The Derfflinger class was a class of three battlecruisers of the Imperial German Navy. All three of the ships saw active service with the High Seas Fleet during World War I. They were interned at Scapa Flow following the armistice in November 1918, and were scuttled after the end of the war. The last two ships in the class were scrapped after World War II.
About Derfflinger-class battlecruiser in brief
The Derfflinger class was a class of three battlecruisers of the Imperial German Navy. The ships were ordered for the 1912–13 Naval Building Program of the German Imperial Navy. All three of the ships saw active service with the High Seas Fleet during World War I. They were interned at Scapa Flow following the armistice in November 1918, and were scuttled after the end of the war. The class comprised three ships: Derfflinger, Lützow, and Hindenburg. Design work on the first two ships began in October 1910 and continued until June 1911. Hindenburg was built to a slightly modified design, which was created between May and October 1912. The last two ships in the class were scrapped after World War II. The third ship was built as a training vessel, but was never commissioned into the fleet. The fourth and final Naval Law, passed in 1912, secured funding for three new dreadnoughts, two light cruisers, and an extra 15,000 officers and men in the Navy for 1912. It was a reply to the Royal Navy’s three new Lion-class battle Cruisers that had been launched a few years earlier. The preceding Moltke class and the incrementally improved Seydlitz represented the end. of the evolution of Germany’s first generation of battlecruiser classes. The Derffinger class had considerable improvements, including a larger primary armament, all of which was mounted on the centerline. A new construction technique was employed to save weight. The navy department also argued for an increase in the main battery guns, from 28-centimeter guns to 30.
5 cm weapons. This was because the latest British battleships had thicker main belt armor, up to 300 millimeters. Since the German battlecruizers were intended to fight in the line of battle, their armament needed to be sufficiently powerful to penetrate the armor of their British opponents. The new ships also used a similar propulsion system, and as a result of the increased displacement were slightly slower. The design board chose the 5- turrets to be mounted in four twin turrets on the centreline of the ship. On 1 September 1910, the design board decided the 5 turrets would be kept in the same layout as the Seyd litz. The ship was commissioned shortly after the outbreak of war, and was present at most of the naval actions in the North Sea, including the battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland. The three ships were slightly longer at 212m at waterline and 80m at the waterline, and 210m overall at water line and 80 m overall, at the three battleships were 210m long at the Waterline and 40 m at waterline. The four shaft arrangement for their engines would allow the new ships to equip a diesel engine on the central shaft. This would substantially increase the cruising range, and would ease the transfer of fuel and reduce the number of crew needed to operate the ships’ machinery. The increase in gun caliber added only 36 tons to the ships’ displacement.
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