SMS Blücher was the last armored cruiser built by the German Empire. She was designed to match what German intelligence incorrectly believed to be the specifications of the British Invincible-class battlecruisers. She served in the I Scouting Group for most of her career, including the early portion of World War I. At the Battle of Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915, she was slowed by gunfire from the British battlecruiser squadron under the command of Vice Admiral David Beatty. Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper decided to abandon Blucher to the pursuing enemy ships in order to save his more valuable battlecruising ships.
About SMS Blücher in brief
SMS Blücher was the last armored cruiser built by the German Empire. She was designed to match what German intelligence incorrectly believed to be the specifications of the British Invincible-class battlecruisers. The ship was built at the Kaiserliche Werft shipyard in Kiel between 1907 and 1909, and commissioned on 1 October 1909. She served in the I Scouting Group for most of her career, including the early portion of World War I. At the Battle of Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915, she was slowed significantly after being hit by gunfire from the British battlecruiser squadron under the command of Vice Admiral David Beatty. Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper decided to abandon Blucher to the pursuing enemy ships in order to save his more valuable battlecruising ships. Under heavy fire from theBritish ships, the ship was sunk, and British destroyers began recovering the survivors. However, the destroyers withdrew when a German zeppelin began bombing them, mistaking the sinking Blulcher for a British battle Cruiser. Blulger was the only warship lost during the battle, with figures ranging from 747 to around 1,000. Her design was influenced by the need to match the armored cruisers which Britain was known to be building at the time. The Germans expected these new British ships to be armed with six or eight 9. 2 in guns. In response, the German navy approved a design with twelve 21 cm guns in six twin turrets.
This was significantly more firepower than that of the Scharnhorst class, which carried only eight 21-cm guns. Blüchers was therefore arguably obsolete even before her construction started, and was rapidly surpassed by theGerman Navy’s battlecruppers, the first of which was ordered in 1907. The German Navy retained that designation in an attempt to conceal its more powerful nature. The ships were designed to engage the reconnaissance forces of rival navies, as well as fight in the line of battle. The earliest armored cruiser, Fürst Bismarck, was rushed through production specifically to be deployed to China to assist in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Subsequent armored cruppers served with the fleet in the reconnaissance force. The first two Nassau-class battleships were ordered in May 1906, along with the first two Nassau- class battleships. The third, Nassau class battleship, was ordered on 26 May 1907, and the fourth, Blücher, on 26 June 1907. Bluchers were the last of the German Navy’s armored cruiser classes to be built. The last of these, the Nassau class, was built in 1909. The final armored cruiser class, the Fürst Kreuzer, was commissioned in October 1909, with the name “Grosse Kreuzer” in honor of the Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard von Bluher. The Grosse Kruzer class was the first to be designed for the reconnaissance role, and served in World War II.
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This page is based on the article SMS Blücher published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
