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.
German Battleships 1914-18
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"Each section provides a brief history of the class, there technical specifications – armor, armament, engines, and boilers – and a service history of each ship... There is a color profile of one ship in each class, along with three paintings that illustrate particular episodes that these ships took part in. The illustrations are rounded off by a cut away of the SMS Rhineland... aficionados of the Kaiser’s navy will find this a handy reference book for these three classes of German battleships." -Marc Blackburn, IPMS (March 2010)
About the Author
Gary Staff has had a life-long passion for the history of the German Imperial Navy and has translated many contemporary and original documents on the subject. He contibuted to a Channel 4 documentary on Jutland, exploring the Imperial Navy's experience of the battle. He grew up in Australia and currently lives on the island of Palau. The author lives in Palau.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty sketchy!,
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This review is from: German Battleships 1914-18 (1): Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes (New Vanguard) (Paperback)
Based on previous issues in this series, particularly 'German Battlecruisers 1914-18,' I had expected an excellent and well-illustrated compendium of the early WW1 German battleships. Unfortunately, this issue does not live up to my expectations! The illustrations are very sketchy and very poorly detailed, especially when compared with previous issues (why didn't Osprey retain Tony Bryan as illustrator??), and the text is not particularly informative either. Granted, the early German battleships didn't have particularly exciting careers, especially when compared with that of the battlecruisers, but still, they had a couple incidents of real interest. While the activities involved with Jutland (Skagerak) are well-known, a diagram or two of the relative positions of these ships in the various formations would have been of real benefit, as well as a more general discussion of the battle itself, and the specific roles for the 'Deutchland,' 'Nassau,' and 'Helgoland' classes would also have been even more relevant. Finally, there are several references to the role of these ships in saving Finland from communist take-over. As this is a little-known, yet important incident, I would have thought a single good description with a diagram and a map or two of this would have been really interesting, but instead, it is merely mentioned in passing under the individual ship histories. In sum, I cannot say this volume lives up to the previous 'German Battlecruisers' issue, and can only hope the second part on the later classes will be a better production altogether....
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Superb look at the Kaiser's Battleships, Part 1,
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This review is from: German Battleships 1914-18 (1): Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes (New Vanguard) (Paperback)
Oftentimes, volumes in Osprey's New Vanguard series that cover naval topics tend to try and cover too many ships and too many classes in just 48 pages and end up skimming over the surface. However, Gary Staff was given the opportunity to cover the Imperial German Navy's battleships of the First World War in several volumes and he makes the most of this opportunity. German Battleships 1914-18 (1) is not a superficial summary but a very detailed look at three classes of German battleships (the Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes) built in the period 1903-1912. It is clear in the opening pages that the author has a good understanding of naval design and is intimately familiar with the Kaiser's Navy, so the result is an informed look at this part of the German battle line.
The volume is essentially divided into three sections, each covering one of the battleship classes. Each section discusses the design and development of each class (with interesting observations on the financial, technical and political decisions behind each class), armament, armor, seakeeping and machinery. He also provides a significant service record for each individual ship. The graphic quality of this volume is very high with three color profiles of battleships (SMS Deutschland, SMS Westfallen; SMS Helgoland) and a 2-page cut-away of SMS Rheinland. There are also three color battle scenes (destruction of SMS Pommern at Jutland in 1916; the Westfallen and Rheinland in the ice off Finland in 1918; SMS Thuringen in action at Jutland) depicting the battleships in action. The B/W photos throughout the volume are very good and uncommon. The author provides extensive data for each battleship in several tables, including unusual items such as propeller shaft rpm, double bottom as percent of length and number of compartments. This volume is about as good as a short volume on this topic gets. While the author could have economized on space a bit by having a sidebar on Jutland instead of discussing it under each ship's service record, his method is sound. He does point out how the Germans put a major effort into providing first-class underwater protection on their battleships, which made them very difficult to sink. He spends less time discussing offensive firepower, but notes that even Admiral Tirpitz realized that the hexagonal turret arrangement was outdated but inertia took-over and the Imperial Navy remained wedded to this concept after other navies had begun moving to the all-gun turrets-on-center-line approach. The German Navy was also relatively slow to move to bigger guns, as the Royal Navy battleships were moving to 13.5-inch guns. The author does use sidebars effectively, such as discussing the torpedo strike on SMS Westfallen.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
German Battleships in WW I,
By Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: German Battleships 1914-18 (1): Deutschland, Nassau and Helgoland classes (New Vanguard) (Paperback)
This Osprey volume focuses on three classes of German battleships during World War I. As others in the series, this is a slim volume (47 pages of text). This is, of course, both a strength (easy to digest) and a weakness (perhaps not enough reflection and analysis). Overall, though, the book works pretty well.
What are the three classes? The Deutschland, Nassau, and Helgoland classes. As the introductory comments note, before 1871, there was no German state and, hence, no navy. The first battleships were produced in 1890. The Deutschland class was authorized in 1900. The 1904 budget allowed for five ships in this class--what later became Deutschland, Hannover, Pommern, Schlesien, and Schleswig-Holstein. The ships were commissioned between 1906 and 1908. Their speed was about 18 knots and they had crews of about 740. Pages 4-15 feature discussion of the characteristics of these ships (armament, for instance) and discuss each of the battleships. Reality check. . . . The English battleship Dreadnought was launched after this series was in production. And it was a game changer. The first set of German battleships were not up to the new standard. The Nassau class of German battleships was closer to the high bear set by the Dreadnought. Ships in the Nassau series: Nassau, Westfalen, Rheinland, and Posen. Pages 23-33 consider each of the ships in this series as well as their service record. The Helgoland class included the Helgoland, Ostfriesland, Thuringen, and Oldenburg. Overall, a nice book. However, a final chapter/section pulling things together would have been quite useful.
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