Pocket battleships

2023-02-01 -

ADMIRAL SCHEER

With German capital ships restricted by the Treaty of Versailles, the Kriegsmarine decided in the early 1930s to design and build a class of powerful warships within the treaty limitations on the size and types of ship Germany was permitted to construct. Combining modern diesel engines capable of fast speeds and a very powerful armament, designers were able to create a class of ship superior to that on any enemy cruisers. This class of German armoured ship were called a Deutschlandclass heavy cruiser or often termed, pocket battleships. The class comprised of three vessels which had cruiser-type hulls, and armour protection, but carried heavier guns (11in) than contemporary foreign cruisers. There were three Pocket battleships built, Admiral Scheer, Deutschland and Admiral Graf Spee. Admiral Scheer, named after Admiral Reinhard Scheer, German commander in the Battle of Jutland, was ordered by the Reichsmarine from the Reichsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven to build the ship. However, due to restrictions imposed on constructing armoured ships, it was not until 1931 that a bill was passed to build the vessel. Her keel was laid on 25 June 1931, under construction number '123'. The ship was launched on 1 April 1933.

Although there were still limitations imposed on the size of the ships built in Germany, nominally less than 10,000 tonnes, the Scheer would have a full load displacement of 15,180 tonnes, which significantly exceeded it. The boat was armed with six 11in guns in two, triple gun turrets. Its secondary armament comprised of 5.9in guns which were carried in single turrets grouped amidships. Her anti-aircraft battery originally consisted of three 3.5in guns, but in 1935 these were replaced with six 3.5in guns. By 1940 the ship’s anti-aircraft battery was significantly increased, consisting of six 4.1in guns, four twin-mounted 1.5in guns and up to 28 x 0.79in FlaK 30 guns. Late in the war other additional weaponry was added too. The ship also carried a pair of quadruple deckmounted torpedo tubes placed in her stern and was equipped with two Arado Ar 196 Seaplanes and one catapult.

Admiral Scheer and her two sisters were designed to outgun any cruiser. Fast and manoeuvrable their top speed of 28 knots was more than capable of out pacing most enemy ships with armament powerful enough to sink them.

Admiral Sheer’s first operational deployment began in July 1936 when she was sent to Spain to evacuate civilians during the Spanish Civil War. She remained operational during the Spanish War until returning to Wilhelmshaven in July 1937. It wasn’t until late November 1939 when Scheer underwent a refit and was reclassed as a heavy cruiser. She was ready for service in July 1940 but did not see her first combat sortie until 31 October in the open Atlantic. In the course of her raiding operation, Scheer spent 161 days at sea and steamed over 46,000 nautical miles and sank 17 merchant ships for a total of 113,223 gross register tonnage (GRT). In 1942, the ship was sent to Norway to become part of the so-called 'fleet in being', but saw little action. After returning to Germany at the end of 1942, the ship served as a training ship until the end of 1944. In late November 1944 Scheer departed from Gotenhafen with torpedo boats T3 and T12 for shore bombardment operations against Soviet positions in the Sworbe peninsula on the island of Ösel. However, once again her operations were limited and after returning to Gotenhafen she was later transferred to Pillau. In March 1945 she was moved to Kiel for repairs, where she capsized after a raid by British bombers on 9 April 1945.

DEUTSCHLAND/LÜTZOW

Although Admiral Scheer saw extensive action in the Atlantic during the early part of the war, her sister ship, Deutschland, was significantly embroiled in fighting in the North Atlantic and Baltic between 19401943. As with Scheer, Deutschland was commissioned into the Reichsmarine on 1 April 1933. She was christened by German Chancellor Heinrich Bruning. The ship had a designed displacement of 12,430 tonnes,

Admiral Scheer / Deutschland (Lützow)

Class: Pocket battleship

Displacement: Scheer - 13,660 tonnes, Deutschland - 14,520 tonnes

Length: 186m (610ft 3in)

Beam: 20m (65ft 7in)

Draft: 7.25m (23ft 9in)

Speed: 28 knots

Range: Scheer - 16,900km (10,501 miles), Deutschland - 19,000km (11,806 miles)

Crew: 951 men

Armament: 6 × 28cm SK C/34 • 8 x 15cm SK C/28 • 8 x 53.3cm torpedo tubes

ADMIRAL GRAFF SPEE

The Admiral Graff Spee was the newest of the pocket battleship class, and was officially known as an armoured ship. As with the other two vessels, Scheer and Deutschland, the origins of the Spee began in the 1920s. The Treaty of Versailles had imposed strict conditions on Germany and this left her navy with no modern capital ships. It had been initially thought that with a 10,000-ton displacement restriction, the best the Kriegsmarine could achieve would be a modernised form of the dreadnought battleship. However, the Germans were determined to build a ship that significantly exceeded what the treaty had imposed. The design was revolutionary for the time and the pocket battleships were soon acknowledged for their technology and ingenuity. They were constructed with weight saving techniques, and their modern diesel engines were efficient, fast and capable of outrunning most enemy ships at 28 knots. They had the ability to steam long distances without refuelling.

On 1 October 1932, Spee's keel was laid under construction number ‘125’. The ship was launched on 30 June 1934, and at her launching, she was christened by the daughter of Admiral Maximillian von Spee, the ship’s namesake.

The vessel was completed slightly over a year and a half later on 6 January 1936, the day she was commissioned into the German fleet. Her weaponry was powerful and comprised of six 11in SK C/28 guns mounted in two, triple gun turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure. The ship carried a secondary battery of eight 5.9in SK C/28 guns in single turrets grouped amidships. Her anti-aircraft battery originally consisted of three

3.5in L/45 guns, though in 1935 these were replaced with six 3.5in L/78 guns. In 1938, the 3.5in guns were removed, and six 4.1in L/65 guns, four 1.5in SK C/30 guns, and 10 x 0.79in C/30 guns were installed in their place. The ship also carried a pair of quadruple 21in deck-mounted torpedo tubes placed on her stern.

Admiral Graff Spee spent the first three months of her career conducting a number of various sea trials for preparation for operational service. Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in the summer of 1936, the Graff Spee with her two sisters was deployed for non-intervention patrols. However, in spite of Deutschland undertaking a reprisal attack on the port of Almeria, the Spee saw little fighting. In August 1939 she was sent into the Atlantic and a few weeks following the outbreak of war she was given permission to go into action. For the next two months between

September and October 1939 the Graff Spee preyed on shipping sinking nine ships, before returning home in November.

The sinking of the ships by Spee caused the Allies widespread alarm, and as a consequence both British and French navies formed hunting groups to find and sink the German pocket battleship. As for the Spee, in order to avoid these hunting groups, she moved quietly from the north Atlantic to the south Atlantic and on 22 October encountered and sank the steamer Trevanion. At the end of October, Spee sailed into the Indian Ocean south of Madagascar. The purpose of the operations was to divert Allied warships away from the South Atlantic. By this time, the ship had cruised for almost 30,000 nautical miles and needed an engine overhaul. She then returned back to the cold waters of the Atlantic. On 15 November, the ship sank the tanker MV Africa Shell.

Although Spee was to avoid taking risks with convoys by being detected, her tactic was to use her spotter aircraft to find targets, which were freighters sailing alone. In addition to her battle tactics Captain Langsdorf had a dummy gun turret on her bridge built and erected a dummy second funnel behind the aircraft catapult to alter her silhouette significantly in a bid to deceive Allied shipping as to her true identity. Freighters were deceived and on 3 December, the steamer SS Tairoa was sunk. Four days later on 7 December she encountered her last victim the freighter Streonshalh.

In December 1939 the Graff Spee then set sail for South America to begin commerce raiding. However, it was here in the estuary of the River Plate near the