Sword of the Sea:
The Ottoman Turkish Navy, Part One
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
April 2023

In our Second Great War alternative-history story arc, Woodrow Wilson’s 1916 attempt to mediate an end to the war raging across Europe is successful. (In our reality, he really did try this, but failed.) n this alternative history, the great empires of Eastern Europe have survived – Germany, Austria, Russia and Ottoman Turkey – to fight again a generation later.

The Ottoman Navy of the Second Great War faces a substantial strategic challenge. The Ottoman Empire is a member of the Central Powers military alliance and economic bloc, giving the Turks powerful allies but also an array of covetous neighbors. Across the Black Sea, the Russians have a powerful fleet and an equally powerful grudge. In the Mediterranean, the French and Italians have strong forces and will likely be joined by the British. In the Red Sea, the Italians have a squadron based in Eritrea and the British can be expected to appear here as well. And finally, the Turks have a presence all along the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, confronting the belligerent empire of Reza Shah on the opposite coast.

Ottoman Turkey has seen rapid economic gains during the generation of peace, and the pipelines taking oil to Central Europe return a metaphorical pipeline of cash to Constantinople. But the Ottoman budget, and international agreements, won’t allow construction of a huge fleet able to contest all of those nautical boundaries. The most modern units are concentrated at Izmir on the Sea of Marmara, leaving the fringes of empire – the Red Sea and Persian Gulf – to be patrolled by a collection of re-built older ships and relatively inexpensive coast-defense ships.

Those fringes are the theme of Second Great War at Sea: Sword of the Sea. It’s an expansion for Second World War at Sea: Horn of Africa, with the Turkish flotillas, aided by a small German squadron, facing off with the Persians, Italians and British. Let’s have a look at some of the Turkish ships.

Battleships

The naval accords governing the world of the Second Great War encourage signatories to rebuild old warships, since there are no limits on how many can be retained, only on how many new vessels can be constructed. Unable to buy more modern ships, the Turks picked up the oldest German dreadnoughts equipped with turbines, the Kaiser class.

Commissioned for the German High Seas Fleet in 1912 and 1913, the five dreadnoughts saw action at Jutland and went into reserve status following the post-war demobilization. In the mid-1920’s the Turks offered to buy all of the older German heavy ships, finally striking a deal for the Kaiser-class dreadnoughts and the three oldest classes of battle cruisers.

The ships underwent major re-construction in German shipyards before their delivery; the German government quietly subsidized much of the cost. As built, the Kaisers carried ten 305mm (12-inch) guns in five twin turrets: one forward, two aft and two in “wing” positions amidships. The reconstruction moved one of the amidships turrets to a centerline position and deleted the other; broadside firepower remained the same but the ship lost about 550 tons that could be applied to better protection.

Friedrich der Grosse, before sale and modernization as Nasir.

The 305mm/L50 rifles had been introduced in 1911, but remained useful weapons 30 years later. Their elevation had been increased, to add more range, and new ammunition helped with both range and penetration. The secondary armament, originally fourteen 150mm (5.9-inch) guns in casemate mounts, gave way to eight new-model 150mm guns in four twin turrets. For anti-aircraft protection, they carried eight 105mm heavy flak guns in four twin mounts, plus an array of light weapons. Germany did not field a dual-purpose secondary gun until just before the outbreak of the Second Great War.

As built, the five ships had coal-fired boilers powering turbines; only two of the five ships had the same machinery. As re-built, all five received a uniform oil-burning power plant, providing more horsepower but their old hull forms could only sustain 24 knots at top speed. The savings in weight and space afforded by the new machinery and removal of one heavy turret did allow for additional internal protection, but as with the hull form, only so much could be done given the age of the design.

The resulting ship gave the Ottoman Navy a vessel that could overwhelm the coast-defense ships likely to be seen in Arabian waters, but it would be no match for a genuine battleship.

Battle Cruisers

Along with the Kaiser class dreadnoughts, the Ottoman Navy also purchased five battle cruisers to join the one they had already obtained in 1914. The two oldest of these, von der Tann and her sister Jachmann, are stationed at Hodeida in Turkish Yemen at the start of the Second Great War.

Note: The High Seas Fleet only built one ship to the von der Tann design. In our Great War at Sea: High Seas Fleet we asked what a German fleet would look like had an actual attempt been made to match British dreadnought building. That would have included a second “great cruiser” laid down in 1908 alongside von der Tann. This second ship never actually existed.

The two old battle cruisers received even more extensive re-building than the dreadnoughts, beginning with their armament. They retained the four twin turrets for 280mm (11-inch) guns, but now re-arranged with two of them aft with one super-firing over the other, one amidships and one remaining forward. The guns themselves, 45-caliber weapons first rolled out in 1909, were replaced with new 52-caliber guns which required extensive modifications to the turrets.

Note: The 280mm/52 C/28 armed the Deutschland-class armored cruisers of our own history.

Two twin turrets for 150mm guns and two twin mounts for 105mm heavy flak guns completed their armament. They did not receive torpedo tubes or aircraft-handling facilities.

Von der Tann, before her sale and modernization as Yildiz.

Like the dreadnoughts, they received a new oil-fueled power plant with turbines and turbo-electric drive to aid survivability. With thicker armor, particularly over their magazines and machinery, their protection improved but as with the old battleships this could not yield the same standard as a new warship.

Yildiz (Moon Star, a nickname for the Turkish flag) and Yenilikci (“The Innovator,” a reign name for Sultan Mahmud III) give the Red Sea Fleet a pair of fast ships that can face off with enemy cruisers or run away from enemy coast-defense ships, but are among the weakest capital ships fielded by any naval power.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

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