9. SML von Steuben and the Brutality of War: illustrated history of landships, 1858-2008
All Rights Reserved, 2023. See author's note.
The SML von Steuben was built in the hopes that German engineering would turn the tide of the Great War. Sadly, no amount of engineering can overcome war’s real cost.
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Author’s note: As far as we are aware, all images are taken from public domain sources; please inform the author of any mistakes in this regard. In terms of any original sketches, these are amateur attempts based on the author’s own archival research. He welcomes improvement from any professional illustrators interested in enhancing this work. ~ CAH, 2023
In memory of Dad, who taught me a love for all things historical, and in homage to William Pène du Bois, who opened up my imagination.
Part One: Introduction and the Great Gravitational Shift
Part Two: The Sally Ann and Westward Expansion
Part Three: The Boudreaux Circus Ship and Reconstruction
Part Four: HML Transvaal and British Colonialism
Part Five: Le Maréchal Murat and the Helium Wars
Part Six: São Fitzcarrald and the Naughts Arms Race
Part Seven: The Sarhoş Selim and Ottoman Decline
Part Eight: The BSA Wiate-Powell and the American century
The SML von Steuben, 1917
The SML von Steuben was built in the hopes that German engineering would turn the tide of the Great War. Sadly, no amount of engineering can overcome war’s real cost.
Class & Type: Zimmerman, Land Cruiser (one of 9 built)
Crew: 7 officers with 2 attached; c. 51 NCOs and enlisted
Capacity/Complement: one platoon of Stormtroopers (22 men); or one half-squad of Uhlans (4 horses, men)
Construction: Daimler-Dreckschiff-Gesellschaft, Hamburg, Germany
Hull: steel
Buoyancy: 4 x hydrogen zeppelins, semi-rigid, lofted
Buoyancy source: pumps from support vehicles
Wheels/track: 8 tracks, 5 wheels each
Propulsion: powered tracks
Sail Plan: n/a
Power plant: oil-powered turbines
Length: 255 ft.
Beam: 52 ft.
Decks: 4, incl. mortar pit
Weight (empty): 335 tons
Clearance: 5 ft
Steering: tracked, differential system
Speed: 2-4 mph
Armor: 6” hull, 5” bridge, 4” gun casemates; additional sandbags on deck
Armament: 1 x 14” howitzer, 4 x 4” sponson guns, 4 x 120mm mortars, 3 turret machine guns, 6 riflemen, 2 x AA machine guns, 4 x 2” AA guns
Communications: pneumatic tubes, flares, gyrocopter
Other Transportation: gyrocopter, horses
Amenities: showers, W.C.’s, infirmary and brauhaus
Fate: destroyed, Poland, 1939
In March 1917, a young German soldier, Pieter Müller, wrote to his mother in Munich:
Dear Mother,
I am told I am to be assigned to the newest Empire Landship, the Von Steubon! (sic). It is glorious, Mother! Large and shiny, and brimming with guns everywhere! Mother, it is just like the Reisehotel we used to stay at in Innsbruck, but with the might of the Kaiser in every beam and piston.
Surely, the enemies of Christendom in the West will not be able to stand against our might now that the Bolshevicks (sic) have overrun old Russia. The greedy businessmen of London and the decadent dancers of Paris will surely keel over once these new landships breech their horizons.
I am to be a grenadier, manning one of the rifle ports, but Sergeant Lutszky tells me that if I do well, I may soon make Gefreiter (Lance Corporal)! We are to have a parade in Liege tomorrow, where the loyal Germanic Belgians will line the road, and give us flowers and kisses!
Please tell Helga I am well and cannot wait until we have won this war, and I can see her again. Yes, Mother, I love her. I know that may be hard to hear, but I promise we will make you a proud Oma. I need to go now, we are only given short breaks between training. But Mother I promise you nothing can stand against this Landship! It has been a long, hard war, but surely now God will give us the victory.
Please give us your prayers and give my greetings to Father.
With warm regard and affection,
Pieter
Grenadier, 4th Bavarian Landwehr Replacement Division
(soon to be a Dreckschiffer!)
As Pieter was to find out, war is not always what it is promised to young recruits at the train station, even for landshippers. The glories of war are always distant accounts.
Early in the Great War, German landships dominated on the Russian front, both in terms of technology and tactics. The Russians had built ample landships prior to the war but made the mistake of assigning one per infantry regiment, rather than concentrating them into groups. In contrast, Generaloberst Überlaufen of the Großer Generalstab insisted that German landships operate in squadrons of 4-6 ships in support of their divisions.
The early victory at Tannenberg allowed the Kaiser to shift his forces West to attempt the famous Schlieffen plan to outflank the Allies through Belgium. The plains of Belgium and Picardy were well suited for landship tactics of the day. However, after the German plan to encircle Paris was ultimately foiled by French taxis at the “miracle of the Marne,” landships met with much less success for the rest of the conflict. Once the Western front stalemated into trench warfare, landships became all but useless, too easily disabled by focused artillery barrages.
Nevertheless, German engineers continued to design larger and better armored landships in hopes of building a machine that could somehow break though the stalemate in Belgium and France. The SML von Steuben was laid down in the Hamburg landship yards in the summer of 1916 and completed in March 1917.
Its name was a last-minute affair, imposed by Kaiser Wilhem II after the interception of the imfamous Zimmerman Telegram by British intelligence on January 17, 1917. In the event of war with the United States, the telegram promised an alliance with Mexico with the “understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.”
After the German Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmerman, admitted that the contents of the telegram were accurate, the Kaiser hoped to appease American anger by naming their new landship after the Prussian officer, Friedrich Wilhem von Steuben, who greatly assisted George Washington during the American Revolution and later became an American citizen, settling in New York.
Despite this gesture, the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. The ship was already named the SML von Steuben, but in a revenge of sorts, the Großer Generalstab then renamed the entire von Steuben class of landship the Zimmermann class.
Officially the von Steuben was classed as a Dreckkreuzer-mörsernundgyrocopter mit zusätzlichem-fliegerabwehrkanone und möglich-Ulanentrupp but most German dispatches simply referred to her as “das Schmutzschiff” or simply, “v.S.” Some of her crew affectionately termed her “von Strudel,” especially after the successful action at the French village of Grand Conte, in which, incredibly, the von Steuben managed to blow the roof off of a bakery without damaging any of the pastries.
As the crew dined on looted French cuisine that evening, it is said that a soldier from the engine compartment wrote the song which would become SML von Steuben’s unofficial anthem until its destruction in 1939 by unappreciative Poles (tune: O Tannenbaum):
Ach von Steuben, Ach von Steuben!
du bist ein edler Strudel! (repeat)Du schirmst uns im Winter ab,
Du fütterst uns im Sommerzeit.Ach von Steuben, Ach von Steuben!
du bist ein edler Strudel!
Cullinary benefits aside, the von Steuben took part in a number successful actions from its introduction to the Belgian front in September 1917 to the last great German offensive in 1918, culminating in the Second Battle of the Marne. These successes were largely due to a shift in landship tactics on all sides from 1914 to 1917.
Originating with the British Landship Committee chaired by Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, the main change in landship strategy was the shifting of landships away from the doomed dreadnaught era of direct fire, and back to a more traditional role of combat support. This has sometimes been termed the “Surcouf-Tennyson shift,” although there is fierce debate among terranavisologists whether this shift constitutes a reformation or an evolution in military landshipping. This volume offers no opinion on the matter, but instead refers readers to the fine anthology edited by Dr. Irene Hopper, “Revolution or Reaction? Shifting Landship Tactics on the Western Front, 1915-1917.”
The new idea was for landships to advance behind infantry companies, providing indirect fire support with mortars as well as an additional layer of anti-aircraft (AA) defense. The von Steuben was armed with a short-barrelled 14” howitzer to batter enemy strongholds that the infantry could not crack on their own. The ship’s four 4” guns in the gunwale sponsons were designed as defensive anti-tank guns but were likewise most often used in indirect fire support.
The crew was fairly standard for land cruisers of the time: seven officers, including a surgeon and chaplain, and about fifty-one enlisted. The enlisted included three dozen gunners of various sorts, six-eight riflemen, an engine crew and other support personnel. New ranks for the Zimmerman class included Dreckschiffkasernensergeant (Landship Barracks Sergeant), the ranking NCO. Tasks such as running the breuhaus or assisting the surgeon were considered additional duties given to normal crewmen. Typically, a gyropilot, mechanic (see below) and field artillery spotter were also attached to Zimmerman class ships.
Thus, while the von Steuben was less heavily armed than earlier dreadnought classes (e.g. São Fitzcarrald), it ultimately proved more effective in combat. The truth is that by 1917, German commanders learned to deploy their landships more wisely - not at the point of an attack but at least 100-300 meters behind the lead troops.
For one thing, the lofted hydrogen buoys were quite vulnerable to direct fire. It must be remembered that the Germans were excluded from the 1895 Malta Conference on Algerian helium concessions and thus had little choice but to use the more flammable gas. But even when kept safely towards the rear, it was not entirely unknown for a ship’s mortar crew to score an “own goal,” accidentally taking out one of their own front zeppelin buoys. In this regard, the excellent Prussian logistics system was put to good use, as each landship had at least a dozen vehicles trailing behind in support, including lorries with spare zeppelins and hydrogen pumps.
Much of the von Steuben’s design was rather pedestrian: three machine gun turrets equipped with the standard Maschinengewehr 08 along with several portholes through which crew riflemen would fire. All ports could be closed in the event of a gas attack, with filtered pumps providing the crew with fresh air for up to two hours. Likewise, the Zimmermann class landships could carry a platoon of Stoßtruppen (22 men), or one half-squad of Uhlan lancers for scouting purposes (4 horses). Somewhat incredibly, most captains chose the cavalry option, even well into 1918. It seems that some romantic notions die difficult deaths.
If the Zimmermann class employed conservative defenses and tactics on the field, it also brought two or three evolutionary landship developments. (On our use of the word “evolutionary,” see Hopper, p. 47, fn 17). First, it emplaced a mortar pit in the front deck which encased a “ship’s battery” of four 120mm mortars for support of the infantry. Second, after her initial trench trials, four additional AA guns were installed on the von Steuben’s deck with sandbag protection, as increased Allied air power made the initial design of two AA machine guns in the lower bridge inadequate.
Third, for internal communications, the von Steuben was unique in using pneumatic tubes between the bridge, engine compartment and troop bay. For the most part, these behaved masterfully, though when a container got stuck, that often meant hours of difficult labor for the skinniest soldier on board. Finally, although tangential to her combat efficiency, the von Steuben may have been the first German (or Austro-Hungarian) landship to have its brauhaus on the main gun deck, presumably for the better views out the rear ports.
Finally, the von Steuben may best be remembered for her unique reconnaissance capabilities with the world’s first functional military gyrocopter, the Fokker GC100, nicknamed “die Hummel” due to its loud buzzing sound. The Hummel may have been faster than the Von Steuben, but more stealthy she was not. She made two successful recon sorties in October 1917 before taking off a third and final time just outside of Charleroi on October 31, 1917. The Hummel never returned and no credible reports were ever received as to her fate by either side.
A legend later arose in Luxembourg about an unidentified object landing on the palace roof. Several History Channel “documentaries” have been made about this claim over the years, but no accredited terranavisologist has ever established the final fate of the first Fokker GC100. Its story however did provide the backdrop for the little known but critically acclaimed Wolfgang Petersen film, “Das Tragschrauber.”
The battle history of SML von Steuben between September 1917 and October 1918 is beyond the scope of this work, but her five Dreckschiff Kampfmedailles from Kaiser Wilhem II attest to her busyness over those months. We refer interested readers to John Keegan’s popular, The Kaiser’s Last Gasp: the German Spring Offensive, 1918, not only for his overview of the action, but for his sensitivity to the effect landship war had on its crewmen. As it turns out, six inches of steel does not shelter one from the horrors of war or the ambition of nations.
In October 1918, Maria Müller received this letter from her son, Pieter, the last that she would receive from him during the war.
Dear Mother,
Please know that I am well. My wound is healing. They are feeding us what they can. But I won’t lie to you, Mother, it is hard to sleep. The artillery never stops. I miss Hans. He was like a brother to me. The chaplain on board is doing what he can, but he is Protestant, and the nearest priest is three landships over. I want to give my confession as soon as I can. Mother, please pray for me. I know you do.
In our last skirmish, our Sturmtruppens ran low on men, so Sergeant Lutzsky tasked me to take another grenadier to reinforce them. We ran from shellhole to shellhole, but got terribly lost and separated from the main group. The other soldier with me - I barely knew him, a Frankfurter - was hit with shrapnel and I had to leave him there. I then jumped into a foxhole only to find a Poillu staring right back at me!
My rifle was jammed so I grabbed my shovel to hit him, but as I looked him in the face, I just couldn’t, Mother. He was about my age and just as scared, gripping his rifle with its long bayonet. He was Black as the night sky, one of the French colonials. I was told they were cowards and wouldn’t fight. But as we locked eyes with one another, I think we both said, “it is enough.” We had never met, but we understood each other. Without a word, we sat down side by side, exhausted.
He gave me a drink from his canteen. I gave him some chocolate. When the artillery died down, we shook hands - I shook hands with an African, Mother! - and both crawled out of the hole. In time, I saw the von Steuben’s outline against the night sky and made my way back, having failed in my mission.
Mother, I am so tired. I am tired of killing. Please pray I can find a priest soon. I hope Helga is happy. Please give my regards to Father.
With love always,
Pieter
Shortly after Pieter wrote this last letter, the von Steuben was surrounded by advancing Belgian and British toops. Out of ammunition, its Kapitän surrendered. Pieter was shipped off to a POW camp in western France, and one year later, was allowed to return to his home in Munich. In the meantime, Helga had married another man and Pieter’s father had died from the influenza pandemic.
Pieter lived as a pacifist for the rest of his life, becoming an artist in the expressionist school. He fiercely opposed the rise of fascism in Germany and fled to Great Britain in 1936. However, when war broke out in 1939, he was detained along with other German intellectuals and spent the next few years at the Hutchinson Internment Camp on the Isle of Man. There he met a woman from Vienna, also an artist. They were married and immigrated to Canada in 1946 where they both lived well into their eighties, helping found several Amnesty International chapters as well as Humantarians Against Nuclear Landships (HANL).
Meanwhile, as part of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the Allies required the German Republic to disarm all its landships, allowing them for use in industrial or agricultural purposes only. To enforce this, one allied officer was assigned to each landship, an arrangement which lasted until the Nazis expelled them in 1934. Once the Ruhr was reoccupied in 1936, the German government invested in a new landshipping building program including refitting old landships like the von Steuben. Despite her age, the von Steuben was thought adequate to support the advance on Danzig in September 1939, but much to German surprise, was destroyed by the Polish armored train, Śmiały.
All four of SML von Steuben’s zeppelin buoys caught fire and exploded within a matter of minutes. It turns out the Germans had not learned the lessons of Hindenburg after all.