HANNOVER

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Hannover was built as one of five Deutschland Class battleships, known as "die fünf Schwestern" (the five sisters). The final incarnation of the German pre-dreadnought, they were fine ships, powerfully armed and carrying better protection than their predecessors. They had a double bottom that stretched over 84% of the hull, were good sea boats, and would have been regarded as powerful units had they not been completed after HMS Dreadnought.

Many foreign battleships mounted intermediate batteries, but Germany recognized that fire control for three different caliber guns was too complicated to be effective, and thus mounted only large caliber main guns and small caliber secondary guns. The secondary guns were larger than in foreign navies, at 6.7 inches, to make up for the lack of an intermediate battery.

Obsolete by design, but too new and powerful to be relegated to secondary roles, the five sisters served with the High Seas Fleet until after the Battle of Jutland in 1916. After the loss of one of their numbers to a single British torpedo, the other four were withdrawn from active duty. Hannover had been converted to supplementary oil firing in 1915.

Hannover served as a guardship for the remainder of the war, and was disarmed as part of the armistice agreement.

As one of 6 obsolete pre-dreadnoughts retained under the Treaty of Versailles, Hannover was re-armed and returned to front line service following a refit at Wilhlmshaven 1920-21. She was active during the inter-war years, visiting many foreign harbors. She was refitted again 1929-30, and continued in front-line service until 1935. She was decommissioned in 1935, with plans to convert her into a radio-controlled target ship for aircraft. But this conversion was cancelled, and the old ship was stricken from the navy list.

Many publications list the vessel as being broken up at this time. However, after her turrets and superstructure were cut away, the scraping was halted. The hull was used for experiments involving the effects of ground mines for a time, then left as a hulk at Bremerhaven. In May, 1944, she was again towed to the breaker's yard, but the work was not completed until October 1946. The hulk served no real purpose, but she is included here for the sake of completeness.

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