Following this class came that of the _Wittelsbach_, including also the _Wettin_, _Zaehringen_, _Mecklenburg_, and _Schwaben_, built between 1901 and 1903, displacing 11,643 tons, making 18 knots, protected with from 9 to 10 inches of armor and carrying a primary battery of four 9.4-inch guns, eighteen 5.9-inch guns, and a large secondary battery. The similar type in the British navy was the _Canopus_--for England was far ahead of Germany, both in the matter of displacement and primary battery. During the same years England had launched ships of the type of the _Implacable_. In 1904 came the German ships _Hessen_, _Elsass_, and _Braunschweig_, and in 1905 and 1906 the _Preussen_ and _Lothringen_. They were well behind the English ships of the same years, for they displaced only 12,097 tons, made 18 knots, carried armor of from 9 to 10 inches in thickness, and a primary battery of four 11-inch guns, fourteen 6.7-inch guns, and twelve 3.4-inch guns, together with rapid firers and other guns in a secondary battery. England at this time was putting 12-inch guns in the primary battery of such ships as the _King Edward VII_. Still Germany kept up the race, and in 1906, 1907, and 1908 launched the _Hannover_, _Deutschland_, _Schlesien_, _Schleswig-Holstein_, and _Pommern_, with 12,997 tons displacement, 16,000 horsepower, a speed of 18 knots, and only 11-inch guns in the primary batteries. Whereas England, at the same time, was building ships of the dreadnought type. Next came four ships of the _Vanguard_ class--the _Westfaelen_, _Nassau_, _Rheinland_, and _Posen_, built in 1909 and 1910. Their heaviest guns measured 11 inches, while those of the English ships of the same class measured 12 inches. The displacement of these German fighting ships was 18,600 tons. In point of speed they showed some improvement over the older German ships, making 19.5 knots. Germany, like England, was now committed to the building of larger and larger ships of the line. The _Helgoland_, _Thueringen_, _Oldenburg_, and _Ostfriesland_, which were put into the water in 1911 and 1912, were consequently of 22,400 tons displacement, with a speed of 20.5 knots and carrying twelve 12-inch guns, fourteen 5.9-inch rapid-fire guns, fourteen 3.9-inch rapid-fire guns, a few smaller guns, and as many as six torpedo tubes. While England was maintaining her "two to three" policy, and while the United States stood committed to the building of two first-class battleships a year, Germany, in 1913, put five of them into the water. These were the _Koenig Albert_, _Prinz Regent Luitpold_, _Kaiserin_, _Kaiser_, and _Friedrich der Grosse_, each capable of speeding through the water at a rate of 21 knots, displacing 23,310 tons and carrying an armament of ten 12-inch guns, fourteen 5.9-inch guns, and a large number of rapid-fire guns of smaller measurement. Their armor was quite heavy, being 13 inches thick on the side and 11 inches thick where protection for the big guns was needed.