Deutschland - class cruiser The Deutschland " class was a series of three Panzerschiffe " ( " armored ships " ) , a form of heavily armed cruiser , built by the " Reichsmarine " officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles . The class , which comprised the ships " Deutschland " , " Admiral Scheer " , and " Admiral Graf Spee " , were all stated to displace in accordance with the Treaty , though they actually displaced at standard displacement . Despite violating the weight limitation , the design for the ships incorporated several radical innovations to save weight . They were the first major warship to use welding and all - diesel propulsion . Due to their heavy armament of six guns , the British began referring to the vessels as " pocket battleships " . The " Deutschland " class ships were initially classified as " Panzerschiffe " or " armored ships " , but the " Kriegsmarine " reclassified them as heavy cruisers in February 1940 . The three ships were built between 1929 and 1936 by the Deutsche Werke and " Reichsmarinewerft " in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven , respectively . They saw heavy service with the German Navy . All three vessels served on non - intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War . While on patrol , " Deutschland " was attacked by Republican bombers , and in response , " Admiral Scheer " bombarded the port of Almería . In 1937 , " Admiral Graf Spee " represented Germany at the Coronation Review for Britain ' s King George VI . For the rest of their peacetime careers , the ships conducted a series of fleet maneuvers in the Atlantic and visited numerous foreign ports in goodwill tours . Before the outbreak of World War II , " Deutschland " and " Admiral Graf Spee " were deployed to the Atlantic to put them in position to attack Allied merchant traffic once war was declared . " Admiral Scheer " remained in port for periodic maintenance . " Deutschland " was not particularly successful on her raiding sortie , during which she sank or captured three ships . She then returned to Germany where she was renamed " Lützow " . " Admiral Graf Spee " sank nine vessels in the South Atlantic before she was confronted by three British cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate . Although she damaged the British ships severely , she was herself damaged and her engines were in poor condition . Coupled with false reports of British reinforcements , the state of the ship convinced Hans Langsdorff , her commander , to scuttle the ship outside Montevideo . " Lützow " and " Admiral Scheer " were deployed to Norway in 1942 to join the attacks on Allied convoys to the Soviet Union . " Admiral Scheer " conducted Operation " Wunderland " in August 1942 , a sortie into the Kara Sea to attack Soviet merchant shipping , though it ended without significant success . " Lützow " participated in the Battle of the Barents Sea in December 1942 , a failed attempt to destroy a convoy . Both ships were damaged in the course of their deployment to Norway , and eventually returned to Germany for repairs . They ended their careers bombarding advancing Soviet forces on the Eastern Front ; both ships were destroyed by British bombers in the final weeks of the war . " Lützow " was raised and sunk as a target by the Soviet Navy while " Admiral Scheer " was partially broken up in situ , with the remainder of the hulk buried beneath rubble . Development . Following Germany ' s defeat in World War I , the size of the German Navy , renamed the " Reichsmarine " , was limited by the Treaty of Versailles . The Navy was permitted a force of six pre - dreadnought battleship s and six light cruiser s ; the ships could not be replaced until they were twenty years old . To replace the battleships , new vessels were to displace at most ; Germany ' s potential rivals were at this time limited to building vessels of by the Washington Naval Treaty and subsequent agreements . The gun caliber of any new ship was not regulated by the Treaty itself , though the Naval Inter - Allied Commission of Control ( NIACC ) created by the Treaty did have authority to regulate the armament of all new warships . The Allies assumed that with these limitations , only coastal defense ship s similar to those operated by the Scandinavian navies could be built . The " Reichsmarine " s oldest battleship , , was laid down in 1902 and could therefore be replaced legally in 1922 . Design studies were considered starting in 1920 , with two basic options : the Navy could build a heavily armored , slow , and small warship similar to a monitor or a large , fast , and lightly armored vessel similar to a cruiser . Actual design work on the new type of armored ship began in 1923 , but the German economy collapsed in 1924 , forcing a temporary halt to the work . Admiral Hans Zenker , the commander in chief of the " Reichsmarine " , pushed hard for the navy to resume design work , and in 1925 , three new proposals were drafted . In addition to two sketches prepared in 1923 , this totaled five different designs . Of the first two designs , " I / 10 " was a cruiser armed with eight guns while " II / 10 " was a , heavily armored ship armed with four . The three designs prepared in 1925 — " II / 30 " , " IV / 30 " , and " V / 30 " — were armed with six guns with varying levels of armor protection . The " Reichsmarine " eventually opted for guns to avoid provoking the Allies and to ease pressures on the design staff . The " Reichsmarine " held a conference to evaluate the designs in May 1925 , though the results were inconclusive . Of particular importance was the continued French occupation of the Ruhr industrial area , which prevented Germany from quickly building large - caliber artillery . Nevertheless , the design staff prepared another set of designs , " I / 35 " , a heavily armored ship with a single triple turret forward , and " VIII / 30 " , a more lightly - armored ship with a pair of twin turrets . The " Reichsmarine " initially intended to lay down the first armored ship in 1926 , but the design had not yet been finalized . The 1926 maneuvers informed the design staff that greater speed was desirable , and that year , a further two designs were submitted to Zenker . The initial design for " Deutschland " , ordered as " " Panzerschiff " A " , was prepared in 1926 and finalized by 1928 . Zenker announced on 11 June 1927 that the Navy had settled on one of several proposals for the new warships . The " Reichsmarine " had decided that the new ships would be armed with two triple turrets mounting 28 cm guns . Political opposition to the new ships was significant . The " Reichsmarine " therefore decided to delay ordering the ship until after the " Reichstag " elections in 1928 . The question over whether to build the new ships was a major issue in elections , particularly with the Social Democrats , who strongly opposed the new ships and campaigned with the slogan " Food not " Panzerkreuzer " . " In May 1928 , the elections were concluded and enough of a majority in favor of the new ships was elected ; this included twelve seats won by Adolf Hitler ' s Nazi Party . An October 1928 attempt of Communist Party of Germany to initiate a referendum against the construction failed . The first of the new ships was authorized in November 1928 When the particulars of the design became known by the Allies , they attempted to prevent Germany from building them . The " Reichsmarine " offered to halt construction on the first ship in exchange for admittance to the Washington Treaty with a ratio of to Britain ' s allotment of of capital ship tonnage . In doing so , this would effectively abrogate the clauses in the Treaty of Versailles that limited Germany ' s naval power . Britain and the United States favored making concessions to Germany , but France refused to allow any revisions to the Treaty of Versailles . Since the ships did not violate the terms of the Treaty , the Allies could not prevent Germany from building them after a negotiated settlement proved unattainable . Design . General characteristics . The three " Deutschland " class ships varied slightly in dimensions . All three ships were long at the waterline , and as built , long overall . " Deutschland " and " Admiral Scheer " had clipper bows installed in 1940 – 1941 ; their overall length was increased to . " Deutschland " had a beam of , " Admiral Scheer " s beam was , while " Admiral Graf Spee " s was . " Deutschland " and " Admiral Scheer " had a standard draft of and a full - load draft of . " Admiral Graf Spee " s draft was and , respectively . The displacement of the three ships increased over the class . Standard displacement grew from for " Deutschland " to for " Admiral Scheer " and for " Admiral Graf Spee " . The ships ' full load displacements were significantly higher , at for " Deutschland " , for " Admiral Scheer " , and for " Admiral Graf Spee " . The ships were officially stated to be within the limit of the Treaty of Versailles , however . The ships ' hulls were constructed with transverse steel frames ; over 90 percent of the hulls used welding instead of the then standard riveting , which saved 15 percent of their total hull weight . This savings allowed the armament and armor to be increased . The hulls contained twelve watertight compartments and were fitted with a double bottom that extended for 92 percent of the length of the keel . As designed , the ship ' s complement comprised 33 officers and 586 enlisted men . After 1935 , the crew was dramatically increased , to 30 officers and 921 – 1 , 040 sailors . While serving as a squadron flagship , an additional 17 officers and 85 enlisted men augmented the crew . The second flagship had an additional 13 officers and 59 sailors . The ships carried a number of smaller boats , including two picket boats , two barges , one launch , one pinnace , and two dinghies . The Kriegsmarine considered the ships to be good sea boats , with a slight roll . As built , they were wet in a head sea , though this was significantly improved by the installation of a clipper bow in 1940 – 1941 . The ships were highly maneuverable , particularly when the maneuvering setting , in which half of the engines for each shaft were run in reverse , for the diesel engines was used . The ships heeled over up to 13 degrees with the rudder hard over . The low stern was wet in a stern sea , and equipment stored there was frequently lost overboard . Machinery . The " Deutschland " class ships were equipped with four sets of 9 - cylinder , double - acting , two - stroke diesel engines built by MAN . The adoption of an all - diesel propulsion system was a radical innovation at the time and contributed to significant savings in weight . Each set was controlled by transmissions built by AG Vulcan . The engines were paired on two propeller shafts , which were attached to three - bladed screws that were in diameter . " Deutschland " was initially fitted with diameter screws , though they were replaced with the larger screws . The engines were rated at and a top speed of . They did not meet the expected shaft - horsepower on trials , though they did exceed their design speeds . " Deutschland " s engines reached and , and " Admiral Scheer " s engines reached and . Horsepower figures for " Admiral Graf Spee " are not recorded , though her top speed on trials was . " Deutschland " could carry up to of fuel oil ; this enabled a maximum range of at a speed of . An increase in speed by one knot reduced the range slightly to . At a higher speed of , the range fell to . " Admiral Scheer " carried and had a correspondingly shorter range of at 20 kn . " Admiral Graf Spee " stored of fuel , which enabled a range of . Electricity was supplied by four electric generators powered by two diesel engines . Their total output was 2 , 160 $ 4 for " Deutschland " , 2 , 800 kW for " Admiral Scheer " , and 3 , 360 kW for " Admiral Graf Spee " , all at 220 volts . Steering was controlled by a single rudder . Armament . The three " Deutschland " class ships were armed with a main battery of six 28 cm SK C / 28 guns mounted in two triple turrets , one on either end of the superstructure . The turrets were the Drh LC / 28 type and allowed elevation to 40 degrees , and depression to −8 degrees . This provided the guns with a maximum range of . They fired a projectile at a muzzle velocity of . The guns were initially supplied with a total 630 rounds of ammunition , and this was later increased to 720 shells . The secondary battery comprised eight 15 cm SK C / 28 guns , each in single MPLC / 28 mountings arranged amidships . These mountings allowed elevation to 35 degrees and depression to −10 degrees , for a range of . They were supplied with a total of 800 rounds of ammunition , though later in their careers this was increased to 1 , 200 rounds . These shells weighed and had a muzzle velocity of . The ships were also equipped with eight torpedo tubes placed in two quadruple launchers mounted on their stern . As built , the ships ' anti - aircraft battery consisted of three 8 . 8 cm SK L / 45 anti - aircraft guns in single mounts . These were replaced with six 8 . 8 cm SK C / 31 guns in 1935 . " Admiral Graf Spee " and " Deutschland " were rearmed in 1938 and 1940 , respectively , with six 10 . 5 cm L / 65 guns , four 3 . 7 cm SK C / 30 guns and initially ten 2 cm Flak guns — the number of 2 cm guns on " Deutschland " was eventually increased to 28 . " Admiral Scheer " had been rearmed by 1945 with six guns , eight 3 . 7 cm guns , and thirty - three 2 cm guns . Armor . The ships ' main armored belt was thick amidships and reduced to on either end of the central citadel . The bow and stern were unarmored at the waterline . This belt was inclined to increase its protective qualities and supplemented by a longitudinal splinter bulkhead . The upper edge of the belt on " Deutschland " and " Admiral Scheer " was at the level of the armored deck . On " Admiral Graf Spee " , it was extended one deck higher . " Deutschland " s underwater protection consisted of a thick torpedo bulkhead ; " Admiral Scheer " s and " Admiral Graf Spee " s bulkheads were reduced to . " Deutschland " had a thick upper deck and a main armored deck that ranged in thickness from 18 – 40 mm . " Admiral Scheer " and " Admiral Graf Spee " had main decks and armored decks that ranged in thickness from 17 – 45 mm . The armored deck in " Deutschland " and " Admiral Scheer " did not extend over the entire width of the ship due to weight ; this matter was rectified in " Admiral Graf Spee " . Likewise , the torpedo bulkheads for " Deutschland " and " Admiral Scheer " stopped at the inside of the double - bottom but in " Admiral Graf Spee " extended to the outer hull . The ships ' forward conning tower had thick sides with a thick roof , while the aft conning tower was less well protected , with 50 mm thick sides and a thick roof . The main battery turrets had thick faces and thick sides . Their roofs ranged in thickness from . The 15 cm guns were armored with gun shields for splinter protection . Construction . " Deutschland " was laid down at the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel on 5 February 1929 , under the contract name " Panzerschiff A " , as a replacement for the old battleship . Work began under construction number 219 . The ship was launched on 19 May 1931 ; at her launching , she was christened by German Chancellor Heinrich Brüning . The ship accidentally started sliding down the slipway while Brüning was giving his christening speech . After the completion of fitting out work , initial sea trials began in November 1932 . The ship was commissioned into the Reichsmarine on 1 April 1933 . Serious political opposition to the ships continued after the authorization for " Deutschland " , and a political crisis over the second ship , " Admiral Scheer " , was averted only after the Social Democrats abstained from voting . As a result of the opposition , " Panzerschiff B " was not authorized until 1931 . A replacement for the old battleship , her keel was laid on 25 June 1931 at the " Reichsmarinewerft " shipyard in Wilhelmshaven , under construction number 123 . The ship was launched on 1 April 1933 ; at her launching , she was christened by Marianne Besserer , the daughter of Admiral Reinhard Scheer , the ship ' s namesake . She was completed slightly over a year and a half later on 12 November 1934 , the day she was commissioned into the German fleet . " Admiral Graf Spee " , the third and final member of the class , was also ordered by the " Reichsmarine " from the " Kriegsmarinewerft " shipyard in Wilhelmshaven . She was ordered under the contract name " Panzerschiff C " to replace the battleship . Her keel was laid on 1 October 1932 , under construction number 125 . The ship was launched on 30 June 1934 ; at her launching , she was christened by the daughter of Admiral Maximilian von Spee , the ship ' s namesake . She was completed slightly over a year and a half later on 6 January 1936 , the day she was commissioned into the German fleet . Possible conversion . After Hitler had given the order in late January 1943 for the two remaining ships to be scrapped , the possibility of instead converting them into aircraft carrier s was discussed . The hulls would have been lengthened approximately , which would have used 2000 tons of steel and employed 400 workmen . Conversion time was estimated at two years . Their flight deck would have been only shorter than that of the " Hipper " class heavy cruiser " Seydlitz " , which had been prepared for conversion in 1942 , and they would still have attained 28 knots . This plan was not pursued . Ships in class . " Deutschland " . " Deutschland " saw significant action with the Kriegsmarine , including several non - intervention patrols , during which she was attacked by Republican bombers . At the outbreak of World War II , she was cruising the North Atlantic , prepared to attack Allied merchant traffic . Bad weather hampered her efforts , and she only sank or captured three vessels before returning to Germany , after which she was renamed " Lützow " . She then participated in Operation " Weserübung " , the invasion of Norway . Damaged at the Battle of Drøbak Sound , she was recalled to Germany for repairs . While en route , she was torpedoed and seriously damaged by a British submarine . Repairs were completed by March 1941 , and in June " Lützow " steamed to Norway . While en route , she was torpedoed by a British bomber , necessitating significant repairs that lasted until May 1942 . She returned to Norway to join the forces arrayed against Allied shipping to the Soviet Union . She ran aground during a planned attack on convoy PQ 17 , which necessitated another return to Germany for repairs . She next saw action at the Battle of the Barents Sea with the heavy cruiser " Admiral Hipper " , which ended with a failure to destroy the convoy JW 51B . Engine problems forced a series of repairs culminating in a complete overhaul at the end of 1943 , after which the ship remained in the Baltic . Sunk in the Kaiserfahrt in April 1945 by Royal Air Force ( RAF ) bombers , " Lützow " was used as a gun battery to support German troops fighting the Soviet Army until 4 May 1945 , when she was disabled by her crew . Raised by the Soviet Navy in 1947 , she was reportedly broken up for scrap over the next two years , according to Western works that did not have access to Soviet documents at the time . The historian Hans Georg Prager examined the former Soviet archives in the early 2000s , and discovered that " Lützow " actually had been sunk in weapons tests in July 1947 . " Admiral Scheer " . " Admiral Scheer " saw heavy service with the German Navy , including several deployments to Spain during the Spanish Civil War , to participate in non - intervention patrols . While off Spain , she bombarded the port of Almería following the Republican attack on her sister " Deutschland " . At the outbreak of World War II , she remained in port for a periodic refit . Her first operation during World War II was a commerce raiding operation into the southern Atlantic Ocean that started in late October 1940 . While on the operation , she also made a brief foray into the Indian Ocean . During the raiding mission , she sank of shipping , making her the most successful capital ship surface raider of the war . Following her return to Germany , she was deployed to northern Norway to interdict shipping to the Soviet Union . She was part of the abortive attack on Convoy PQ - 17 with the battleship " Tirpitz " ; the operation was broken off after surprise was lost . She also conducted Operation Wunderland , a sortie into the Kara Sea . After returning to Germany at the end of 1942 , the ship served as a training ship until the end of 1944 , when she was used to support ground operations against the Soviet Army . She was sunk by British bombers on 9 April 1945 and partially scrapped ; the remainder of the wreck lies buried beneath a quay . " Admiral Graf Spee " . " Admiral Graf Spee " conducted extensive training in the Baltic and Atlantic before participating in five non - intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 – 1938 . She also represented Germany during the Coronation Review for King George VI in May 1937 . " Admiral Graf Spee " was deployed to the South Atlantic in the weeks before the outbreak of World War II , to be positioned in merchant sea lanes once war was declared . Between September and December 1939 , the ship sank nine ships totaling ; in response , the British and French navies formed several hunter - killer groups to track her down . These forces included four aircraft carriers , two battleships , and one battlecruiser . " Admiral Graf Spee " operated in concert with the supply ship " Altmark " . " Admiral Graf Spee " was eventually confronted by three British cruisers off Uruguay at the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December 1939 . She inflicted heavy damage on the British ships , but suffered damage as well , and was forced to put into port at Montevideo . Convinced by false reports of superior British naval forces approaching his ship and the poor state of his own engines , Hans Langsdorff , the commander of the ship , ordered the vessel to be scuttled . The ship was partially broken up in situ , though part of the ship remains visible above the surface of the water . Langsdorff committed suicide three days after the scuttling . Footnotes . Notes Citations