page_title: SMS Seydlitz
section_title: Armament
hierarchical_section_title: SMS Seydlitz / Design / Armament
caption_attribution_description: SMS Seydlitz (German Battle Cruiser, 1913-1919), steaming to Scapa Flow to be interned
context_page_description: SMS Seydlitz was a battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine, built in Hamburg. She was ordered in 1910 and commissioned in May 1913, the fourth battlecruiser built for the High Seas Fleet. She was named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, a Prussian general during the reign of King Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War. Seydlitz represented the culmination of the first generation of German battlecruisers, which had started with the Von der Tann in 1906 and continued with the pair of Moltke-class battlecruisers ordered in 1907 and 1908. Seydlitz featured several incremental improvements over the preceding designs, including a redesigned propulsion system and an improved armor layout. The ship was also significantly larger than her predecessors—at 24,988 metric tons, she was approximately 3,000 metric tons heavier than the Moltke-class ships.
  Seydlitz participated in many of the large fleet actions during World War I, including the battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland in the North Sea.
context_section_description: Seydlitz mounted a nearly identical main battery to that of the preceding Moltke-class ships: ten 28 cm (11 in) SK L/50 guns in five twin-gun turrets. The guns were arranged similarly as well, with one turret fore, two staggered wing turrets amidships, and two super-firing turrets aft. They were placed in newer Drh. L C/1910 mountings, which enabled depression of the guns down to −8 degrees and elevation to 13.5 degrees—the same range of motion of the earlier Drh. L C/1908 turrets. At 13.5 degrees, the guns could be fired to 18,100 m (59,400 ft). In 1916, Seydlitz had her main turrets modified to allow for elevation up to 16 degrees, for a maximum range of 19,100 m (62,700 ft). Each turret was equipped with a 3 m (9.8 ft) rangefinder, apart from the rear turret, and an additional 3 m rangefinder was fitted in the gunnery control tower, which was located directly aft of the conning tower. The main battery was supplied with 87 armor-piercing rounds per gun, for a total of 870 shells. In addition to the 305-kilogram (672 lb) shell, each gun chambered a 24.0 kg (52.9 lb) fore propellant charge in a silk bag and a 75.0 kg (165.3 lb) main charge in a brass case. The guns fired the shells at a muzzle velocity of 880 m/s (2,900 ft/s). The guns were hand-rammed, which required the barrels to be returned to 0 degrees elevation for reloading. Training and elevation was controlled hydraulically.
  Seydlitz carried a similar secondary battery to the preceding Moltke-class design. She mounted twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 quick-firing guns in single casemates along the center of the ship. These guns fired armor-piercing shells at a rate of 4 to 5 per minute. The guns could depress to −7 degrees and elevate to 20 degrees, for a maximum range of 13,500 m (14,800 yd), and after the 1916 refit, the range was extended to 16,800 m (18,400 yd). The shells weighed 51-kilogram (112 lb) and were fired at a muzzle velocity of 735 m/s (2,410 ft/s). The guns were manually elevated and trained.
  For defense against torpedo boats, the ship was also armed with twelve 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 quick-firing guns, which were mounted in casemates as well. These guns fired 7.04 kg (15.5 lb) at a muzzle velocity of 590 mps (1,936 fps). Their rate of fire was approximately 15 shells per minute; the guns could engage targets out to 6,890 m (7,530 yd). The gun mounts were manually operated. Two of these guns were removed in 1916 and replaced with high-angle 8.8 cm Flak L/45 anti-aircraft guns.
  As was customary for all German capital ships of the time, Seydlitz was equipped with four submerged torpedo tubes. The ship mounted one tube in the bow, one in the stern, and one was on each side of the vessel. The weapons were 50 cm (19.7 in) in diameter, and a total of eleven torpedoes were stored. She was initially equipped with the G6 version, which carried a 140 kg (310 lb) warhead and could be set at two speeds for different ranges. At 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph), the torpedoes could reach 5,000 m (16,000 ft) and at 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph), the range fell to 2,200 m (7,200 ft). These were replaced beginning in 1913 by the G7 type, which carried a 200 kg (440 lb) warhead. Their range increased significantly, to 9,300 nmi (17,200 km; 10,700 mi) at 27 knots and 4,000 nmi (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph).
caption: Seydlitz steaming into Scapa Flow
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