SMS DERFFLINGER

The German battlecruiser 'Derfflinger' at Scapa Flow.
Career
Builder:	Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Ordered:	1912-1913 Naval Programme
Laid down:	30 March 1912
Launched:	17 July 1913
Commissioned:	1 September 1914
Fate:	Scuttled in Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919, wreck raised 1939, broken down after 1946
General characteristics
Displacement:	26,180 tons normal load 31,200 tons full load
Length:	210.4 meters (690.32 feet)
Beam:	29.0 meters (95.14 feet)
Draft:	9,20 meters (30.18 feet)
Propulsion:	4 shaft Parsons turbines; 18 boiler; 76,634 shp
Speed:	25.5 knots
Range:	5600 nmi at 12 kn
Complement:	44 officers and 1068 men
Armament:	★ '8' x 30.5 cm (12") SK L/50 in '4 twin turrets' ★ '12' x 15 cm (5.9") SK L/45 in '12 single turrets ★ '4' x 8,8 cm (4 x 1) in '4 single' mounts ★ '4' x 'single' 50 cm torpedo tubes
Armour:	'Belt' ★ 300 mm'Command Tower' ★ 300 mm'Deck' ★ 30 mm'Turrets' ★ 270 mm

'SMS ''Derfflinger''' was a World War I battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine. The ship was named after Brandenburg Field Marshal ''Reichsfreiherr'' Georg von Derfflinger who fought in the Thirty Years' War. She was the lead ship of her class, her sister ships being SMS ''Lützow'' and SMS ''Hindenburg''.

Contents

Construction

Service

Jutland

External links & References

See also

Construction

Built by Blohm und Voss at their yard in Hamburg, Derfflinger's keel was laid in January of 1912. Upon completion she was to have been launched 14 June 1913, but due to a mishap the ship got stuck after only a few centimeters. A second attempt was successful on 17 July 1913. Commissioned on 1 September 1914, she was fully operational by November of that year.
The ''Derfflinger'' and the ships of her class were designed to be improvements on the previous battlecruisers of the German Navy, the Moltke class and the SMS ''Seydlitz'' as well as to complement the König class battleships.
Both the ''Königs'' and the ''Derfflingers'' mounted their main battery in twin turrets on the centerline and both classes were outfitted with a partially oil-fired boiler arrangement. 'Derfflinger' was the first German capital ship to have a flush deck design, while the lack of secondary casements mounts in the hull itself was a preview of more modern naval designs by the 1930s.

Service

Upon commissioning she was attached to the First Scouting Group (I ''Aufklärungsgeschwader'') commanded by Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper. After the outbreak of World War I she took part in the bombardment of Scarborough, Yorkshire on 14 December 1914.
Subsequently, she fought at the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915 where she was hit by three shells but in the process also managed to hit and cripple the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS ''Lion''.

On 24 April 1916 the ''Derfflinger'' took part in the coastal bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

Jutland

Participating in the Battle of Jutland as part of the German High Seas Fleet on 31 May 1916, the ''Derfflinger'' and her sister-ship the SMS ''Lützow'' were between them credited with sinking the British battlecruisers HMS ''Queen Mary'' and HMS ''Invincible''. In the process she was herself heavily damaged by hits from ten 15-inch, one 13.5-inch, and ten 12-inch heavy shells, and took on 3,000 tons of water. She nevertheless was able to limp home, and the resulting repairs took her out of commission for four months.
After the Battle of Jutland the German Navy seemed to have less inclination to challenge the Royal Navy, and aside from an unsuccessful sortie into the North Sea on 3 April 1918, the rest of the First World War passed uneventfully for the ''Derfflinger''.

After the end of World War I, she was interned at Scapa Flow where her crew scuttled her on 21 June 1919. The wreck was raised in 1939 but was not scrapped until the end of World War II, in 1946.

External links & References

★ SMS Derfflinger at the German Navy History website

★ SMS Derfflinger photo gallery at MaritimeQuest.com

★ Gross Kreuzer of the Derfflinger class at German-Navy.tripod.com.

★ Koop, Gerhard & Schmolke, Klaus-Peter. ''Vom Original zum Modell: Die Großen Kreuzer Von der Tann, Moltke-Klasse, Seydlitz, Derfflinger-Klasse.'' Bonn: Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1998. ISBN 3-7637-5673-5

See also

★ List of ship launches in 1913

★ List of ship commissionings in 1914

★ SMS Hindenburg

★ SMS Lützow