DEUTSCHLAND CLASS

 

Name                               Builders                         laid down         launched     completed

Lutzow (ex Deutschland)    Deutsche Werke                        05/02/29                    19/05/31                01/05/33

Admiral Scheer                  Wilhelmshaven                            25/06/31                    01/05/33                12/11/34

Admiral Graf Spee              wilhelmshaven                            01/10/32                    30/06/34                06/01/36  

 

   

Specifications

Displacement: 12, 100 tons standard and 16, 200 tons full load

 Dimensions: length 186.0 m (610 ft3 in); beam 21.3 m (69 ft 1 1 in); draught 5.8 m ( 19 ft)

Propulsion: eight MAN diesels delivering 56,000 shp (41760 kW) to two shafts

Speed: 28.5 kts

Armour: belt 80 mm (3. 1 in); deck 45 mm (1.8 in); turrets 85-140 mm (3.35.5 in) barbettes 100 mm (3.9 in)

 Armament: six 280-mm ( 11-in), eight 150-mm (5.9-in), six 105-mm (4. 1-in)

AA, eight 3'1-mm AA and 10 20-mm AA guns, plus eight 533-mm (21-in) torpedo tubes

Aircraft: two Floatplanes

 Complement: 1, 150

 

NOTES

Until 1934 Germany was bound by the Treaty of Versailles, under whose terms no warship exceeding 10,000 tons could be built. To extract the maximum potency within this general limitation, the designers had to balance finely the conflicting requirements of speed, armament and protection. Long endurance was required to conduct an extensive guerre de course against France and the UK and the three 'Deutschland' class ships were given the quite novel machinery of eight diesels driving two shafts, allowing for flexible and highly economical propulsion.

Electric welding saved 15 per cent on weight as compared with riveting, allowing for extra weight to be allocated to both armament and protection. Despite the overt weight-saving, however, the ships all exceeded their stated displacements. When constructed, they continued the concept of the armoured cruiser, being faster than any battleship and more powerful than any cruiser. Like armoured cruisers, they were vulnerable to battlecruisers.

Until 1940, the ships were officially classified as Panzerschiffe (armoured ships) but were popularly known to the Allies as 'pocket battleships'. After the destruction of the Admiral Graff Spee, subsequent to the River Plate action, the surviving pair were recategorized as heavy cruisers. The Admiral Scheer had a brief but successful career as a raider, gaining particular notoriety with her sinking of the armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay. The Deutschland herself was politically renamed Lutzow after the Admiral Graf Spee affair and, until early 1942,spent much time in dock after being torpedoed on two separate occasions. Her major action was the tactical defeat off North Cape on 30/31 December 1942. Both ships were finally sunk by British bombing in the closing days of the European war.