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} |} The ''König'' class was a group of four battleships built for the German ''Kaiserliche Marine'' on the eve of World War I. The class was composed of , , , and . The most powerful warships of the German High Seas Fleet at the outbreak of war in 1914, the class operated as a unit throughout World War I—the V Division of the III Battle Squadron. The ships took part in a number of fleet operations during the war, including the Battle of Jutland, where they acted as the vanguard of the German line. They survived the war and were interned at Scapa Flow in November 1918. All four ships were scuttled on 21 June 1919 when Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered the sinking of the entire High Seas Fleet. The ''König''s were an improvement over the preceding ; one of the primary changes being in the disposition of the main gun battery. The ''Kaiser''-class ships mounted ten 30.5 cm (12 in) SK L/50 guns in five twin turrets; one turret was mounted fore, two aft in a superfiring arrangement, and the other two as wing turrets in a zig-zag "echelon" configuration amidships. For the ''König'' class, the use of main-gun wing turrets was abandoned. Instead, a second turret was moved forward and placed in a superfiring arrangement, and a single rear-facing turret was mounted centerline amidships; with a traverse allowing for broadsides but not forward-fire. The two superfiring aft turrets remained. This allowed for a wider angle of fire on the broadside, as all 10 guns could fire on a large area. It did, however, reduce the ship's forward-fire capabilities; from six guns with only limited traverse on the two wing turrets, to four guns with full traverse. == Design == The ''König''-class battleships were authorized under the Second Amendment to the Naval Law, which had been passed in 1908 as a response to the revolution in naval technology created with the launch of the British in 1906. Dreadnoughts were significantly larger—and correspondingly more expensive—than the old pre-dreadnought battleships. As a result, the funds that had been appropriated for the Navy in 1906 were going to be used up before they were scheduled to be replenished in 1911. Along with the additional funding secured in the 1908 bill, the service life of all large warships was to be reduced from 25 years to 20 years; this was done in an effort to force the Reichstag to allocate more funds for additional ships. In his effort to force the Reichstag to pass the bill, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz threatened to resign from his post as the State Secretary for the Navy. As a result of von Tirpitz's ultimatum, the bill was passed in March 1908 by a large margin. The reduction in service life necessitated the replacement of the coastal defense ships of the and classes as well as the s. In the terms of the First Amendment to the Naval Law of 1906, von Tirpitz had requested but failed to secure funding for new battleships; they had now been approved by the Reichstag. The Naval Law also increased the naval budget by an additional 1 billion marks. After the four s had been replaced by the four ''Nassau''s, and the six ''Siegfried''-class ships had been replaced by the ''Helgoland'' and ''Kaiser'' classes, the next vessels to be replaced were the old s. ''König'' and her three sisters were ordered under the provisional names ''S'', ''Ersatz Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm'', ''Ersatz Weissenburg'', and ''Ersatz Brandenburg''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「König-class battleship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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