SMS Lutzow - Guide 230 

Pinned post for Q&A :)

Imperial German ships looks so cool ngl

With the forward half of the ship mostly underwater, it amazing that they were still fighting to save her.

I commend Lutzow's crew for trying to keep her afloat despite the bow and about half the deck underwater and the screws and rudder in the air

As a former sailor, it is always sad to hear another ship going down. You may celebrate sinking an enemy ship, but you are sad at the loss of that ship and its crew.

SMS Lutzow, Derflinger and Hindenburg were great looking and capable ships. Acedemicly it's a shame the the last two did not see service in WWII, but ethically just as well they didn't.

Such a pretty class of ships, IMHO. Always wondered what a post war refit of one of these would have looked like.

Ah, you could have added that they had fought to get six trapped men in a forward compartment out, but in the end it proved impossible due to the compartment being entirely under water and they went down with the ship. I know these things happened (and I guess still do when ships go down), but this one was apparently rather distressing to the crew overall as they had fought hard to get to them.

If there was every a time for a captain to turn around, put his arm over the passenger seat headrest and run the ship backwards, this was it.

Kind of ironic that the man Lützow actualy fought as an Ally of Britain against Napoleon.

Ah, the Lutzow, the ship that played havoc on the RN at Jutland. Its one of my favorite ships and I enjoyed the video!

>Failing internal bulkheads Something you never want to hear on a ship.

It is important to note that her trialed top speed of 26knots was in the shallow water of the Baltic Sea. In deeper water, she would have very likely exceeded 28kts.

It seems Germany has a history of building hard hitting ships with short lifespans. Lutzow certainly dished it out before going down and in the next war, Bismark would destroy the Hood and send Prince of Wales running on her first outing while ultimately being sunk in the end.

That was one tough ship, with an even tougher crew.

Completed the more than 7 minute video that has been online for 13 minutes. Its like Im obsessed with naval history

4:58 "Lützow did get her revenge, as her return fire detonated Invincible" I'd say that was one heck of a bad name for that ship.

Wow, this ship really fought hard. Respect.

Beautiful ships -. especially before the fitting of the big tripod mast. With an Atlantic bow a la Bismarck/Scharnhorst - just wow!

6:24 This is the naval version of “‘tis but a scratch!”

Here's a good ship for a future review! The LCS. Not the modern awful one, but the WW2 LCL L(3) landing support ship. They were insanely heavily armed for their size, there's a great Navy training video for them here on RU-vid.

Imperial German Capital ships always seem to be designed for function over looks. I have always lover them. Ever since seeing the fiftieth anniversary of Jutland issue of Life magazine in 1966.

“Don’t give up the ship!” I think the spirit of Captain James Lawrence (presumably as his alter-ego Johannes Lorenz) was present in Lützow’s crew that day.

Thanks Drach It shows how even minor hits can lead to disaster in the right circumstances. HMS Invincible's accurate gunnery shows how effective the British BC's were when they had a chance to properly practice, something not possible in Rosyth.

Imagine if she made it past the Jade Bank and into harbor. Who would they have cheered for ever the more louder - Derrfy, Lutzie, or Sedy?

man they reeeeeaaaally did not want to abandon ship

A truly remarkable figure of her crew was Gunther Paschen, first gunnery officer. In his own words, "Into the battleworthiness of this ship I put all the knowledge and ability that service and study had given me". He despised new German rulers from the start, which Nazi never forgot. He was murdered by Nazi in 1943. A noble man from the family of maritime traditions (his father was an admiral).

As a old USN Gunners mate guns, I enjoy your videos about the big gun navies of WWI and WWII🦑

Lutzow's crew: "Never give up! Never surrender!"

Lutzow was from a class of early, but excellent, fast battleships, of their day. Apparently they are other sturdy and able German heavy units of WW1 inspired the designs for the ww2 era Fast Battleships that all navies aspired to build. The Iowa's being the best example of a class and the Vanguard being the best British design. The Vanguard corrected nearly all of the Hood's and Renown's intrinsic, standard pre-Jutland design flaws without sacrificing either protection or firepower while still capable of 30 knots. It was the relatively superior protective designs of the heavily armored German Battlecruisers, against their British counterparts at Jutland, despite the active presence of Battleships of both navies in the engagement that so decisively demonstrated that speed with protection was paramount. Protection and firepower without speed could simply not catch the faster Battlecruisers and the Battlecruisers could better determine the terms of whence an engagement should commence. The newest 13.5" Tiger among the British Battlecruisers at Jutland, plus the uniquely fast Warspite (QE Class) Battleships, of 23-24 knots and oil fired with 15" guns, further underscored the value of such ships. Unlike Lutzow, the forementioned British counterparts weren't sunk but were subjected to numerous heavy caliber hits and remained in action and combat effective. So the actions in WW1 demonstrated the value of protection combined with speed. At the same time the lack of protection rendered any heavy vessel, despite its firepower highly vulnerable to conflagration from a single heavy hit or combination of medium caliber hits without ample, comprehensive protection. Ultimately, this objective was to proven untenable by Force Z and later both the Yamato and Musashi which succumbed to attacks from torpedoes and bombs from aircraft which weren't a factor at Jutland.

I really look forward to my Saturday morning coffee and Drach, especially now I’m recovering from a back injury and just got the common cold. Kudus for making my day a little better

Being the better of her predecessor by several millennia is something i often expect from German engineering lol

Congratulations on passing 250 thousand subscribers

Hard to choose a favourite among Hipper's ships. They all fought a hell of a fight!

A heroic ship, fought and destroyed ships of the enemy, went down only when all hope was lost. What more can one expect from an engine of war. Thanks for the video, as usual.

Damn that's tragic, imagine fighting for so long to save your ship and then, after evacuation, having to watch as your comrades torpedo it...

It makes you wonder if any of Hippers battlecruisers would have survived had the British shells functioned properly. It would certainly have put a different perspective on the battle that's for sure.

Battleships and battlecruisers were insane. Still moving with a turret submerged? I mean, I can believe it, know how those things were built, but the average person probably wouldn't.

So he took a massive hit and THEN destroyed HMS Invincible? crazy.

I have this sudden urge to buy FlyHawk's 1/700 Lutzow and built her as is

I wonder why Lutzow didn’t go astern to minimize forward flooding - once she was clear of the battle, of course.

What a monumental effort by the crew and captain to save the ship! 🖤🤘🏼

I see you did not mentioned the sailors trapped inside that were still comunicting through voice pipes, Too depressing perhaps?

Thanks for this video, quite informative as always. A little comment on your german pronunciation. In general it is very good! However in Lützow the "ow" endling is not pronunced as in english "now". In German "ow" is pronunced as a long "o". If you try more along the lines of "oh", you'd get closer. Similarly the "ey" in Seydlitz is pronunced like the letter "i" in english. Hope this was a little helpful. Keep up the amazing work, I really enjoy your videos! 😊

"Ve are brand new Und de Best Battal Crooser in the World" HMS invincible: "Child!"

here is a fun fact for you Lutzow unlike the other German battlecruiser's was firing semi ap rounds which were usually used for lighter armored ships like destroyers torpedo boats and maybe light cruisers while the other battlecruiser's were using regular ap rounds Lutzow's gunnery officer later regreted using these rounds thinking that they could have destroyed lion in the engagement

Beautiful ship and interesting story as always. Sure would like a Video about the USCGC Taney WHEC 37. She has quite a history and is known as The Queen of the Pacific. Her keel laid in 1935 and she is still afloat today!

Great video about one of my favourite WWI ships. Thought you might mention the snazzy red rear funnel though!

Ah yes, torpedo rooms on large ships were such a great idea...

After watching your episode on the importance of paintings in history. The painting at the end seems to be off as it shows the ship capsizing to port. How to piss off your friends 101. Say port and starboard instead of left and right!😆 I've only had the ocean try to kill me once. Another time, we had to pull over a cruise ship to call the coast guard to tow us in. (They were NOT happy about it.) I'm still going back through the list, but if you haven't done an episode on the different nations coast guards, I would like to see one. These guys are nuts to sail into a storm when everyone else is running away!😉

100% Effort from the crew to save her.

Grief.. had the covid jab yesterday.. drach wasn't kidding.. glad I have some decent u tube vids like this to keep me going... thanks

Thank you for reading my mind today - this ship popped up in my thoughts, and you delivered all the answers (and way more information) I wished for :-)

Handsome ship, well presented!

Some minor points on German phonology: Lützow is pronounced "Lützo", (not "Lützau"). Derfflinger is pronounced "DERFF-linger", (not "Derff-LING-er"). Also, it's spelt with two Fs (Derfflinger, not Derflinger). Seydlitz is pronounced "Side-litz", (not "Said-litz").

Looking at some of the pictures. The ship seemed to ride low in the water.

A first-hand account of the action and sinking is provided in "Narrative of a German Sailor on the Lutzow" reproduced on p.179 of Vol. IV or the 1923 anthology "Source Records of the Great War". This same volume also reproduces the official German and British accounts of Jutland, along with Jellicoe's "Official Report to the British Admiralty" of 24 June 1916. The entire book set is available on-line through Internet Archives; I don't know if web addresses can be here posted, but Vol. IV is at archive.org/details/sourcerecordsofg04newy/page/178/mode/2up .

Thanks, seemed like the ship was low in the water normally.

Thank you, Drachinifel.

The wreck is in 45 meters of water. There are videos online of visits to it by divers.

Wasnt the senior dynamo crew from Lutzöw the ones who stayed behind to provide electricity to their comrades evacuating the lower parts of the ship? I still believe that the torpedo fired amidships was also a coup de grâce, the wreck today shows a collapse between the 4th boilers room and the aft generator room.

German ships at Jutland had great survivability

Tough old boot to keep underway with the bow that far down.

As always, very informative video. Thank you

Cheers from Estonia

Perhaps you could do a topic about the Terrible Twins, the Flores and the Soemba.

Ahhh, German battlecruisers - some of the best inadvertent mine sweepers ever built.

if the Lutzow was in the Royal Navy she would have still been fighting in 1941 like HMS Hood. She was that good of a ship! How many hits did she take at Jutland? SMS Seydliz took 22 plus 1 torpedo and still got home!

I thought it was the Derfflinger that blew up the Invincible? 🤔 I refereing to Von Hase who was artillery officer on Derfflinger.

nice looking ship

the first war must be one of the few conflicts in which a ship has had a very short service.

I'd love to see how Imperial German ships would kook like if they had received post war Refits like the British ships received .

Derfflinger.. my favourite ship of all time..

Drach I was looking for your video on USS LONG BEACH CGN-9! Sounds like you need to do one on her!

Oooh. Posted "13 seconds ago" when I clicked on it, that's a new record for me :D.

Thank you.

Im curious🤔 about the US Version of Lutzow as you talked about it in the last Live Segment

Many years ago I read that the watertight bulk heads were less than perfect being crossed by piping and cableways and that rivets may have failed due to the pounding she received and pressure of water. Seydlitz was in a similar state down by the bow as she limped home after Jutland. I do not know if this is a fact or significant.

Amazing how much damage those German ships took and still managed to sail.

German battlecruisers are the most powerful ships of their time. "SMS Goeben" received three mine wounds, but was able to return without sinking.

With the issue of water pressure made worse by speed, maybe they should have tried going backwards? Yeah I know, unrealistic. I had forgotten that the Germans had even lost a battle cruiser given all the issues that the Grand Fleet had. Thanks for the reminder.

it was a badass ship.

Inside the Drach's Bulkhead *oh my god the ship is sinking, climb up the ladder, open up the hatch, run through this corridor, climb up this ladder and out of the hatch, and onto the deck*

Cool 👍🏻

Good looking ship...I am wondering when a video gets produced about the SMS König Class. They are the battleship equivalent

The Derfflingers are the most beautiful warship ever build. The low, sleek lines... Just amazing. Also they are probably The best battlecruisers ever built...

Absolutely great content.

Cannot believe it that she was not scuttled, as no German warship is ever sunk by enemy action.....

it's pronounced "Lyt-soh" it has nothing to so with a sow. A very typical thing to get wrong ;) Also here, have a free "ü" for copy and pasting.

A beautiful ship forever claimed by the seas she pushed out of her way a sad ending to such a magnificent shipn

Question: why did the germans go from metric 500mm and 600mm torpedoes in ww1 to the bascly imperial 533mm (21') torpedoes in ww2?

Lutzow: Excellent stuff.

Germany really caught up in shipbuilding till the 1910's with the top naval-strong nations! + in typical British fashion they never become the "master" of their own inventions (battlecruisers, battleships, tanks, trains...ect.)

Bravo Bravo !!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

HMS invincible should be credited, to sinking luztow, HMS Thunderer spotted, seydlitz, In sinking condition,Captain wanted open fire,but order was not to open fire.

great stuff

Another example of why torpedo rooms on a battleship aren’t worth including

Wonder what the layout of the Derfflinger class would have been had Germany been allowed to keep them post-wwi. Personally, I think they would have given some decent oil burning engines along with modifications to their secondary battery. But what do you think Drach?

Crew complement at Jutland? Casualties?

GJ on the “Umlaut” the O in Lützow is however pronounced like the O in the English “boat” rather than the one in “cow”.