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Pre-dreadnought SMS Schleswig-Holstein, 1908

This ship of the Deutschland class is a pre-dreadnought with an intriguing history.

Obsolete the moment she entered service, the ship served in the II Battle Squadron with other second-rate battleships the sailors referred to as "Five Minute Ships" in estimation of their life expectancy should they encounter the modern vessels of the Royal Navy.

Schleswig-Holstein survived the Battle of Jutland and was removed from fighting service shortly thereafter. The Germans were allowed to keep her after the war, in part because she was unfit for true fighting. But the ship got her revenge, firing the first shots of World War II when she opened fire on a Polish fort near Danzig.

Sunk by bombs in shallow water during the war, she was raised and served the Soviets as a target ship after the war.

Her sister Hannover also has plans on this site.

There is more data on her at German-Navy.de.

Plans