The battleship SMS Oldenburg belonged to the Helgoland ship class and was the first warship in the imperial navy whose main armament was 30.5-cm for the first time. It was one of the most advanced warships in the navy, but was used as the largest part of the fleet predominantly defensive.
Launching and design:
Between 1907 and 1908 drafts were submitted to replace older armored ships against modern large-scale ships, which appeared at least equal to the caliber size of the British ships. These included the Helgoland class with a total of 4 ships were planned. Unlike the British ships, the Helgoland class placed great emphasis on armor, which was more pronounced than other ships.
At the time of ship planning, the designers had already known the principle of over-firing gun turrets, but in the Helgoland class, the main artillery was divided into 6 twin towers, with 1 tower each on the midship line and 2 towers each on port and starboard.
The launch of the SMS Oldenburg took place on June 30, 1910, the commissioning on May 1, 1912.
Use in the war:
After commissioning and the usual test drives, the transfer to the German High Seas Fleet took place.
With the outbreak of the First World War, SMS Oldenburg participated in a number of operations in the North and Baltic Seas. The ship also participated in the Battle of the Skagerrak on May 31 and June 1, 1916, but left the battle without major damage.
According to the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to hand over the SMS Oldenburg to Japan as reparation. In 1920, the transfer was to take place, but since the Japanese had no use for the German ship, it remained in Germany.
In 1921, the Oldenburg was finally brought to the Dutch Dordrecht and scrapped there.
June 30th, 1910
May 1st, 1912
Scrapped in Dordrecht in 1921
Max. 8,94 meters
Max. 24.700 Tons
15 Marine Boiler
34.394 PS (25.297 kW)
21,3 kn (39 km/h)
12 × Rapid Fire Gun 30,5 cm L / 50 (1.020 rounds)
14 × Rapid Fire Gun 15 cm L / 45 (2.100 rounds)
14 × Rapid Fire Gun 8,8 cm L / 45 (of which 2 Anti-aircraft guns, 2.800 rounds)
6 × torpedo tube ⌀ 50 cm
Waterline: 120-300 mm
You can find the right literature here:
German Battleships 1914–18 (1): Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes (New Vanguard)
Supported by official documents, personal accounts, official drawings and specially commissioned artwork, this volume is an enlightening history of the Deutschland to Osfriesland classes. Detailing the last of the pre-dreadnaught battleship classes, this book goes on to explain the revolutionary developments that took place within the German Imperial Navy as they readied themselves for war. This included creating vessels with vast increases in size and armament. This account of design and technology is supplemented by individual ship histories detailing combat experience complete with first-hand accounts. The specially commissioned artwork also brings this history to life with recreations of the battleship Pommern fighting at Jutland and ships of the Osfriesland class destroying HMS Black Prince in a dramatic night-time engagement.
The Imperial German Navy of World War I, Vol. 1 Warships: A Comprehensive Photographic Study of the Kaiser’s Naval Forces
The Imperial German Navy of WWI is a series of books (Warships, Campaigns, & Uniforms) that provide a broad view of the Kaiser's naval forces through the extensive use of photographs. Every effort has been made to cover all significant areas during the war period. In addition to the primary use of photographs, technical information is provided for each warship along with its corresponding service history; with a special emphasis being placed on those warships that participated in the Battle of Skagerrak (Jutland). Countless sources have been used to establish individual case studies for each warship; multiple photos of each warship are provided. The entire series itself is unprecedented in its coverage of the Kaiser's navy.
German Battlecruisers of World War One: Their Design, Construction and Operations
This is the most comprehensive, English-language study of the German Imperial Navy's battlecruisers that served in the First World War. Known as Panzerkreuzer, literally "armored cruiser," the eight ships of the class were to be involved in several early North Sea skirmishes before the great pitched battle of Jutland where they inflicted devastating damage on the Royal Navy's battlecruiser fleet. This book details their design and construction, and traces the full service history of each ship, recounting their actions, drawing largely from first-hand German sources and official documents, many previously unpublished in English.
The Kaiser's Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871-1918
The battleships of the Third Reich have been written about exhaustively, but there is little in English devoted to their Second Reich predecessors. This new book fills an important gap in the literature of the period by covering these German capital ships in detail and studying the full span of battleship development during this period. The book is arranged as a chronological narrative, with technical details, construction schedules, and ultimate fates tabulated throughout, thus avoiding the sometimes disjointed structure that can result from a class-by-class approach. Heavily illustrated with line drawings and photographs, many from German sources, the book offers readers a fresh visual look at these ships. A key objective of the book is to make available a full synthesis of the published fruits of archival research by German writers found in the pre-World War II books of Koop & Schmolke, Großmer's on the construction program of the dreadnaught era, Forstmeier & Breyer on World War I projects, and Schenk & Nottelmann's papers in Warship International. As well as providing data not available in English-language books, these sources correct significant errors in standard English sources.