SMS Thüringen

SMS Thüringen, probably before the war
History
German Empire
Name:	Thüringen
Builder:	AG Weser, Bremen
Laid down:	2 November 1908
Launched:	27 November 1909
Commissioned:	1 July 1911
Out of service:	5 November 1919
Fate:	Broken up for scrap, 1923–33
General characteristics
Class and type:	Helgoland-class battleship
Displacement:	22,808 metric tons (22,448 long tons) (designed) 24,700 t (24,300 long tons) (full load)
Length:	167.20 m (548 ft 7 in)
Beam:	28.50 m (93 ft 6 in)
Draft:	8.94 m (29 ft 4 in)
Installed power:	27,617 ihp (20,594 kW)
Propulsion:	3 shaft 4-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines 15 water-tube boilers
Speed:	20.8 knots (38.5 km/h; 23.9 mph)
Range:	5,500 nautical miles (10,190 km; 6,330 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	42 officers 1027 enlisted
Armament:	12 × 30.5 cm (12 in) guns 14 × 15 cm (5.9 in) guns 14 × 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns 6 × 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 300 mm (12 in) Turrets: 300 mm Deck: 63.5 mm (2.50 in)

SMS Thüringen was the third vessel of the Helgoland class of dreadnought battleships of the German Imperial Navy. Thüringen's keel was laid in November 1908 at the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen. She was launched on 27 November 1909 and commissioned into the fleet on 1 July 1911. The ship was equipped with twelve 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) guns in six twin turrets, and had a top speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). Thüringen was assigned to the I Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet for the majority of her career, including World War I.

Along with her three sister ships, Helgoland, Ostfriesland, and Oldenburg, Thüringen participated in all of the major fleet operations of World War I in the North Sea against the British Grand Fleet. This included the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916, the largest naval battle of the war. Thüringen was involved in the heavy night fighting at Jutland, including the destruction of the armored cruiser HMS Black Prince. The ship also saw action against the Imperial Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea, where she participated in the unsuccessful first incursion into the Gulf of Riga in August 1915.

After the German collapse in November 1918, most of the High Seas Fleet was interned in Scapa Flow during the peace negotiations. The four Helgoland-class ships were allowed to remain in Germany and were therefore spared the destruction of the fleet in Scapa Flow. Thüringen and her sisters were eventually ceded to the victorious Allied powers as war reparations; Thüringen was transferred to France in April 1920 and used as a target ship for the French Navy. She was sunk off Gavres and broken up in 1923–1933, though some sections of the ship remain.