List of battlecruisers of Germany
Kaiser Wilhelm II insisted that the new battlecruisers be able to fight in the line of battle with battleships to counter Germany's numerical inferiority compared to the British Royal Navy.
The Kaiserliche Marine eventually built four more battlecruisers before the start of the First World War to serve with the High Seas Fleet, and another two were completed during the conflict.
The unit conducted several raids of the English coast between 1914 and 1916, which culminated in the Battle of Jutland during 31 May – 1 June 1916, in which they were expected to draw parts of the British fleet onto the German battleship line.
The ships were interned with the bulk of the German fleet at the British naval base at Scapa Flow following the end of the war in November 1918.
Goeben was transferred to the Ottoman Navy at the outbreak of hostilities, and operated against the Russian Black Sea Fleet for the majority of the war.
She was heavily damaged by British naval mines near the end of the war, but was repaired and went on to serve the Turkish Navy until the 1950s; she was eventually broken up for scrap in the 1970s.
The eventual successor to the Kaiserliche Marine, the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany, considered building three O-class battlecruisers before World War II as part of the Plan Z buildup of the navy.
Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the State Secretary for the Imperial German Navy, wanted the ship to follow the British example, incorporating large guns, relatively light armor, and high speed.
Kaiser Wilhelm II, along with other senior navy officers instead argued that, owing to Germany's numerical inferiority, the new ships should have armor strong enough to permit their use in the battle line.
The ship was present for most of the German fleet operations during World War I, including several raids of the English coast between 1914 and 1916.
Von der Tann was herself badly damaged in the course of the action, and had at one point had all four of her turrets disabled,[4] but was repaired after the battle and returned to service.
While their design was not as contentious as with the Von der Tann, there were still disagreements between Tirpitz and elements of the German naval administration over whether the main battery guns should be increased in number or caliber.
[8][9] Moltke joined Von der Tann in the battlecruiser squadron upon her commissioning, and saw action against the British in the North Sea, including the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, in addition to the coastal raids carried out in the first two years of the war.
At the outbreak of war in 1914, Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau evaded the British fleet and escaped to Constantinople, where they were transferred to the Ottoman Navy, though they remained under German command and with their original crews.
[14] At Jutland, Seydlitz and Derfflinger inflicted fatal damage on the British battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary early in the action.
[20] The first unit, the name ship, was completed shortly after the outbreak of World War I. Lützow followed in August 1915, and Hindenburg joined the fleet in May 1917.
[22] Following the realization in February 1915 that the war would not be won quickly, the Navy department decided to replace the six armored cruisers that had been lost thus far.
[25] The ships were improved versions of the Derfflinger class; the primary alterations being the adoption of the 35 cm (13.8 in) gun for the main battery, along with a full-length forecastle deck.
