Mackensen class battlecruiser
Encyclopedia
The Mackensen class was the last class of battlecruiser
s to be built by Germany in World War I
. The class was to have comprised four ships: Mackensen, the name ship, Graf Spee, Prinz Eitel Friedrich, and Fürst Bismarck. None of the vessels were completed, as shipbuilding priorities were redirected towards U-boats. They were broken up in the early 1920s.
The design of the Mackensens was a much improved version of the previous . They featured a new, more powerful 35 cm (13.8 inch) gun. The Mackensen class ships featured more powerful engines that gave the ships a higher top speed and a significantly higher cruising range. The Mackensen design provided the basis for the subsequent , which incorporated even larger 38 cm (15 inch) main-battery guns, as a response to the Royal Navy
's . These last three ships are referred to as the Ersatz Yorck class, as the first ship of the class was designed to replace the armored cruiser
, which had struck German mines early in the war and sunk. However, very little construction progress was made on these later ships.
In response to the Mackensen class ships, the British
laid down the Admiral class battlecruiser
s for the Royal Navy
, all but one of which would eventually be canceled; the sole survivor, , was completed after the end of the war.
would decisively defeat France in the opening weeks of the war, as the Prussian Army had done during the Franco-Prussian War
in 1870. Therefore, the Navy department decided to replace the six armored and seven light cruisers that had been sunk by that point in the war. Kaiser Wilhelm II requested the new ships be armed with 38 cm (15 inch) guns; Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl
, the commander in chief of the High Seas Fleet
, preferred the 30.5 cm gun of the preceding Derfflinger class ships. As a compromise, the new battlecruisers were to be armed with eight 35 cm (13.8 inch) guns.
The design staff was generally in agreement that the standard practice of using coal-fired boilers for two-thirds of the power plant, with the remainder being oil-fired boilers. Coal-fired boilers were preferred because the coal, stored in the sides of the ship, provided additional protection, particularly for the battlecruisers. There was a problem with any enlargement of the new ships over the preceding designs. The Imperial dry dock
s were only deep enough for ships with a draft of 9 m (29.5 ft). This meant that an increase in displacement would necessitate a longer and wider hull. This was compounded by restrictions on width imposed by the locks of the canal in Wilhelmshaven
.
ed. This was the same type of construction as in the preceding Derfflinger class battlecruisers, and was intended to save weight compared to the traditional method of construction, which incorporated both longitudinal and transverse frames. The ships' hulls contained 18 watertight compartments and a double bottom
that ran for 92% of the length of the hull. This was significantly greater than the older Derfflinger class ships, which had a double bottom for only 65% of the length of the hull.
The ships as designed required a crew of 46 officers and 1,140 enlisted sailors. Service as a squadron flagship would increase that number by an additional 14 officers and 62 sailors. The vessels carried a number of small boats, including two picket boats, one barge, two launches
, two cutters, and three yawl
s.
, each of which drove a three-bladed screw
that was 4.2 m in diameter. The turbines mounted in Fürst Bismarck were equipped with Föltinger fluid transmission, while those on the other three ships were two sets of direct coupled turbines with geared transmissions. The ships had 24 coal-fired marine-type single ended boilers and eight oil-fired marine-type boilders. The power plants were designed to provide 90,000 shaft horsepower and 295 revolutions per minute
. Maximum speed was rated at 28 knots (15.2 m/s). The vessels were designed to store 800 MT (787.4 LT) of coal and 250 MT (246.1 LT) of oil in purpose-built storage spaces, though the hull areas between the torpedo bulkhead
and the outer wall of the ship were used to store additional fuel. Maximum fuel capacity was 4000 MT (3,936.8 LT) of coal and 2000 MT (1,968.4 LT) of oil. This was estimated to give a range of up to about 8000 nautical miles (14,816 km) at a cruising speed of 14 kn (7.6 m/s). Electrical power on the vessels was provided by eight diesel generators that put out 2,320 kilowatts at 220 volt
s. The ships were equipped with a pair of rudders mounted side by side, as opposed to the tandem rudders used on the Derfflinger class ships.
s. The turrets were mounted in superfiring pairs
fore and aft of the main superstructure
. The guns were placed in Drh LC/1914 mountings, which could elevate to 16 degrees and depress to −8 degrees. The guns were supplied with a total of 720 armor-piercing shells, or 90 per gun. The weapons were designed to fire 600 kg (1,323 lb) shells at a rate of fire
of around 2.5 shots per minute. The shells were fired with a muzzle velocity
of 815 meters per second (2,674 f/s). As with other heavy German guns, these weapons used a fore propellant
charge in a silk bag with a main charge in a brass case. These guns could hit targets out to a maximum distance of 20,000 m (21,870 yards).
The ships' secondary battery consisted of fourteen 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 quick-firing guns mounted in armored casemate
s along the central superstructure. Each gun was supplied with 160 rounds, and had a maximum range of 13,500 m, though this was later extended to 16,800 m. The guns had a sustained rate of fire
of 5 to 7 rounds per minute. The shells were 45.3 kg (99.8 lb), and were loaded with a 13.7 kg (31.2 lb) RPC/12 propellant
charge in a brass cartridge. The guns fired at a muzzle velocity
of 835 meters per second (2,740 ft/s). The guns were expected to fire around 1,400 shells before they needed to be replaced.
The ships were also armed with eight 8.8 cm (3.45 in) L/45 Flak guns in single pedestal mounts. Four were arranged around the rear superfiring main battery turret and the other four around the forward conning tower
. The Flak guns were emplaced in MPL C/13 mountings, which allowed depression to -10 degrees and elevation to 70 degrees. These guns fired 9 kg (19.8 lb) shells, and had an effective ceiling of 9,150 m at 70 degrees.
As was standard for warships of the period, the Mackensens were equipped with submerged torpedo tubes. There were five 60 cm (23.6 in) tubes: one in the bow, and two on each flank of the ship. The torpedoes were the H8 type, which were 8 m (26.2 ft) long and carried a 210 kg (463 lb) Hexanite
warhead. The torpedoes had a range of 6,000 m (6,550 yd) when set at a speed of 36 knots; at a reduced speed of 30 knots, the range increased significantly to 14,000 m (15,310 yd).
cemented steel armor, as was the standard for German warships of the period. The armor layout was very similar to the armor scheme on the preceding Derfflinger class ships.The figures listed here are those for the Derfflinger class; specific figures for the Mackensen class are unknown. German naval historian Erich Gröner states "The outfit of Krupp armour was similar to that of the Derfflinger class. See: Gröner, p. 57 They had an armor belt that was 300 mm (11.8 in) thick in the central citadel of the ship, where the most important parts of the ship were located. This included the ammunition magazines and the machinery spaces. The belt was reduced in less critical areas, to 120 mm (4.7 in) forward and 100 mm (3.9 in) aft. The belt tapered down to 30 mm (1.2 in) at the bow
, though the stern
was not protected by armor at all. A 45 mm (1.8 in) thick torpedo bulkhead
ran the length of the hull, several meters behind the main belt. The main armored deck ranged in thickness from 30 mm thick in less important areas, to 80 mm (3.1 in) in the sections that covered the more critical areas of the ship.
The forward conning tower
was protected with heavy armor: the sides were 300 mm thick and the roof was 130 mm (5.1 in) thick. The rear conning tower was less well armored; its sides were only 200 mm (7.9 in) thick and the roof was covered with 50 mm (2 in) of armor plate. The main battery gun turrets were also heavily armored: the turret sides were 270 mm (10.6 in) thick and the roofs were 110 mm (4.3 in) thick. The 15 cm guns had 150 mm (5.9 in) worth of armor plating in the casemates; the guns themselves had 70 mm (2.8 in) thick shields to protect their crews from shell splinters.
. The ship was laid down 30 January 1915 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg
, under construction number 240. She was launched on 21 April 1917, but construction was halted about 15 months before she would have been completed. Mackensen was stricken from the German navy, according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
, on 17 November 1919. She was sold for scrap and eventually broken up in 1922 at Kiel-Nordmole. Graf Spee was named for Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee
, the commander of the German East Asia Squadron
; he was killed when his squadron was annihilated at the Battle of the Falkland Islands
in 1914. Graf Spee was laid down 30 November 1915 in the Schichau
yards in Danzig
(now Gdańsk, Poland
), under the provisional name Ersatz Blücher. She was launched on 15 September 1917. Construction stopped about 12 months away from completion; Graf Spee was the furthest along of all four ships when work was halted. She too was struck on 17 November 1919; on 28 October 1921 the unfinished hull was sold for 4.4 million Marks and broken up in Kiel-Nordmole.
Prinz Eitel Friedrich, ordered as Ersatz Freya—a replacement for , was named for one of Kaiser Wilhelm II's sons, Eitel Friedrich
. She was laid down on 1 May 1915 at Blohm & Voss under construction number 241. She was 21 months away from completion when she was launched to clear the slip on 13 March 1920 and was broken up at Hamburg in 1921. At the launching ceremony, dockyard workers named the ship Noske. Fürst Bismarck, ordered as Ersatz A, was named for the famous German chancellor Otto von Bismarck
. The ship was laid down on 3 November 1915 at the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven
under construction number 25. She was about 26 months from completion when work ended. She was never launched; instead, the vessel was broken up on the slip in 1922.
The primary reason construction halted on the four ships was the shifting of ship building priorities from capital ships to U-boat
s. In the last two years of the war, what little resources were available to the navy were directed towards U-boat construction; this caused a shortage of construction materials and slower build times for large warships. The RMA filed a report dated 1 February 1918, which stated that capital ship construction had ground to a halt, primarily due to the shifting priorities to the U-boat war.
Battlecruiser
Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...
s to be built by Germany in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The class was to have comprised four ships: Mackensen, the name ship, Graf Spee, Prinz Eitel Friedrich, and Fürst Bismarck. None of the vessels were completed, as shipbuilding priorities were redirected towards U-boats. They were broken up in the early 1920s.
The design of the Mackensens was a much improved version of the previous . They featured a new, more powerful 35 cm (13.8 inch) gun. The Mackensen class ships featured more powerful engines that gave the ships a higher top speed and a significantly higher cruising range. The Mackensen design provided the basis for the subsequent , which incorporated even larger 38 cm (15 inch) main-battery guns, as a response to the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
's . These last three ships are referred to as the Ersatz Yorck class, as the first ship of the class was designed to replace the armored cruiser
Armored cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like other types of cruiser, the armored cruiser was a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship, and fast enough to outrun any battleships it encountered.The first...
, which had struck German mines early in the war and sunk. However, very little construction progress was made on these later ships.
In response to the Mackensen class ships, the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
laid down the Admiral class battlecruiser
Admiral class battlecruiser
The Admiral-class battlecruisers were a class of four British Royal Navy battlecruisers designed near the end of World War I. Their design began as a improved version of the s, but it was recast as a battlecruiser after Admiral John Jellicoe, commander of the Grand Fleet, pointed out that there was...
s for the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, all but one of which would eventually be canceled; the sole survivor, , was completed after the end of the war.
Design
The fourth and final Naval Law, passed in 1912, governed the building program of the German navy during World War I. The Navy Office decided the Navy should construct one battleship and one battlecruiser every year between 1913 and 1917, with an additional unit of both types in 1913 and 1916. By February 1915, the German High Command had realized that the war would not be won with a lightning campaign as in 1870.Many in the German Army thought the Schlieffen PlanSchlieffen Plan
The Schlieffen Plan was the German General Staff's early 20th century overall strategic plan for victory in a possible future war in which the German Empire might find itself fighting on two fronts: France to the west and Russia to the east...
would decisively defeat France in the opening weeks of the war, as the Prussian Army had done during the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
in 1870. Therefore, the Navy department decided to replace the six armored and seven light cruisers that had been sunk by that point in the war. Kaiser Wilhelm II requested the new ships be armed with 38 cm (15 inch) guns; Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl
Friedrich von Ingenohl
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Friedrich von Ingenohl was a German admiral from Neuwied best known for his command of the German High Seas Fleet at the beginning of World War I....
, the commander in chief of the High Seas Fleet
High Seas Fleet
The High Seas Fleet was the battle fleet of the German Empire and saw action during World War I. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet was renamed as the High Seas Fleet. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was the architect of the fleet; he envisioned a force powerful enough to...
, preferred the 30.5 cm gun of the preceding Derfflinger class ships. As a compromise, the new battlecruisers were to be armed with eight 35 cm (13.8 inch) guns.
The design staff was generally in agreement that the standard practice of using coal-fired boilers for two-thirds of the power plant, with the remainder being oil-fired boilers. Coal-fired boilers were preferred because the coal, stored in the sides of the ship, provided additional protection, particularly for the battlecruisers. There was a problem with any enlargement of the new ships over the preceding designs. The Imperial dry dock
Dry dock
A drydock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform...
s were only deep enough for ships with a draft of 9 m (29.5 ft). This meant that an increase in displacement would necessitate a longer and wider hull. This was compounded by restrictions on width imposed by the locks of the canal in Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea.-History:...
.
General characteristics
The Mackensen class ships were 223 m (731.6 ft) long, had a beam of 30.5 m (100.1 ft), and a draft of 9.3 m (30.5 ft) forward and 8.4 m (27.6 ft) aft. The ships were designed to displace 31000 metric tons (30,510.3 LT) on a standard load, and up to 35300 MT (34,742.4 LT) fully laden. The Mackensens' hulls were composed to longitudinal steel frames, over which the outer hull plates were rivetRivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the buck-tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or pre-drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked A rivet...
ed. This was the same type of construction as in the preceding Derfflinger class battlecruisers, and was intended to save weight compared to the traditional method of construction, which incorporated both longitudinal and transverse frames. The ships' hulls contained 18 watertight compartments and a double bottom
Double bottom
A double bottom is a ship hull design and construction method where the bottom of the ship has two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull which is somewhat higher in the ship, perhaps a few feet, which forms a...
that ran for 92% of the length of the hull. This was significantly greater than the older Derfflinger class ships, which had a double bottom for only 65% of the length of the hull.
The ships as designed required a crew of 46 officers and 1,140 enlisted sailors. Service as a squadron flagship would increase that number by an additional 14 officers and 62 sailors. The vessels carried a number of small boats, including two picket boats, one barge, two launches
Launch (boat)
A launch in contemporary usage refers to a large motorboat. The name originally referred to the largest boat carried by a warship. The etymology of the word is given as Portuguese lancha "barge", from Malay lancha, lancharan, "boat," from lanchar "velocity without effort," "action of gliding...
, two cutters, and three yawl
Yawl
A yawl is a two-masted sailing craft similar to a sloop or cutter but with an additional mast located well aft of the main mast, often right on the transom, specifically aft of the rudder post. A yawl (from Dutch Jol) is a two-masted sailing craft similar to a sloop or cutter but with an...
s.
Machinery
The ships of the Mackensen class were equipped with four sets of marine-type turbine enginesSteam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
, each of which drove a three-bladed screw
Propeller
A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...
that was 4.2 m in diameter. The turbines mounted in Fürst Bismarck were equipped with Föltinger fluid transmission, while those on the other three ships were two sets of direct coupled turbines with geared transmissions. The ships had 24 coal-fired marine-type single ended boilers and eight oil-fired marine-type boilders. The power plants were designed to provide 90,000 shaft horsepower and 295 revolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute is a measure of the frequency of a rotation. It annotates the number of full rotations completed in one minute around a fixed axis...
. Maximum speed was rated at 28 knots (15.2 m/s). The vessels were designed to store 800 MT (787.4 LT) of coal and 250 MT (246.1 LT) of oil in purpose-built storage spaces, though the hull areas between the torpedo bulkhead
Torpedo bulkhead
A torpedo bulkhead is a type of armor common on the more heavily armored warships, especially battleships and battlecruisers of the early 20th century. It is designed to keep the ship afloat even if the hull was struck underneath the belt armor by a shell or by a torpedo...
and the outer wall of the ship were used to store additional fuel. Maximum fuel capacity was 4000 MT (3,936.8 LT) of coal and 2000 MT (1,968.4 LT) of oil. This was estimated to give a range of up to about 8000 nautical miles (14,816 km) at a cruising speed of 14 kn (7.6 m/s). Electrical power on the vessels was provided by eight diesel generators that put out 2,320 kilowatts at 220 volt
Volt
The volt is the SI derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference, and electromotive force. The volt is named in honor of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta , who invented the voltaic pile, possibly the first chemical battery.- Definition :A single volt is defined as the...
s. The ships were equipped with a pair of rudders mounted side by side, as opposed to the tandem rudders used on the Derfflinger class ships.
Armament
The Mackensens were equipped with a main battery of eight new 35 cm (13.8 inch) SK L/45 gunsIn Imperial German Navy gun nomenclature, "SK" (Schnellfeuerkanone) denotes that the gun is quick firing, while the L/45 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/45 gun is 45 calibers, meaning that the gun barrel is 45 times as long as it is in diameter. in four twin gun turretGun turret
A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...
s. The turrets were mounted in superfiring pairs
Superfire
The idea of superfire is to locate two turrets in a row, one behind the other, but with the second turret located above the one in front so that the second turret could fire over the first...
fore and aft of the main superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
. The guns were placed in Drh LC/1914 mountings, which could elevate to 16 degrees and depress to −8 degrees. The guns were supplied with a total of 720 armor-piercing shells, or 90 per gun. The weapons were designed to fire 600 kg (1,323 lb) shells at a rate of fire
Rate of fire
Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. It is usually measured in rounds per minute , or per second .-Overview:...
of around 2.5 shots per minute. The shells were fired with a muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity is the speed a projectile has at the moment it leaves the muzzle of the gun. Muzzle velocities range from approximately to in black powder muskets , to more than in modern rifles with high-performance cartridges such as the .220 Swift and .204 Ruger, all the way to for tank guns...
of 815 meters per second (2,674 f/s). As with other heavy German guns, these weapons used a fore propellant
Propellant
A propellant is a material that produces pressurized gas that:* can be directed through a nozzle, thereby producing thrust ;...
charge in a silk bag with a main charge in a brass case. These guns could hit targets out to a maximum distance of 20,000 m (21,870 yards).
The ships' secondary battery consisted of fourteen 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 quick-firing guns mounted in armored casemate
Casemate
A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...
s along the central superstructure. Each gun was supplied with 160 rounds, and had a maximum range of 13,500 m, though this was later extended to 16,800 m. The guns had a sustained rate of fire
Rate of fire
Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. It is usually measured in rounds per minute , or per second .-Overview:...
of 5 to 7 rounds per minute. The shells were 45.3 kg (99.8 lb), and were loaded with a 13.7 kg (31.2 lb) RPC/12 propellant
Propellant
A propellant is a material that produces pressurized gas that:* can be directed through a nozzle, thereby producing thrust ;...
charge in a brass cartridge. The guns fired at a muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity is the speed a projectile has at the moment it leaves the muzzle of the gun. Muzzle velocities range from approximately to in black powder muskets , to more than in modern rifles with high-performance cartridges such as the .220 Swift and .204 Ruger, all the way to for tank guns...
of 835 meters per second (2,740 ft/s). The guns were expected to fire around 1,400 shells before they needed to be replaced.
The ships were also armed with eight 8.8 cm (3.45 in) L/45 Flak guns in single pedestal mounts. Four were arranged around the rear superfiring main battery turret and the other four around the forward conning tower
Conning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer can con the vessel; i.e., give directions to the helmsman. It is usually located as high on the ship as practical, to give the conning team good visibility....
. The Flak guns were emplaced in MPL C/13 mountings, which allowed depression to -10 degrees and elevation to 70 degrees. These guns fired 9 kg (19.8 lb) shells, and had an effective ceiling of 9,150 m at 70 degrees.
As was standard for warships of the period, the Mackensens were equipped with submerged torpedo tubes. There were five 60 cm (23.6 in) tubes: one in the bow, and two on each flank of the ship. The torpedoes were the H8 type, which were 8 m (26.2 ft) long and carried a 210 kg (463 lb) Hexanite
Hexanite
Hexanite was a castable German military explosive developed early in the 20th century before the First World War for the Kaiserliche Marine, intended to augment supplies of trinitrotoluene , which were then in short supply. Hexanite is significantly more powerful than TNT on its own...
warhead. The torpedoes had a range of 6,000 m (6,550 yd) when set at a speed of 36 knots; at a reduced speed of 30 knots, the range increased significantly to 14,000 m (15,310 yd).
Armor
The Mackensen class ships were protected with KruppKrupp
The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...
cemented steel armor, as was the standard for German warships of the period. The armor layout was very similar to the armor scheme on the preceding Derfflinger class ships.The figures listed here are those for the Derfflinger class; specific figures for the Mackensen class are unknown. German naval historian Erich Gröner states "The outfit of Krupp armour was similar to that of the Derfflinger class. See: Gröner, p. 57 They had an armor belt that was 300 mm (11.8 in) thick in the central citadel of the ship, where the most important parts of the ship were located. This included the ammunition magazines and the machinery spaces. The belt was reduced in less critical areas, to 120 mm (4.7 in) forward and 100 mm (3.9 in) aft. The belt tapered down to 30 mm (1.2 in) at the bow
Bow (ship)
The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...
, though the stern
Stern
The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section...
was not protected by armor at all. A 45 mm (1.8 in) thick torpedo bulkhead
Torpedo bulkhead
A torpedo bulkhead is a type of armor common on the more heavily armored warships, especially battleships and battlecruisers of the early 20th century. It is designed to keep the ship afloat even if the hull was struck underneath the belt armor by a shell or by a torpedo...
ran the length of the hull, several meters behind the main belt. The main armored deck ranged in thickness from 30 mm thick in less important areas, to 80 mm (3.1 in) in the sections that covered the more critical areas of the ship.
The forward conning tower
Conning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer can con the vessel; i.e., give directions to the helmsman. It is usually located as high on the ship as practical, to give the conning team good visibility....
was protected with heavy armor: the sides were 300 mm thick and the roof was 130 mm (5.1 in) thick. The rear conning tower was less well armored; its sides were only 200 mm (7.9 in) thick and the roof was covered with 50 mm (2 in) of armor plate. The main battery gun turrets were also heavily armored: the turret sides were 270 mm (10.6 in) thick and the roofs were 110 mm (4.3 in) thick. The 15 cm guns had 150 mm (5.9 in) worth of armor plating in the casemates; the guns themselves had 70 mm (2.8 in) thick shields to protect their crews from shell splinters.
Construction and cancellation
Four ships were planned in the class: Mackensen, Graf Spee, Prinz Eitel Friedrich, and Fürst Bismarck. Mackensen—ordered under the provisional name Ersatz Victoria Louise—was named after Field Marshal August von MackensenAugust von Mackensen
Anton Ludwig August von Mackensen , born August Mackensen, was a German soldier and field marshal. He commanded with success during the First World War and became one of the German Empire's most prominent military leaders. After the Armistice, Mackensen was interned for a year...
. The ship was laid down 30 January 1915 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, under construction number 240. She was launched on 21 April 1917, but construction was halted about 15 months before she would have been completed. Mackensen was stricken from the German navy, according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, on 17 November 1919. She was sold for scrap and eventually broken up in 1922 at Kiel-Nordmole. Graf Spee was named for Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee
Maximilian von Spee
Vice Admiral Maximilian Reichsgraf von Spee was a German admiral. Although he was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the counts von Spee belonged to the prominent families of the Rhenish nobility. He joined the Kaiserliche Marine in 1878. In 1887–88 he commanded the Kamerun ports, in German West...
, the commander of the German East Asia Squadron
German East Asia Squadron
The German East Asia Squadron was a German Navy cruiser squadron which operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean between the 1870s and 1914...
; he was killed when his squadron was annihilated at the Battle of the Falkland Islands
Battle of the Falkland Islands
The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a British naval victory over the Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 during the First World War in the South Atlantic...
in 1914. Graf Spee was laid down 30 November 1915 in the Schichau
Schichau-Werke
The Schichau-Werke was a German engineering works and shipyard based in Elbing, formerly part of the German Empire, and which is today the town of Elbląg in northern Poland. It also had a subsidiary shipyard in Danzig .-Early years:...
yards in Danzig
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
(now Gdańsk, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
), under the provisional name Ersatz Blücher. She was launched on 15 September 1917. Construction stopped about 12 months away from completion; Graf Spee was the furthest along of all four ships when work was halted. She too was struck on 17 November 1919; on 28 October 1921 the unfinished hull was sold for 4.4 million Marks and broken up in Kiel-Nordmole.
Prinz Eitel Friedrich, ordered as Ersatz Freya—a replacement for , was named for one of Kaiser Wilhelm II's sons, Eitel Friedrich
Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia
Prince Eitel Friedrich was the second son of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany by his first wife, Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein...
. She was laid down on 1 May 1915 at Blohm & Voss under construction number 241. She was 21 months away from completion when she was launched to clear the slip on 13 March 1920 and was broken up at Hamburg in 1921. At the launching ceremony, dockyard workers named the ship Noske. Fürst Bismarck, ordered as Ersatz A, was named for the famous German chancellor Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
. The ship was laid down on 3 November 1915 at the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven
Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven
Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven was a German shipbuilding company in Wilhelmshaven, Prussian Hanover. It was founded in 1853, first as Königliche Werft Wilhelmshaven but renamed in 1871 with the proclamation of the German Empire...
under construction number 25. She was about 26 months from completion when work ended. She was never launched; instead, the vessel was broken up on the slip in 1922.
The primary reason construction halted on the four ships was the shifting of ship building priorities from capital ships to U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s. In the last two years of the war, what little resources were available to the navy were directed towards U-boat construction; this caused a shortage of construction materials and slower build times for large warships. The RMA filed a report dated 1 February 1918, which stated that capital ship construction had ground to a halt, primarily due to the shifting priorities to the U-boat war.