Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

Braunschweig Class Pre-Dreadnought Battleship SMS Hessen pictured at Lisbon,Portugal in 1927.Jutland revealed how inadequate Pre-Dreadnoughts like Hessen were in the face of more modern weapons, so she and the rest of II Squadron ships were withdrawn from service with the fleet. She was decommissioned in December 1916, disarmed and used as a Depot Ship for the rest of the war. Hessen was one of the few obsolete Battleships Germany was permitted to retain under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Rearmed, she served with the fleet in the 1920s and early 1930s, though she was withdrawn from front-line service in 1934. The following year, Hessen was converted into a radio-controlled Target Ship. She served in this capacity through World War II, also working as an icebreaker in the Baltic and North Seas. She was ceded to the Soviet Union in 1946 after the war, renamed Tsel, and served until she was scrapped in 1960.

Grand old girl managed to last well in spite of her inadequacies as a front line Ship .

Another ship with a chequered past that few of us knew anything about eh Brian .

Thanks for sharing her with us all .

She sure did survive, long after bigger and stronger German BBs were gone!! The photo with CL NURNBERG was taken as both were leaving for a one way trip to Soviet Russia in 1946. DFO

Thank you for finding these ...none o which I even heard of , so once again Dennis our thanks for these lesser known gems

Lead Ship,Pre-Dreadnought Battleship SMS Braunschweig in the Nord-Ostee Kanal.

Here is a beam view.............. DFO

Braunschweig Class Pre-Dreadnought Battleship SMS Hessen pictured at Tallinn in 1933.

Lead Ship, Pre-Dreadnought Battleship SMS Braunschweig pictured at Fjærlandsfjorden, (Mundal), Norway in July 1922.

Lead Ship, Pre-Dreadnought Battleship SMS Braunschweig pictured c 1905.