to their substandard anti-aircraft armament, but in 1938 the Turkish government began planning to expand the force. Under these plans the surface fleet was to comprise two 10,000-ton cruisers and twelve destroyers. would be retained until the second cruiser was commissioned in 1945, and the navy expected to build a 23,000-ton ship between 1950 and 1960. The naval building program did not come about, as the foreign shipyards which were to build the ships concentrated on the needs of their own nations leading up to World War II. remained in service throughout World War II. In November 1939 she and were the only capital ships in the Black Sea region, and Life magazine reported that was superior to the Soviet ship because the latter was in poor condition. In 1941, her anti-aircraft battery was strengthened to four guns, ten guns, and four guns. These were later increased to twenty-two 40 mm guns and twenty-four 20 mm guns. On 5 April 1946, the American battleship , light cruiser , and destroyer arrived in Istanbul to return the remains of Turkish ambassador Münir Ertegün. greeted the ships in the Bosphorus, where she and Missouri exchanged 19-gun salutes. After 1948, the ship was stationed in either İzmit or Gölcük. She was decommissioned from active service on 20 December 1950 and stricken from the Navy register on 14 November 1954. When Turkey joined NATO in 1952, the ship was assigned the hull number B70. The Turkish government offered to sell the ship to the West German government in 1963 as a museum ship, but the offer was declined. Turkey sold the ship to M.K.E. Seyman in 1971 for scrapping. She was towed to the breakers on 7 June 1973, and the work was completed in February 1976. By the time of her disposal she was the last dreadnought in existence outside the United States. She was the last surviving ship built by the Imperial German Navy, and the longest-serving dreadnought-type ship in any navy. Notes Footnotes Citations References Further reading 1911 ships Moltke-class battlecruisers Ships built in Hamburg World War I battlecruisers of Germany World War I cruisers of the Ottoman Empire Maritime incidents in 1918