SMS ("His Majesty's Ship Hannover") was the second of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Imperial Navy (). and the three subsequently constructed ships differed slightly from the lead ship in their propulsion systems and slightly thicker armor. was laid down in November 1904, launched in May 1905, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in October 1907. The ship was armed with a battery of four guns and had a top speed of . The ships of her class were already outdated by the time they entered service, being inferior in size, armor, firepower, and speed to the revolutionary new British battleship .
and her sister ships saw extensive service with the fleet. The ship took part in all major training maneuvers until World War I broke out in July 1914. and her sisters were immediately pressed into guard duties at the mouth of the Elbe River while the rest of the fleet mobilized. The ship took part in several fleet advances, which culminated in the Battle of Jutland on 31May1June 1916. During the battle, served as the flagship for IVDivision of IIBattle Squadron; she was not heavily engaged during the battle, nor was she damaged by enemy fire. After the battle, which exposed the weakness of pre-dreadnoughts like , she and her three surviving sisters were removed from active duty with the fleet to serve as guard ships. served in this capacity for the remainder of the war, first in the Elbe and, starting in 1917, in the Danish Straits. She was decommissioned in December 1918, shortly after the end of the war.
The ship was brought back to active service in the , the post-war German navy. She served with the fleet for ten years, from 1921 to 1931, during which time she took part in several major overseas cruises to Spain and the Mediterranean Sea. was again decommissioned in September 1931; the navy planned to convert the ship into a radio-controlled target ship, but this was never carried out and she was instead used in explosive tests. was ultimately broken up for scrap between 1944 and 1946 in Bremerhaven. Her bell is preserved at the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden.
Design
The passage of the Second Naval Law in 1900 under the direction of (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz secured funding for the construction of twenty new battleships over the next seventeen years. The first group, the five s, were laid down in the early 1900s, and shortly thereafter design work began on a follow-on design, which became the . The -class ships were broadly similar to the s, featuring incremental improvements in armor protection. They also abandoned the gun turrets for the secondary battery guns, moving them back to traditional casemates to save weight. The British battleship —armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—was commissioned in December 1906. Dreadnoughts revolutionary design rendered every capital ship of the German navy obsolete, including the class.
was long overall, with a beam of , and a draft of . She displaced at full loading. The ship was equipped with two heavy military masts. Her crew numbered 35 officers and 708 enlisted men. She was equipped with triple expansion engines that were rated at and a top speed of . Steam was provided by twelve Schulz-Thornycroft boilers; three funnels vented smoke from burning coal in the boilers. The ship had a fuel capacity of up to of coal. At a cruising speed of , she could steam for .
s primary armament consisted of four SK L/40 guns in two twin turrets. HHer offensive armament was rounded out with a secondary battery of fourteen SK L/40 guns mounted individually in casemates. A battery of twenty SK L/45 guns in single mounts provided defense against torpedo boats. The ship was also armed with six torpedo tubes, all submerged in the hull. One was in the bow, one in the stern, and four on the broadside. Krupp cemented armor protected the ship. Her armored belt was thick in the central citadel, where it protected her magazines and machinery spaces, while thinner plating covered the ends of the hull. Her main-deck armor was thick. The main battery turrets had of armor plating.
Service Peacetime
Funds for the construction of a second member of the class were included in the 1904 budget. The contract for the new vessel was awarded to the (Imperial Shipyard) in Wilhelmshaven on 1June 1904 under the contract name "P", which denoted an addition to the fleet. was laid down on 7November. The experiences of the Russo-Japanese War, then being fought, suggested that naval armor was too thin to protect against modern guns, and so the German designers increased the thickness of the main belt and the central citadel; this change was repeated in the three subsequent members of the class. The ship was launched on 29May 1905, and the President of the Province of Hanover, Richard von Wentzel, gave the speech. After completing fitting out, the ship was commissioned for sea trials on 1October 1907, but they were interrupted so that could join the fleet exercises in the Skagerrak in November. Trials resumed after the maneuvers were completed, and by 13February 1908 was ready to join the active fleet.
She was assigned to II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet, joining her sisters and ; she replaced the older battleship . From May to June 1908, took part in maneuvers in the North Sea. From the following month until August, the fleet conducted a training cruise into the Atlantic. During the cruise, stopped in Ponta Delgada in the Azores, part of Portugal, from 23July to 1August. The annual autumn exercises began in September; after these were completed, was transferred to ISquadron, where she served as the flagship for two years. At the time, the squadron commander was VAdm Henning von Holtzendorff, and the unit consisted of the battleships , , , , , , and , along with the old aviso in use as a tender. In November, fleet and unit exercises were conducted in the Baltic Sea.
The training regimen in which participated followed a similar pattern over the next five years. This included another cruise into the Atlantic, from 7July to 1August 1909, followed immediately by the annual autumn maneuvers in August and September. On 1October, VAdm Hugo von Pohl replaced Holtzendorff as the squadron commander aboard . The squadron conducted exercises in February 1910, and on 1April the unit was transferred from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven. On its arrival, the squadron was reinforced by the new dreadnought battleships and , which replaced and , respectively. also replaced as the squadron's flagship; she later replaced as the flagship of the squadron's deputy commander, (KAdmRear Admiral) Günther von Krosigk. The ship won the Kaiser's (Shooting Prize) for excellent gunnery in ISquadron after the annual maneuvers. The squadron ended the year with further exercises in the Baltic and the Kattegat in October and November.
Krosigk was replaced by KAdm Karl Zimmerman in January 1911. took part in fleet maneuvers in the North Sea in May, a fleet cruise to Norwegian waters in July and early August, and the annual maneuvers in August and September. The dreadnought , which had by then joined the squadron, replaced as the deputy command flagship on 3October, and the dreadnought took her place in the squadron, allowing to be transferred back to IISquadron, based in Kiel. She took part in training with IISquadron in November and from February through April 1912. She then took s place as the deputy command flagship on 27April, and KAdm Ehrhard Schmidt hoisted his flag aboard the ship that day. Fleet maneuvers in the North and Baltic Seas followed. Because of the Agadir Crisis with Britain and France, the summer cruise in July went only to the Baltic to avoid exposing the fleet to a possible attack. The autumn maneuvers took place as usual in August and September, after which KAdm Wilhelm von Souchon replaced Schmidt.
The year 1913 followed a pattern similar to 1912, though the summer cruise returned to Norway that year. After the autumn maneuvers, Souchon was relieved by (KzSCaptain at Sea) so he could be sent to command the Mediterranean Division. joined the rest of the fleet for maneuvers in the Baltic in November that year. The year 1914 began as previous years had, with squadron training. On 14July, the annual summer cruise to Norway began. The threat of war during the July Crisis caused Kaiser WilhelmII to end the cruise early, after only two weeks, and by the end of July the fleet was back in port, preparing for hostilities. At midnight on 4August, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany for violating Belgium's neutrality.
World War I Following the outbreak of World War I, was tasked with guard duty in the Altenbruch roadstead at the mouth of the Elbe River during the period of mobilization for the rest of the fleet. In late October, the ships were sent to Kiel to have modifications made to their underwater protection systems to make them more resistant to torpedoes and mines. then joined the battleship support for the battlecruisers that bombarded Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby on 15–16 December 1914. During the operation, the German battle fleet of 12 dreadnoughts and eight pre-dreadnoughts came within of an isolated squadron of six British battleships. However, skirmishes between the rival destroyer screens in the darkness convinced the German fleet commander, VAdm Friedrich von Ingenohl, that the entire Grand Fleet was deployed before him. Under orders from Wilhelm II to avoid battle if victory was not certain, Ingenohl broke off the engagement and turned the battle fleet back towards Germany.
put to sea during the Battle of Dogger Bank on 24January 1915 to support the beleaguered German battlecruisers, but quickly returned to port. On 17–18 April, supported a minelaying operation off the Swarte Bank by the light cruisers of IIReconnaissance Group. A fleet advance to the Dogger Bank followed on 21–22 April. On 16May, was sent to Kiel to have one of her 28 cm guns replaced. The ship returned to Kiel on 28June to have supplemental oil firing installed for her boilers; work lasted until 12July. KzS Gottfried von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels replaced Mauve on 11August, raising his flag aboard on the 20th. On 11–12 September, IIReconnaissance Group conducted another minelaying operation off the Swarte Bank with and the rest of IISquadron in support. This was followed by another fruitless sweep by the fleet on 23–24 October. During the fleet advance of 5–7 March 1916, and the rest of IISquadron remained in the German Bight, ready to sail in support. They then rejoined the fleet during the operation to bombard Yarmouth and Lowestoft on 24–25 April. During this operation, the battlecruiser was damaged by a British mine and had to return to port prematurely. Visibility was poor, so the operation was quickly called off before the British fleet could intervene.
Battle of Jutland