The Deutschland class comprised three German armored cruisers, Deutschland (later renamed Lutzow), Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee, built by Germany's Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine between 1929 and 1936 and popularly nicknamed pocket battleships because they carried battleship-caliber guns, six 28cm guns in two triple turrets, on a hull far smaller and lighter than a true battleship, achieved partly through extensive use of welding rather than riveting and all-diesel propulsion for very long range. Designed within the tonnage limits Germany was still nominally bound by after the First World War while giving the ships enough speed and range to outrun any warship powerful enough to sink them, the class was intended for commerce raiding against enemy merchant shipping far from home waters. Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled by her own crew off Montevideo after the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939, while Lutzow and Admiral Scheer were both destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945.
Facts
Classification
Service Status Weapon Class Introduced Year Weapon Class
Weapon Class (category) FAQs
Why were the Deutschland class ships so lightly armored for their firepower?
Treaty limits on displacement forced thin armor on a ship with capital ship guns.
The class was a product of the displacement limits set by the Treaty of Versailles. Designers kept the hull near 10,000 tons, so the ships were cruisers by size but carried the heavy armament of a capital ship. To stay within the limit, the armor was kept thin.
Connections
Used In
Source Deutschland-class cruiser, Wikipedia
Source Deutschland-class cruiser, Wikipedia
Sources
1. Deutschland-class cruiser, Wikipedia
Infobox, Type field
Heavy cruiser
Service history
The ship was commissioned into the Reichsmarine on 1 April 1933.
- Weapon class classified from the entity's own sourced description text.
Lead sentence
The Deutschland class was a series of three Panzerschiffe (armored ships), a form of heavily armed cruiser, built by the Reichsmarine (Germany navy) officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.
Used In: Spanish Civil War, Wikipedia article text
All three vessels served on non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War.
Used In: World War II, Article text
Before the outbreak of World War II, Deutschland and Admiral Graf Spee were deployed to the Atlantic to put them in position to attack Allied merchant traffic once war was declared.
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