The Admiral Hipper class was a group of five heavy cruisers built by Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine beginning in the mid-1930s.

The class comprised Admiral Hipper, the lead ship, Blücher, Prinz Eugen, Seydlitz, and Lützow.

Blücher was sunk by Norwegian coastal defenses outside Oslo while Admiral Hipper led the attack on Trondheim.

In 1942, she was deployed to northern Norway to attack shipping to the Soviet Union, culminating in the Battle of the Barents Sea in December 1942, where she was damaged by British cruisers.

Admiral Hipper, while decommissioned after returning to Germany in early 1943, was partially repaired and recommissioned in the fall of 1944 for a refugee transport mission in 1945.

Admiral Hipper was scuttled in Kiel in May 1945, leaving Prinz Eugen as the only member of the class to survive the war.

She was ceded to the United States Navy, which ultimately expended the ship in the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in 1946.

Article 181 of the Treaty of Versailles limited the post-war German navy—the Reichsmarine—to six battleships of the "Deutschland or Lothringen types" and six old light cruisers.

After pulling out of the Geneva Conference in 1933, Hitler argued that if the other European powers did not disarm to parity with Germany, they should accept German rearmament.

The ships carried several smaller vessels, including two picket boats, two barges, one launch, one pinnace, and two dinghies.

[24] For minelaying purposes the ships could be equipped with maximum 140 m (460 ft) of rails on which different type of mines could be loaded, transported and thrown over the stern.

[28] Blücher, ordered as "G" to replace Berlin, was built by the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel, under construction number 246.

[29] Prinz Eugen, the last ship of the class to be completed, was ordered from the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel as "J" under construction number 564.

[33] Admiral Hipper led the assault on Trondheim during Operation Weserübung; while en route to her objective, she sank the British destroyer HMS Glowworm.

In February 1941, Admiral Hipper sortied again, sinking several merchant vessels before eventually returning to Germany via the Denmark Strait.

The ship was never restored to operational status, however, and on 3 May 1945, Royal Air Force bombers severely damaged Admiral Hipper while she was in Kiel.

[32][37] Following her commissioning in November 1939, Blücher conducted a series of sea trials and training exercises in the Baltic, which lasted until March 1940.

The ship led the flotilla of warships into the Oslofjord on the night of 8 April, to seize Oslo, the capital of Norway.

Two old 28 cm (11 in) coastal guns in the Oscarsborg Fortress engaged the ship at very close range, scoring two damaging hits.

[32][42] Prinz Eugen saw extensive action during Operation Rheinübung, an attempted breakout into the Atlantic Ocean with the battleship Bismarck in May 1941.

Prinz Eugen was detached from Bismarck during the operation to raid Allied merchant shipping, but this was cut short due to engine troubles.

[43] After putting into occupied France and undergoing repairs, the ship participated in Operation Cerberus, a daring daylight dash through the English Channel back to Germany.

[44] In February 1942, Prinz Eugen was deployed to Norway, although her time stationed there was cut short when she was torpedoed by the British submarine Trident days after arriving in Norwegian waters.

[45] Upon returning to active service, the ship spent several months training new officer cadets in the Baltic before serving as artillery support to the retreating German Army on the Eastern Front.

After examining the ship in the United States, the US Navy assigned the cruiser to the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in the Bikini Atoll.

After surviving both atomic blasts, Prinz Eugen was towed to Kwajalein Atoll where she ultimately capsized and sank in December 1946.

[47] The wreck remains partially visible above the water;[48] one of her screws was salvaged and is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany.

The unfinished ship remained inactive until March 1942, when the Kriegsmarine decided to pursue aircraft carriers over surface combatants.

[49] The majority of the superstructure was cut away, with the exception of the funnel, to prepare for the installation of a flight deck and an aircraft hangar.

The vessel was still incomplete when sold to the Soviet Union, with only half of her main battery of eight 20.3 cm guns installed and much of the superstructure missing.