Deutschland class (1930) - Guide 074 

Does anyone else feel sad every time you're reminded that most WW2 ships were took apart, sunk, nuclear bombed, etc. after the war instead of becoming museums?

A modern note: One of the tall boys dropped of Lutzow was detonated in October 2020 and the video of the explosion really shows the power of the weapons targeted against these ships.

These videos with a human voice narrating are SO much more enjoyable! Thank you!

Beautiful ship, clean lines. I want a yacht based on this design

I feel like these ships are in between the lines of a heavy cruiser and a true battlecruiser. Pretty much a very heavily armed heavy cruiser. Their best role in the war was commerce raiding and destroying enemy cruisers.

The wreck of Admiral Scheer still rests where it was sunk (6:31 ff), the former harbor basin is covered with concrete. The place nowadays is used as a parking lot.

The Adm Scheer is still there. He could be recovered and restored to Weimar Republic form. Now THAT would draw tourists for sure.

Panzerschiff (Armored Ship) was not the term for german Capital Ships at any time (after maybe the 1850s). The Deutschlands were called Panzerschiffe because of the Treaty of Versailles, where Germany was allowed a certain number of cuirasses (which is french for armored ship and how they called their capital ships). So Germany went with this term to show the world how it held to the Treaty, and because those ships really werent battleships nor cruisers.

**I've got a brilliant idea for naming future warships! Obviously it's not good to name ships after an important national symbol, because of potential morale issues if and when it's sunk. Not to mention the propaganda value your enemies will enjoy once they sink your ships.** Here's how you solve this problem: you name your warships after your ENEMY'S most important national symbols and leaders. For instance, the Graf Spee SHOULD have been named KMS United Kingdom, KMS King George VI, or KMS Winston Churchill. That way the British would try their best NOT to sink enemy ships! Imagine the news after the battle of the river Platte. "Today, the royal navy located a German heavy cruiser attempting to intercept a supply convoy, but declined to engage her, allowing the KMS Winston Churchill to sink 8 allied supply ships bound for England".** Lolyou

FYI - The single 15cm (5.9") guns weren't in turrets, they were open-backed shield mounts, though some later had doors attached to the back for weather protection.

Sort of hoped you would go into the combined powerplant; its design and implementation. This class had a most unusual powerplant for the times.

great video one of my favorite cruiser designs

Fantastic videos! I am just amazed at the amount of top notch info you supply, thank you so much for your time and effort , it truly is appreciated. Cheers!

Heavy cruiser HMS renown. Like the invincible through deck cruisers or the courageous large light cruisers

Great little potted history. All of the sources I can find put the Panzershiff side armour nearer to 3 inches than 5 although they did vary.

In From the Depths, I’m designing one of my Cruisers after this ship

You really need to do an extremely detailed one on the Lutzow if the photos exist after the Soviet capture.

Straight criminal that you don’t have more subs, you have shown ships/naval designs I otherwise would have never happened across.

Not many original content posts on this site; thanks, good stuff.

About naming ships after your country - HMAS Australia (Indefatigable class battle-cruiser) served throughout WW1, and it's successor HMAS Australia (County class cruiser) survived WW2, including multiple hits by multiple kamikazes!

5:50 - ‘heavy cruiser renown’ !!!! JK great video

Oh she is such a piece of beauty! God's own prototype of a cruiser. Fast, accurate, straight lines. No casemats. The medium-ari can find its own fire-solutions for point-defense, the main-ari is concentrated and focused, she has auxillary range-finders that work together or redundant... the port-holes underline the size... I'd love to build her in 1:100 Full-Scale...

Renown was a battlecruiser, not a heavy cruiser 😋

Panzerschiff was not the standard classification for battleships - that would've been Linienschiff

I wouldn't even call the Deutschlands heavy cruisers, they were more of a monitor-cruiser hybrid.

Love your videos!!! Could you do the Alaska class BC in the near future?

Wow. I knew the Germans' surface ship designs were pretty much World War 1 designs, but my god, those rejected designs were just sad. Those are PRE-World War 1 turret placements.

The pronunciation of "Lützow" is "Luetzof" with the "z" spoken quite sharply. I apologize for not being able to give phonetik script.

A great ship with a great Captain, he was well regarded and his humane treatment won the respect of the ships' officers detained as his prisoners. She was great being a heavy cruiser, A British heavy cruiser and two light cruisers could not take her down, was that the strenght of the ship or the Captain, I belive it was both, the right man for the right ship, doing the right thing. A true Gentlman and a true and galant ship. But this is my own opinion and I do not expect anyone to agree with me.

Thank you sir - excellent as always

Excellent video as usual. Thanks

The Texas is that last surviving dreadnaught

FYI You did not state where the 10K ton limit came from, which I found confusing. At first I thought one of the London/Washington treaties, but internet search says it was from the the Treaty of Versailles. Just saying ;)

If this was just a regular heavy cruiser with little real celebrity about it, it would have been considered a great heavy cruiser design and a real workhorse of a cruiser.

aww those ships are cute

Any chance for the early design studies that led to HMS dreadnought? X4 was mentioned somewhere

The W in Lützow is silent. It's pronounced Lützo. This is the case with all German words that end in W (e.g. Seelow Heights, Pankow, von Bülow).

Obviously no one told HMS Exeter that she couldn't take on a "Pocket Battleship".

Nice layout on the ships but was really surprised at how slow they were. I didnt know the Deutchland class were limited to 26 knots.

1:00 *Yorck from World of Warships says ‘Hi’.*

Plz do the schleswig-holstein

At 5.56 Renown is described a s a heavy cruiser. 😉

With all the praise heaped on German ships it's annoying that all too many people ignore just how massively they exceeded the treaty limits. Yes, they were forced to sign the Versailles Treaty, but that's what happens when you lose a war. These ships were not 'slightly' overweight. They exceeded the Versailles treaty limits of 10,000 tons by between 17-21%. That's a huge margin and any ships going over their design specs by that much would have severe sea keeping and stability problems and their speed would suffer. As this wasn't the case, these ships were designed to exceed the limits and Germany just lied and understated thir true tonnage as they later did for all their large surface ships. Much like Japan did for their cruisers and carriers. How about a video about the Flower class corvettes for all the incredible work they did escorting merchant ships in the Altantic in some of the worst weather.

I REALLY, liked these ships. I wonder how much weight they would have saved with both main turrets forward (ala Dunkerques/Richelieus)? But do not raise the rear one - to save more weight. And forget the 5.9 inch altogether. Instead, install 3 or 4, twin 4.1 inch turrets (all on the centerline). Say, 2 superfiring aft and try to squeeze one forward, firing over the main turrets. I wonder what weight that would save? Well, the almost 200 tons for the 8x5.9 inch mounts for certain. Plus, the weight saved from greatly shortening the main armored citadel.

I've always thought the pocket battleships were inspired by the American heavy frigates like the USS Constitution - built to outgun any regular frigates, and outrun any ships of the line.

If they had done the coastal defense type with 15s they could have had 15s on the scharnhorsts and maybe had the bismarcks sooner

They were sorta like a 1930s take on the armored cruiser concept like the old Olympia.

Very good video

So assuming the Germans wanted to keep the ship to 10000 tons and 6x11 guns. what would they have had to give up to get to that limit? i think they were all over the limit from 1 to 3 thousand tons

Hitler renamed the Deutschland...he was worried lest such a named ship be sunk!

I have to say that these ships were IMHO among the more innovative designs of the interwar period. As commerce raiders they were really hard to beat. All ships of course have drawbacks. But theirs were not many in terms of their intended purpose. Battle-cruisers and aircraft were the only thing they really needed to fear.

Hey can we plz have video on BB-48 the USS West Virginia

KMS Admiral Hipper, H class battleships, O class battlecruisers please, thanks, and excuse you

When did the Ajax start being called the Eye-Yaks? When I was growing up after WW2, it was never anything but A-Jacks!

heavy. _cruiser_ . *_renown_* .

10 people are slow merchantmen.

Originally there where to be more Pocket Battleships. Instead of the scharnhorst & Bismark class would it have been better to have a larger fleet of smaller raiders?

With the Royal Navy across the North Sea the German Navy should have stayed with submarines, and nothing larger than Destroyers. Because the Kriegsmarine was never competitive against the British in surface warships.

Why do we see the question mark or smiley inbetween?

The list of German battleships on Wikipedia must be wrong. It shows four other ships for the Deutschland class but doesn't list the Lutzow or Admiral Sheer anywhere. Maybe you can help them correct it. It would be a service to Wikipedia users around the world. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battleships_of_Germany#Deutschland_class Thank you for your great videos. Haven't seen your videos specifically on the Lutzow and Admiral Sheer yet. Looking forward to those.

As designed faster then those she can't beat stronger then the faster.The 11in gun's,Same as Shienhorst.

Why did warships have portholes below the main deck ?

Do you have a video on the Admiral Scheer the most successful member of the class?

The light cruiser _HMS AJAX_ has never been called I-ax in English, it is pronounced A-jax. I think you are confusing her with a Dutch Association Football team.😊👍

Weren't nations limited to 8 inch guns?

How about the H class battleships designed after the bismarck. H-39 H-42 and H-44.

Any such deception alluded to at approx 5:40 is merely academic. The oil purification plant had been irreparably damaged within time allowed to remain in neutral port and fuel in the 'ready use' bunkers was insufficient for sea going operation.

And yet the British thought 'HMS New Zealand' was just fine... :P

5:46 Is the Renown a heavy cruiser now?

Were the ships any good or were they terrible

1:12 baby battleship by the look of the shape it looks like michael bay pearl harbor oklahoma filmset of the bow section cause in bts pearl harbor the oklahoma filmset is a cruiser shape the turret is too close to the bow

Really enjoying your work. Baltimore class CA at some point please.

6:38 That's the Tirpitz, not Scheer or Lutzow

Come here after : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uZnnj3J4Lw8.html Yes, it was suppose to land on the Lutzow (Deustland)

These things are modern USS Olympia. It's all basically the same just the Germans take with modern(ww2) weapons

Using a interwar, rather than a modern illustration of Germany would have been nice

#Q&A What if Plan Z had been finished prior to the start of WWII?

Kuma class pls

Why does the ship model in the picture have a fictional imperial flag with the iron cross on it. They could easily just put the current BRD flag on it because it IS a picture of the plans for the ship and the ships were designed and started to be build during the Weimar Republic. Or they could put the "normal" imperial flag on it because in April 1933, when the "Deutschland" joined the service the german flag was, after Hitlers acsension in January 1933 the official flag for germany was the imperial one and not yet the nazi party flag. The nazi party flag was often depicted alongside the imperial one by the nazis but only in 1935 did it become the official flag of facist germany replacing the nazi flag. So both the Deutschland/Lützow and the Admiral Scheer can be shown perfectly fine with the imperial flag. Only the Graf Spee entered service after the official flag switch. But its just me beeing a bit nitpicking :) Also the Lützow was not sunk by the RAF, it was made unmanouverable by the bombing. It served as coastal support fire for the german army well over a months after the bombing with its crew still on board and was scuttled by the german crew on the 4th of May 1945. The scuttling didnt go as planned though and the ship beached itself (again) on the sea floor without to much damage. The soviets later on just refloated it by pumping out the water and raising it again. It was still operational to soem degree at that point until the soviets dropped a 5 special bombs on it and most importantly deactivated the water pump keeping the water from flooding the ship. If finally sunk in 1947 at the hands of the soviet navy, NOT the RAF.

I like to think of these as the last generation of costal defense battleships

You didn’t say what happened to the scheer

I have a question about a certain Deutschland/Lützow picture that appears twice (around 3:30 and 5:56). It seems that the middle gun of the front turret is missing. Anyone knows why?

Can you do the uss west Virginia

Tjey should have made them faster.

In hindsight, Germany would have been better off allocating restricted resources to submarines and light surface vessels--none larger than a destroyer. By WWII surface commerce raiding was quickly becoming obsolete. However, understanding that surface commerce raiding was still a widely accepted strategy, the best allocation of resources would have probably been more heavy cruisers (Hipper-type)--forgetting the slower Deutschlands or very expensive battle cruisers and battleships.

but the america was sunk.

Could you do one on the USS Cole. I admit it is a bit out of you time line stc but it would be interesting

As a kid I thought that was silly- even the civilians should know it was just a ship. Expensive ship, and good men dead, but shouldn't be an extra blow to morale because of the name. On the other hand, what idiot thought it was a good idea to name it after the country in the first place? It was a warship. Always a chance it might get sunk by the enemy. Might even get sunk in a hurricane. You never know.

If only they put the Atlantic bow on it. i.e scharhorst bow.

The victor always writes the history. Making it rather one sided. The story of these ships is somewhat screwed. Especially the history of the Graph Spee. A Panzerschiff is the German descriptive word for an Armored Ship not Battleship. A Linienschiff is the descriptive word for a Ship of the line or Battleship as we commonly call a ship of the line or battle line. Pocket Battleship is a media description of these ships given by the British press to sell newspapers. The battle of the River Platte was a clear German victory, the three British cruisers failed to destroy the German ship and were mauled to the point of only having two guns remaining in action between the three ships. The Exeter barely surviving the battle. From a design perspective the British cruiser concept of many small hulls over fewer larger more capable cruiser hulls was a failure in battle. The River Platte battle confirms that fact. The German plan to employ the ship as a raider was a tactical mistake. Nine merchant ships was not worth the cost of the armored cruiser. Scuttling the ship was also a mistake. Interning her in Montevideo would have made more sense at that stage of the war. Back to design, it was really a brilliant idea to employ the Armored cruiser design as a battleship replacement. The capabilities of these ships far outweighed all foreign navy capabilities in the 10,000 to 15,000 ton range. The only design issue was her speed was not quite what it needed to be, 26 knots was a few knots too slow to escape. Had the Graf Spee been operating on Diesel fuel she wouldn’t have needed to seek refuge in Montevideo after the battle. It can be decided that the Captain of the Graf Spee made several errors in decisions before the battle, during the battle and after the battle. We cannot blame the ships design for errors in command. Human error in battle and in life are typically far more frequent than mechanical error or design error. Dudley Pope’s book “The Life and Death of a Raider” is a good collective story on the Graf Spee’s WWII accounts and the Battle of the River Platte but it is skewed to present British “superiority” and heroism, of course.

Sexiest ships ever

So before the Charlie Chaplin reject Germany already had plans for rearmament

Overrated ships.

USS America yes, USS United States, never gonna happen.

always same mistake- not triple turrets, but three gun turrets- because each gun can elevate without the rest. Triple turrets means that all guns move together.

What if: the basic Deutschland design had been enlarged, geared steam turbines installed along with more and better armor while keeping the updated 11.1” Main Armament, improved AAA and Radar. The Germans could have designed superb Aircraft Carriers. If Hitler had kept to his original schedule and attacked in the late ‘40s the Nazis with far more advanced tools of War may have been almost unstoppable.

Keep "Re-voicing" all these videos with a human narrator

Why are you using a Post WW2 map of Germany! It really ticks me off as it is not Historically accurate!

These ships were crap. Made for commerce raiding, they were obsolete before they left the slip because of radio and maritime aircraft.

Why do you use this dumb automated voice for your intro and ending?