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SMS ''Westfalen'' was one of the s, the first four dreadnoughts built for the German Imperial Navy. ''Westfalen'' was laid down at AG Weser in Bremen on 12 August 1907, launched nearly a year later on 1 July 1908, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 16 November 1909. The ship was equipped with a main battery of twelve guns in six twin turrets in an unusual hexagonal arrangement. The ship served with her sister ships for the majority of World War I, seeing extensive service in the North Sea, where she took part in several fleet sorties. These culminated in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, where ''Westfalen'' was heavily engaged in night-fighting against British light forces. ''Westfalen'' led the German line for much of the evening and into the following day, until the fleet reached Wilhelmshaven. On another fleet advance in August 1916, the ship was damaged by a torpedo from a British submarine. ''Westfalen'' also conducted several deployments to the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. The first of these was during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, where ''Westfalen'' supported a German naval assault on the gulf. ''Westfalen'' was sent back to the Baltic in 1918 to support the White Finns in the Finnish Civil War. The ship remained in Germany while the majority of the fleet was interned in Scapa Flow after the end of the war. In 1919, following the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow, ''Westfalen'' was ceded to the Allies as a replacement for the ships that had been sunk. She was then sent to ship-breakers in England, who broke the ship up for scrap by 1924. == Construction == (詳細はlead ship of the elderly s. The Reichstag secretly approved and provided funds for ''Nassau'' and ''Westfalen'' at the end of March 1906, but construction on ''Westfalen'' was delayed while arms and armor were procured. She was laid down on 12 August 1907 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen. As with her sister , construction proceeded swiftly and secretly; detachments of soldiers guarded both the shipyard and the major contractors who supplied building materials, such as Krupp. The ship was launched on 1 July 1908, underwent an initial fitting-out, and then in mid-September 1909 was transferred to Kiel by a crew composed of dockyard workers for a final fitting-out. However, the water level in the Weser River was low at this time of year, so six pontoons had to be attached to the ship to reduce her draft. Even so, it took two attempts before the ship cleared the river. ''Westfalen'' was long, wide, and had a draft of . She displaced with a standard load, and fully laden. The ship design retained 3-shaft triple expansion engines instead of the more advanced turbine engines. Steam was provided to the engines by twelve coal-fired boilers, with the addition in 1915 of supplementary oil firing. This machinery was chosen at the request of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz and the Navy's construction department. The department stated in 1905 that the "use of turbines in heavy warships does not recommend itself." ''Westfalen'' carried twelve guns in an unusual hexagonal configuration. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve guns and sixteen guns, all of which were mounted in casemates. The ship was also armed with six submerged torpedo tubes. One tube was mounted in the bow, another in the stern, and two on each broadside, on either end of the torpedo bulkhead. 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「SMS Westfalen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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