Bayern Class Battleship (1915)

Four Bayern class super-dreadnoughts were planned for the Imperial German Navy but only two were completed.

Overview of 4 vessels
Citations for this data available on individual ship pages
Name	Builder	Laid Down	Launched	Completed	Fate
Baden	Schichau-Werke, Danzig	Dec, 1913	30 Oct, 1915	14 Mar, 1917	Target Aug, 1921
Bayern	Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, Kiel	Aug, 1913	18 Feb, 1915	15 Jul, 1916	Scuttled 21 Jun, 1919
Sachsen	Germaniawerft, Kiel	Apr, 1914	21 Nov, 1916		1921
Württemberg	AG Vulcan Stettin, Hamburg	Jan, 1915	20 Jun, 1917		Scrapped 1921

Armament

Torpedoes

• one submerged tube forward
• two submerged broadside tubes aft, angled forward 22 degrees

When the British examined the ship, they discovered that all three tubes were of different design. The forward submerged flat had apparently been quite large before the ship was mined. After, this flat was divided into many small store rooms. The forward tube was end-loaded using a long tray.

The aft flat was fully 17 feet high. The starboard broadside tube was longer than the port one, and a complete side loader. The port tube had a rear door and small 4 foot rammer. External angling gear was fitted, but many parts of this gear were missing when examined. Apparently, gyro angles could range from 30 degrees forward of the tube and 60 degrees aft. An electric gyro angle receiver and reply was alongside. There was storage for a total of thirteen torpedoes plus the two in the tubes. The tubes could be fired and controlled from fore and aft conning towers and also from No. 1 and 3 casemates, each side.

Fire Control

The British inspected Baden and Bayern after the Armistice. Their reports contained the following information.

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Breyer, Siegfried (1973). Battleships and Battle Cruisers, 1905–1970. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company Inc. ISBN 0385-0-7247-0.
• Goodall, Stanley Vernon (1921). "The Ex-German Battleship Baden". Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects LXIII: pp. 13–32.
• Grießmer, Axel (1999). Linienschiffe der Kaiserlichen Marine 1906-1918: Konstructionen zwischen Rüstungskonkurrenz und Flottengesetz. Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. ISBN 3-7637-5985-9.