Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 25, 2009



The Helgoland class battleship was the second class of German dreadnought battleships. The class comprised four ships: SMS Helgoland, the lead ship; SMS Oldenburg (1910); SMS Ostfriesland; and SMS Thüringen. The design was a significant improvement over the previous Nassau-class battleship ships; they had a larger main battery&mdash;30.5 cm main guns instead of the 28 cm weapons mounted on the earlier vessels&mdash;and an improved propulsion system. The Helgolands were easily distinguished from the preceding Nassaus by the three funnels that were closely arranged, compared to the two larger funnels of the previous class. The ships retained the unusual hexagonal main battery layout of the Nassau-class. The ships served as a unit in the I Division, I Battle Squadron alongside the Nassau-class ships in the II Division of the I Battle Squadron. They saw combat during World War I, including the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea and the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic. All four survived the war, but were not taken as part of the German fleet that was interned at Scapa Flow. When the German ships at Scapa Flow were scuttled, the four Helgolands were ceded as war reparations to the victorious Allied powers in the sunken ships' stead. Ostfriesland was taken by the US Navy and expended as a target during Billy Mitchell's air power demonstration in July 1921. Helgoland and Oldenburg were allotted to Britain and Japan respectively, and broken up in 1921. Thüringen was delivered to France in 1920, and was used as a target ship for the French navy. The ship was eventually broken up between 1923 and 1933. (more...)

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