History of SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm

Kronprinz Wilhelm was initially Kronprinz, becoming Kronprinz Wilhelm in 1918 in honour of Crown Prince Wilhelm. The ship was a König class battlecruiser, one of four ships of this class. The others were König, Grosser Kurfürst and Markgraf.

Kronprinz was laid down in Kiel in 1911, launched in February 1914 and commissioned in August of that year.

On 8 May 1915 she suffered a premature barrel explosion in one of its guns, but no significant damage was caused.

In April 1916 the ship supported a German raid on Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth along the east coast of England.

The battleship took part in the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of World War I, fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916. Despite being part of the vanguard of the fleet, Kronprinz remained unscathed and suffered no loss of life.

As part of III Squadron, Kronprinz attended the recovery attempt for two German submarines, U-20 and U-30, stranded off the Danish coast. On the ship's return trip to the Baltic she was torpedoed by the British submarine J1. Kronprinz spent a month in drydock in Wilhelmshaven for repairs.

The battleship was accidently rammed by sister ship Grosser Kurfürst in March 1917, allowing 600 tonnes of water to flood into her, and so returned to drydock in Wilhelmshaven for more repairs.

By October of that year Kronprinz was taking part in Operation Albion, planned to eliminate the Russian naval forces holding the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea. Kronprinz engaged the Russian pre-dreadnought battleship Graschdanin, managing to hit the Russian ship twice but remaining undamaged itself.

On 15 June 1918 she was renamed Kronprinz Wilhelm but, just over five months later, on 19 November, she left Germany for the last time bound for Britain and her final resting place, Scapa Flow.