SMS Moltke

In 1907 the Reichsmarineamt weighed raising the main battery of its next battlecruiser from the 28 cm guns of SMS Von der Tann to 30.5 cm. Tirpitz opposed the increase and preferred to add a pair of 28 cm guns instead; the Construction Department supported him, and two ships were authorised for the 1908 and 1909 building years, Moltke first and Goeben second. Against their British rivals, the Indefatigable class, both were significantly larger and better armoured.

Moltke carried ten 28 cm SK L/50 guns in five twin turrets — one forward, two amidships en echelon, two superfiring aft — with twelve 15 cm guns in casemates, twelve 8.8 cm guns in single mounts, and four submerged 50 cm torpedo tubes. Four Parsons turbines on twenty-four coal-fired Schulz-Thornycroft boilers gave 51,289 shaft horsepower and 25.5 knots. Her Krupp cemented belt was 280 mm through the citadel, tapering to 76 mm at the ends, with 230 mm turret faces and barbettes.

The contract for "Cruiser G" was awarded on 17 September 1908 and the keel laid on 23 January 1909. Launched on 7 April 1910, she was christened by Helmuth von Moltke the Younger after his uncle, the chief of the Prussian and later German General Staff through the wars of unification. Dockyard workers took her from Hamburg to Kiel in September 1911, and she was commissioned on the 30th under Kapitän zur See Ernst von Mann.

An American squadron had visited Kiel in 1911, and Germany reciprocated by sending Moltke with the light cruisers Stettin and Bremen across the Atlantic. They entered Hampton Roads on 3 June 1912, where President William Howard Taft received them aboard the presidential yacht USS Mayflower, then went on to New York, where the crews were well received by German clubs and the city's upper class. Moltke was the only German capital ship ever to visit the United States.

Back home she escorted the Kaiser's yacht Hohenzollern to Russia in July 1912 and began her tenure as flagship of I Scouting Group. On 19 September that year she was awarded the Kaiser's Schießpreis for large cruisers. Franz Hipper took over the unit on 30 September 1913. There was talk of sending her to the Far East to replace the armoured cruiser Scharnhorst, then of sending her to the Mediterranean in place of Goeben; the outbreak of war in July 1914 ended both plans.

Moltke crossed the Jade bar at 14:10 on 28 August 1914 to cover the German light cruisers being cut up in the Heligoland Bight, arriving in time to shield the survivors as Ariadne went down. On 3 November she was off Great Yarmouth with Seydlitz, Von der Tann and Blücher, bombarding the port while Stralsund laid a minefield; she engaged the gunboat HMS Halcyon for fourteen minutes without scoring a hit. The British submarine D5 responded and sank on one of Stralsund's mines.

In the raid of 15–16 December she shelled Hartlepool with Seydlitz and Blücher, while Von der Tann and Derfflinger worked over Scarborough and Whitby. A 15.2 cm shell from a coastal battery struck her unarmoured forecastle, causing minor damage between decks and some flooding but no casualties. Beatty was waiting on the egress route, but a misinterpreted signal in the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron let the German light cruisers escape and warned Hipper, who wheeled to the north-east and got clear.

At Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915, Hipper's ships ran south limited to Blücher's 23 knots against pursuers making 27. Confusion aboard Tiger, whose captain believed he was to fire on Seydlitz, left Moltke free to shoot without distraction. Lion was hit at the waterline, lost her dynamos and fell out of the line; Seydlitz came near to blowing up. When signal confusion sent Beatty's remaining ships onto the doomed Blücher, Moltke, Seydlitz and Derfflinger escaped.

Moltke was fourth in Hipper's line of five on 31 May 1916, ahead of Von der Tann and astern of Seydlitz. In the run to the south she was engaged by both New Zealand and Tiger; at 16:52 she hit Tiger with two main gun shells, then landed two more simultaneously on the midships and after turrets, knocking both out for a significant part of the battle. She fired four torpedoes at Queen Mary, throwing the British line into disarray on the belief that U-boats were about.

At 17:16 a 15-inch shell from the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships pierced a coal bunker, tore into a casemate deck and ignited ammunition, the fire burning down the hoist toward the magazine. She and Von der Tann changed speed and course to spoil the V Battle Squadron's aim, which gave Seydlitz and Derfflinger room to concentrate on Queen Mary and destroy her. Moltke's commander, Karpf, remarked that the enemy's salvos lay well and close and their fire discipline was excellent.

In the night she carried Hipper — who had spent the evening trying to board her from the torpedo boat G39 — toward the head of the line at 22 knots, lost Seydlitz in the confusion around the cruiser action, then met four British dreadnoughts of the 2nd Battle Squadron at 23:30. They had seen her, but held their fire rather than reveal their position to the German fleet. Twice more Karpf tried to find a way through and failed; only at 01:00 did she break clear.

She had hit Tiger thirteen times and was hit four times herself, all by 15-inch shells, with 16 dead and 20 wounded — most of them from the hit on the No. 5 starboard 15 cm gun — and 1,000 tons of water aboard from damage and counter-flooding. At 03:55 Hipper reported that I Scouting Group was no longer of any value for a serious engagement. Repairs at Hamburg ran from 7 June to 30 July, and she was fit for service again on 14 August.

Torpedoes found her twice. Covering the assault into the Gulf of Riga on 19 August 1915, she was struck in the bow torpedo room by the submarine E1 — the track was not seen until it was 200 yards off — killing eight men and letting in 435 tonnes of water. On 24 April 1918 her starboard propeller came off the shaft, a wrecked gear wheel flooded an engine room, and E42 put a torpedo into her; she took 1,800 tons of water and still made harbour under her own power.

In October 1918 she was to have joined the fleet's sortie against the Grand Fleet, an operation intended to buy Germany a better bargaining position whatever the cost to the ships. Crews deserted as the fleet gathered at Wilhelmshaven, and from 29 October battleships mutinied until the order to sail was rescinded. Moltke was surrendered on 24 November and interned at Scapa Flow. Reuter ordered the fleet scuttled on 21 June 1919; she sank in two hours and fifteen minutes, was raised in 1927 and scrapped at Rosyth by 1929.