German cruiser Lützow (1939)

German cruiser Lützow (1939)

Lützow was a heavy cruiser of Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine. The ship was laid down in August 1937 and launched in July 1939. The Soviet Union requested to purchase the ship in February 1940, and the transfer was completed on 15 April. The vessel was still incomplete when sold to the Soviet Union, with only half of her main battery of eight 20. 3 cm guns installed.

About German cruiser Lützow (1939) in brief

Summary German cruiser Lützow (1939)Lützow was a heavy cruiser of Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine, the fifth and final member of the Admiral Hipper class. The ship was laid down in August 1937 and launched in July 1939. The Soviet Union requested to purchase the ship in February 1940, and the transfer was completed on 15 April. The vessel was still incomplete when sold to the Soviet Union, with only half of her main battery of eight 20. 3 cm guns installed and much of the superstructure missing. After repairs were effected, the ship was renamed Tallinn and used in the Soviet counter-offensive that relieved Leningrad in 1944. After the end of the war, she was used as a stationary training platform and as a floating barracks before being broken up for scrap sometime between 1953 and 1960. She was sunk in April 1942, and raised in September 1942, but was never completed.

Lützows were ordered in the context of German naval rearmament after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 and repudiated the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, Germany signed the Anglo–German Naval Agreement with Great Britain. The treaty specified that Germany would be able to build five 10,000-long-ton \”treaty cruisers\”. The ship had a design displacement of 17,600 t and a full load displacement of 20,100 t. The ship’s top speed was 32 knots, at 132,000 shaft horsepower. As designed, her standard complement consisted of 42 officers and 1,340 enlisted men. Her anti-aircraft battery was to have consisted of twelve 10. 5 cm L65 guns, twelve 3. 7 cm  guns, and eight 2  cm guns. She also would have carried a pair of triple 53. 3 torpedo launchers abreast of the rear superstructure.