World War II Pre-Dreadnoughts

Battleship Schleswig Holstein at Danzig. Completed 1906, she was one of three inherited pre-dreadnought battleships to serve the Nazi cause.

Weird, but true . . . a few pre-dreadnoughts left over from the pre-WWI period lived to fight again twenty-some years after the guns fell silent on Nov. 11, 1918. Obsolete or not, they were pressed into service as possible during the new upheaval. Pre-dreadnought battleships performed in combat roles, mainly shore bomardment, in the navy of the Third Reich. The U.S.-built Greek battleships Kilkis and Lemnos (serving as training ships) were destroyed by Stuka dive bombers as the Nazi shadow stretched over Greece. These old warships took the risks of war and paid the penalties. In some cases they survived: the protected cruiser Aurora became a survivor of the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, and World War II, albeit badly battered in her third effort.

Many of the vessels involved were not full combat units at the time of WWII. For instance, the Condorcet (commissioned 1909) had been partially disarmed and converted to serve as the torpedo school at the main French base of Toulon. She was scuttled and sunk several times over despite her negligible military value; she paid the ultimate price for France.

Also included in our tally are pre-dreadnought cruisers and ironclads from neutral nations and from belligerents in South America which saw active duty during WWII although no significant fighting. Some of these circa 1905 wonders were still in commission in Latin navies in the late Fifties.

Join us for yet another tiptoe through the warships of yesteryear, and the odd coincidences of history.

• 3 Pre-Dreadnought Cruisers that Survive Today
• Global Site Nav
• USS Texas: A Distinguished Battleship in Two World Wars
• Our Cruisers Section

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