Battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz - The battlecruiser that literally would not die

de_Radio_Demon · July 1, 2023, 12:42am

Would you like to see the Seydlitz come to the game?

Yes, absolutely
Maybe
Unsure
I don’t think Seydlitz should be added to the game

0 voters

What configuration would you like Seydlitz to be added in?

As built
1914 Refit (Switches out 2 8.8cm guns for 2 AA versions)
1916 Refit (All 8.8cm guns other than the 2 AA gun versions are no longer installed) (11 inch guns also get improved elevation angles for better range and the range of the 5.9 inch guns is increased as well)
Unsure
I don’t think Seydlitz should be added to the game

0 voters

Battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz - The battlecruiser that literally would not die

Background & Development history (1909 - 1910)

SMS Seydlitz is a German battlecruiser built in the early 1910’s for the Imperial German Navy, similar to Von Der Tan she unlike other German battlecruisers was a unique ship as she was the only ship of her class, that being said her design is reminiscent of that of the previous Moltke class battlecruiser which in all fairness is actually correct as she is still not a Moltke class battlecruiser but in fact was a new and revised design in comparison which saw her with a number of improvements. Compared to the Moltke class, Seydlitz was armed about the same manner as the previous class though some of the early plans called for either 8 12 inch guns like that of the succeeding Derfflinger class or the same 10 11 inch guns like the Moltke class ships though it was decided to go with the ladder option and they also consider the option of using triple gun turrets instead however these were discarded as they ended up sticking with the previous 11 inch gun turrets, additionally her hull was armor was revised with her armor being increased to nearly 12 inches at it thickest, her hull was elongated though her beam was actually was less than Moltke and the draft was only 0.10 m deeper in comparison, additionally she was also a knot faster with her speed being 26.5 knots or 49.1 km/h; 30.5 mph thanks to in part of her more powerful engines though interestingly she would end up being slower on trails than when Moltke was on sea trails however in practice when they were loaded Seydlitz was faster, along with all the changes this resulted in her being 3,000 tons heavier in displacement however these changes would truly prove their worth during her service as she would prove to be one of the best German Battlecruisers ever finished.

Her designs were finished and then was presented to the the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) who initially rejected the approval of her construction as they stated that they would not tolerate the cost being higher than the previous Moltke class which almost spelled a sudden end to the design as the Navy Department considered shelving the new design and instead to build a third Moltke class ship however her design would be saved thanks to Admiral Tirpitz as he was able to negotiate a discount on armor plate from both Krupp and Dillingen as well as put pressure on builder Blohm & Voss, for a discount on her construction and thanks to his efforts they were also able to make some material improvements to her design, and on January 27th, 1910 the Kaiser finally approved of her construction and she was originally laid down with the provisional name of Cruiser J as German ship building practice would see the ships receive names while under construction rather than prior to being laid down

History (1910 - 1930)

Spoiler

Seydlitz was laid down on February 4th, 1911, she was launched on March 30th, 1912, and was commissioned on May 22nd 1913 where she was crewed by the crew of the old armed cruiser SMS Yorck and following the completion of her sea trials she joined the rest of the high seas fleet off Helogland for maneuvers, and on June 23rd, 1914 she would become the flagship for Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Franz von Hipper of the first scouting group of the high seas fleet and she would end up keeping this position until the battle of Jutland.

Her first action will be during the Battle of Heligoland Bight which took place on August 28th, 1914 when a engagement broke out between German light cruisers and a raiding force of British cruisers and battlecruisers and during the battle she along with the rest of the 1st scouting group were stationed in the Wilhelmshaven Roads and during the battle she along with the other ships of the first scouting group were ordered to be sent out to in order to attempt to help the outmatched German cruisers and by 12:10 she along with Von Der Tan and Moltke were really to leave port however they were unable to immediately leave due to the low tides preventing them from passing over the sandbar at the mouth of the Jade Estuary safely and it wouldn’t be until 2 hours later that Von Der Tan was able to pass however Seydlitz would have to wait another hour by which point the first 2 battlecruisers left Hipper ordered the cruisers to fall back and by the point she reached the battlecruisers sent out earlier and the light cruisers the cruiser Ariadne succumbed to battle damage and sank leaving them with 5 cruiser accounted for still afloat while another 2 where unaccounted for which following his arrival Hipper ordered his forces to locate the unaccounted for cruisers which by that point had both already been sunk and by 16:00 the order was given to return home with the German flotilla turned around to return to the Jade Estuary, arriving at approximately 20:23.

After the Battle of Heligoland Bight Seydlitz would very soon get her first operation where she got to fire her guns in anger as she took part in the Bombardment of Yarmouth in November before going on to take part in the Bombardments of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby which at most saw her take minimal damage and no loss of life however her next operation would be the first engagement that would mark her first incident of her refusing to die, this engagement was Battle of Dogger Bank.

During the Battle of Dogger Bank, Seydlitz along with battlecruisers Moltke, Derfflinger, and armored cruiser Blücher along with the light cruisers Graudenz, Rostock, Stralsund, and Kolberg and 19 torpedo boats from V Flotilla and II and XVIII Half Flotillas, and during the battle following hipper orders to turn back home at at 10:25 during the battle Seydlitz took her first hit to her forecastle by a 13.5 inch round from HMS Lion which saw minor damage however the next hit she received which was from another 13.5 inch round though this time hit the deck and penetrated the rear barbette and though the shell failed to penetrate the barbette the explosion flashed into the working chamber and detonated the propellant charges inside which resulted in the resulted in the 159 crew of the turret being killed in a matter of seconds as a large flame appeared from her rear turret as would occur with the British battlecruiser during Jutland and this additionally knocked out her rear turret, however thanks to one of her executive officer she would avoid suffering a ammo detonation, the officer who ordered both magazines be flooded with it being so close of a call that petty officer Wilhelm Heidkamp who opened the valve burnt his hands burnt due to the valves to flood the turret glowing red and the fire damaged his lungs which eventually saw him die 1931 from lung disease. For her first near to death moment now overcome Seydlitz returned the favor to HMS Lion when she fired a round at her which knocked out 2 of Lions engine before landing another hit that eventually crippled Lion, as the sea water contamination forced the ship’s crew to shut down the port engine followed by a third round however this round did no significant damage and following this the chase ended when there were several reports of U-boats ahead of the British ships which resulted in the British ships breaking pursuit and by the time Beatty regained control of his ships ordered his ships to target the rear ship of the formation and along with this confusion resulted only Blücher being targeted by which point had already taken significant damage and had now no chance to escape and as a result she would sink later though as a result the rest of the German ships escaped. Following her return to port Seydlitz underwent repairs at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Wilhelmshaven from January 25th all the way up until March 31st, 1915 when she rejoined the fleet.

Following her return to service Seydlitz went to then take part in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga before another Bombardment of Yarmouth and then Lowestoft before she took part in the largest naval battle during the First World War during the Battle of Jutland. During the Battle of Jutland Seydlitz was no longer flagship as Hipper had transferred his flag from Seydlitz to the newer battlecruiser Lützow and as such Seydlitz took position in the center of the line, to the rear of Derfflinger and ahead of Moltke and during the battle she would early during the engagement with the British battlecruiser landed 2 hits on HMS Queen Mary of which the 2nd hit ended up detonating four propellant charges which was not helped by the fact that Beatty had his crew trained so that his ships could compensate their inaccuracy with rate of fire which as a result had the anti flash protection measures removed which resulted Queen Mary exploding in a ball of fire in the same way she did during the battle of Dogger Bank but unlike then Queen Mary would end up sinking later after taking more hits from Derfflinger and Seydlitz by which point the Queen Elizabeth class battleships with the exception of Queen Elizabeth herself had arrived which saw things get worse as at 17:57 she was hit by a torpedo on the bow which caused a 40 feet long by 13 feet wide hole though she was able to keep up her maximum speed and following this at around 18:00 she was hit by a 15 inch round from either Barham or Valiant which disabled on of her main turrets and by the point of hipper ordered the battlecruiser to temporarily disengage Seydlitz’s flooding had gotten to the point where she was thoroughly flooded above the middle deck in the fore compartments, and had nearly lost all buoyancy and by this point they joined the rest of the high seas fleet. During the latter part of the battle when the Grand Fleet showed up Seydlitz would end up taking major damage with one shell struck the rear gun turret and other hit the ship’s bridge which killed everyone on the bridge and 7 more one the conning tower and by the time of night fall due to her speed being reduced because of her critical buoyancy she lost sight of Moltke and had to make her way to Horns reef on her own and during which she was found by HMS Agincourt however Seydlitz luck heals as Agincourt’s captain did not want to expose his ships potion as he was unsure if it was friendly or foe and as such she let Seydlitz go and by 3:40 in the morning Seydlitz just barely made it over the Horns Reef and due to her damage both of her gyro-compasses had failed, so the light cruiser Pillau was sent to guide the ship home and due to how bad the flooding was the crew prepared to abandon ship however she was able to stabilize the flooding and it is believed she at most had been flooded by 5,308 tonnes (5,224 long tons) of water and the crew were able to get her into Dock where she finally sank and as such she was able to be repaired and she underwent repairs from June 15th, 1916 up until October 5th and once she rejoined the fleet she actually became flagship once more as hipper flagship by this point Lützow had been sunk and she would spend the rest of the war in raiding attempt against convoys.

Like every other ship of the High seas fleet Seydlitz would have been apart of “death ride” of the High Seas Fleet however like the rest of the fleet they mutinied against the suicidal action and as such she found herself in Scapa Flow and on June 21st, 1919 she along with the rest of the fleet were ordered to scuttle themselves as they feared the British capturing the ships though by this point they were unaware the deadline for the peace negotiations had been extended and as such Seydlitz capsized. Following this once she was sold to be salvaged even being sunk she continued to prove a highly stubborn as it was difficult to salvage her led by Ernest Cox. On the first attempt which resulted in the destruction of most of the salvaging equipment however the second try he tired to raise her that their would be camera crews rolling when he successfully raised her and before he could get to do so the ship would practically troll him when Seydlitz was accidentally refloated while Cox was holidaying in Switzerland and as such he ordered the now successfully raised ship to one sunk again and on November 2nd, 1928 she was successfully raised for a third time though she was still upside down she was towed south to Rosyth where she was scrapped in 1930 however this is surprising not the end of her story as her bell is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial and one of her 5.9 inch guns that was removed in 1916 would end up on the German raider Kormoran, the same one that ended up sinking HMAS Sydney in the Second World War.

Specifications

Displacement -

Design - 24,988 t (24,593 long tons)

Fully loaded - 28,550 t (28,100 long tons)

Length - 200.6 m (658 ft 2 in)

Beam - 28.5 m (93 ft 6 in)

Draft - 9.29 m (30 ft 6 in)

Installed power -

27 × water-tube boilers

88,510 shp (66,002 kW)

Propulsion -

4 × screw propellers

4 × Parsons turbines

Speed - 26.5 knots (49.1 km/h; 30.5 mph)

Range - 4,200 nmi (7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)

Complement - 1,068 total

Armament -

Primary armament -

10 × 28 cm (283mm) (11 in) SK L/50 C/09 guns (5 × 2) (870 rounds total, 87 rounds per gun) (guns can elevate from -8/+13.5 Degrees elevation however 1916 refit allows changed this to -8/+16 Degrees elevation)

Secondary Armament -

12 × 15 cm (150mm) (5.9 in) SK L/45 C/09 guns (-7/+20 Degrees elevation) (Ranged was increased with 1916 refit)

12 × 8.8 cm (88mm) (3.5 in) SK L/45 C/13 guns (As Built) (2400 to 4200 rounds total, 200 to 350 rounds per gun)

10 x 8.8 cm (88mm) (3.5 in) SK L/45 C/13 guns (1914) (2000 to 3500 rounds total, 200 to 350 rounds per gun)

*All 8.8 cm guns other than the 2 AA versions were removed in 1916

Anti Aircraft guns -

2 x 8.8 cm (88mm) (3.5 cm) Flak L/45 C/13 guns (AA version) (Added in 1914) (400 to 700 rounds total, 200 to 350 rounds per gun)

Torpedo tubes -

4 × 50 cm (500mm) (19.7 in) torpedo tubes (11 torpedoes carried total)

(early on used the G6 torpedo however she received the G7 in the same year as entering service so as built config could get either Torpedo)

Armor -

Belt: 300mm - 100mm