Braunschweig were tasked with engaging the Russian pre-dreadnought RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP Slava and preventing her from disrupting the German minesweepers. However, when it became clear that the minesweepers could not clear the minefield before nightfall, Schmidt called off the attempt. A second attempt was made on 16 August; this time, Elsass remained outside the Gulf while the dreadnoughts SMS Nassau and SMS Posen took over the task of dealing with Slava. By 19 August, the Russian minefields had been cleared and the flotilla entered the Gulf. Reports of Allied submarines in the area, however, prompted the Germans to call off the operation the following day.

Due to manpower shortages, the IV Squadron ships were demobilized. On 25 July 1916, Elsass became a drill ship, as well as a floating barracks, based in Kiel. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war, specified that Germany was permitted to retain six battleships of the "Deutschland or Lothringen types." She was subsequently used as a training ship in the Reichsmarine.

In 1923, the ship was taken in hand for a major overhaul. Elsass was dry-docked in the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven, where the conning tower was rebuilt. Work lasted until 1924. She and Braunschweig, along with the SMS Schlesien, were assigned to the North Sea Station. Elsass served with the fleet until 1930; she was withdrawn from active service on 25 February 1930. The ship was stricken from the naval register on 31 March 1931 and used as a hulk in Wilhelmshaven until 1935. The Reichsmarine sold the old battleship to Technischer Betrieb des Norddeutscher Lloyd on 31 October. Elsass was broken up for scrap the following year.