- Yes
- Probably
- Maybe
- Unsure
- No
- Derfflinger (as built)
- Lützow (as built)
- Derfflinger (1914 refit)
- Derfflinger (1916 refit)
- Lützow (1916 refit)
- Hindenburg (as built)
- Unsure
- I said no to the first question
Background
The Derfflinger class of battlecruisers was the 4th and last class of battlecruisers to enter service in the German High seas fleet as a result of the First World War, with what were to have been succeeding classes never being completed due to the war. The Derfflinger class was much more different from their predecessors as 2 things set them from the rest, the increase in gun caliber and the turret layout. In terms of the gun caliber, the Derfflinger class was the first German battlecruiser class to finally transition to the 12-inch guns as seen of their battleship counterparts as all previous classes used the older 11-inch gun, and as for the layout they also implemented a more practical turret layout as the total amount of turrets was reduced to 4 and placed at the centerline of the ship in super firing pairs.
The Derfflinger class would be built from 1912 to the last ship entering service in 1917. While the ships were all laid down in 1913 with the speed of construction varying between the ships and would be commissioned at different points, with Derfflinger in 1914, Lützow in 1915, and Hindenburg as late as 1917. Due to the time each ship entered service each ship differed from the other as improvements and lessons were implemented onto the ships, with Hindenburg being the most substantially modified.
All of the ships would be armed with 8 12-inch/50 (305mm) guns in 4 twin turrets, the armament otherwise beyond this point somewhat varied as Derfflinger would be armed with 12 5.9-inch/42 (150mm) guns in casemates however Lützow and Hindenburg completed with 14 of these guns. The tertiary battery consisted of 88mm guns for all ships however as mentioned before each ship differed as completed, for Derfflinger was completed with 12 88mm guns however of these 8 were for handling torpedo boats while the other 4 were 88mm flak guns. For Lützow, she completed instead with 8 88mm Flak guns instead of the same amount 88mm guns on Derfflinger and likewise later on Derfflinger would have her guns reduced with the complete removal of the guns intended for torpedo boats as both ships had now 8 88mm flak guns. As for Hindenburg, she would be completed with 4 88mm flak guns rather than 8, and like Lützow this change would implement with the preceding ships as well. One final note in regard to armament, is that all the ships were built with 4 underwater torpedo tubes, however Derfflinger would be completed with 50cm torpedo tubes while the other ships were completed with 60cm torpedo tubes.
In terms of the other major differences between the ships, Derfflinger had anti roll tanks installed after trails showed the ships lost up to 65% speed with the twin rudders hard over, and heeled up to 11 degrees and as such also had 2 of their case mate 5.9-inch guns removed unlike her sisters which retained them, additionally Derfflinger was built with 16 watertight compartments while Lützow and Hindenburg had 17. Another thing of note is that the ships propulsion varied, since while the ships had the same number of engines and propeller shafts the Derfflinger and Lützow were rated with less powerful engines compared to Hindenburg which had around an additional 9,000 shp. Despite how typically the Germans ran their sea trials with extremely ideal conditions that would not reflect the ships performance in practice, all of the ships would in trials never reach their designed top speeds as the first two ships were designed to run up to 26.5 knots and Hindenburg up to 27 knots, however Derfflinger fell a knot short of the designed speed at 25.5 knots, Hindenburg came 0.4 knots short of her designed top speed with 26.6 knots, and Lützow faired the best coming 0.1 knots short or in other words reach 26.4 knots.
Origins
The Derfflinger class originated from the 4th and final Naval Law, which was passed in 1912, additional funding was provided for the naval law as Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz used the public outcry over the British involvement in the Agadir Crisis of 1911 to pressure the Reichstag into appropriating additional funds and this secured the funding for 3 Dreadnought battleships as a part of the Naval law but this would end being the 3 Derfflinger class battlecruisers, the designers were tasked with fixing the deficiencies of that of the previous German battlecruisers, mainly the propulsion system and main armament. As such German designers finally had increased the caliber of their battlecruisers main guns from the 11 inch guns to 12-inch guns however the amount of guns were reduced from 10 to 8 as they eliminated the wing turrets and went for super firing pairs with 2 turrets located at the bow and another 2 located at the rear of the ships with the turrets being more spaced out between themselves than the forward pair though the decision to increase the caliber was opposed by Tirpitz however they still went with the improvement. The armor was still basically that of what the previous battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz had as designed the ships were to have had only 3 shafts in order to install a diesel engine on the central shaft and this would substantially increase the cruising range, and would ease the transfer of fuel and reduce the number of crew needed to operate the ships machinery, however the engine in question was not deemed ready in time for the ships and resulted in the ships reverting to a 4 shaft arrangement. The ships were also constructed with a new construction technique which used only the longitudinal steel frames rather than a mix of the longitudinal and horizontal steel frames, thanks to in part of all the design features the increase in gun caliber for the main guns along with the reduction of the total amount would result in the ships gaining on 36 tons more of displacement in exchange, due to the span of time that the class was constructed each ship would slight differentiate from the previous with Derfflinger having to install anti roll tanks and the removal of 2 of the secondary guns while Lützow would have an additional watertight compartment and larger torpedo tubes she would displace slightly more at normal load but retained the full secondary battery as well as a completely different tertiary battery which only now consisted of AA guns, along with the ship not need the installation of anti-roll tanks while Hindenburg would be built to a more modified design. The machinery likewise varied as Derfflinger reverted back to the 4-shaft design as it was deemed that the machinery was not ready, and the other ships likewise would revert to the 4-shaft design. One last note is that during trails each ship would reach different speeds with Derfflinger actually ending up only make 24 knots rather than the designed 26 knots while Lützow would make the 26 knot design speed at 26.4 knots, in comparison Hindenburg which was designed to have more powerful power plant which was designed to make 27 knots was able to make 26.6 knots though it must be mentioned that this does not reflect their normal performance as German ships tended to use high quality coal for trail runs as well as with reduced crews. One last thing to mention is that while in service all the ships of the class would undergo modifications to their primary and secondary gun batteries as they were modified with a higher gun elevation as to extend the range of the guns in 1916.
History
In terms of the history of the class, Derfflinger would see the most combat during the war unsurprisingly due to being the first of the class to enter service, taking part in the Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby where the ship bombarded Scarborough and Whitby, the Battle of Dogger Bank where along with other German battlecruisers exchanged fire with British battlecruisers with Derfflinger taking minor damage, then the Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, and the most notable action for Derfflinger would be the Battle of Jutland where the ship would take major damage during the battle with her entire armament being knocked out over the course of the battle and had the highest amount of casualties of any ship which survived the battle earning her nickname of Iron dog.
As with many German ship past this point, she would still remain in active service however not much would occur following Jutland. The ship would be present in Scapa flow during the peace negotiations where the ship would be scuttled after the original deadline for the talks were to have expired not knowing the deadline was extended. Eventually the ship would be raised in 1939 with the ship remaining capsized with afloat, and due the second world war would also gain the very particular distinction of being afloat upside-down longer than upright during her entire time afloat, with the ship being scrapped in 1946.
As for the history of Lützow, she would have perhaps the shortest career of the entire class, since while being commissioned in 1915 the ship would not be fully commissioned until 1916. Like Derfflinger she would take part in the Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, and then her first and final naval action being the battle of Jutland where she served as Hipper’s flagship. During the course of the battle Lützow would exchange fire with multiple battlecruisers as the ship landed multiple accurate hits on the British battlecruisers including a hit to Lion which would have sunk the ship if not for the action of her crew. Once the main British battlefleet arrived Lützow would exchange fire with the original battlecruiser HMS Invincible which would lead to the catastrophic detonation of the ship’s magazine leading to its loss, at the same time however Invincible would score multiple hits on Lutzow’s bow which would lead to the ship being loss later on. With the ship critically damage she was unable to keep up with the rest of the German fleet upon its retreat, and despite attempts to save the ship the flooding would be too much leading to the ship being abandoned before sinking. An irony of this sinking is that Lützow sinking the Invincible being the first battlecruiser was that Lützow was the newest battlecruiser present during the battle, which isn’t obvious mean the newest and oldest battlecruisers present managed to sink each other.
Now as for Hindenburg, her time in service is the least notable given how the ship entered service post Jutland, the ship itself would never take part in any major fleet actions, instead she participated in other operations, such as covering other ships and being present during the botched sortie for convoy raiding when the battlecruiser Moltke loss one of its propellers.
As with Derfflinger she would be present at Scapa flow when the original deadline for the peace negotiations had passed and would be scuttled. The ship itself would be raised and subsequently scrapped in the early 1930’s.
Specifications
Displacement
26,600 tons normal load (Derfflinger)
26,741 tons normal load (Lützow)
26,947 tons normal load (Hindenburg)
31,200 tons full load
Length 210.40 m (690 ft 3 in) overall
Beam 29 m (95 ft 2 in)
Draft 9.20 m (30 ft 2 in)
Installed power
14 coal-fired boilers
8 oil-fired boilers
62,138 shp
71,000 shp (Hindenburg)
Propulsion
2 sets steam turbines
4 × screw propellers
Speed
26.5 knots (49.1 km/h; 30.5 mph)
27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) (Hindenburg)
Complement
1,112 total (1182 for Hindenburg)
1,188 total (When serving as flagship)
Armament
Derfflinger (as built)
Primary Armament
8 × 30.5 cm/50 (12") SK L/50) (305 mm) main guns (4 x 2)
720 rounds total; 180 rounds per turret; 90 rounds per gun
Secondary Armament
12 × 15 cm/45 (5.9") SK L/45 (150 mm) casemate guns
1,920 Rounds total; 160 rounds per gun
Tertiary Armament
8 x 8.8 cm/45 (3.46") SK L/45 (88 mm) guns
3,200 rounds total; 400 rounds per gun
AA Armament
4 x 8.8 cm/45 (3.46") Flak L/45 (88 mm) guns
1,600 rounds total; 400 rounds per gun
Torpedo tubes
4 × 50 cm (19.7 inch) underwater torpedo tubes
Lützow (as built)
Primary Armament
8 × 30.5 cm/50 (12") SK L/50) (305mm) main guns
720 rounds total; 180 rounds per turret; 90 rounds per gun
Secondary Armament
14 × 15 cm/45 (5.9") SK L/45 (150mm) casemate guns
2,240 rounds total; 160 rounds per gun
AA Armament
8 x 8.8 cm/45 (3.46") Flak L/45 (88mm) guns
3,200 rounds total; 400 rounds per gun
Torpedo tubes
4 × 60 cm (23.6 inch) underwater torpedo tubes
Derfflinger (1914 refit)
Primary Armament
8 × 30.5 cm/50 (12") SK L/50) (305 mm) main guns
720 rounds total; 180 rounds per turret; 90 rounds per gun
Secondary Armament
12 × 15 cm/45 (5.9") SK L/45 (150 mm) casemate guns
1,920 Rounds total; 160 rounds per gun
Tertiary Armament
4 x 8.8 cm/45 (3.46") SK L/45 (88 mm) guns
1,600 rounds total; 400 rounds per gun
AA Armament
8 x 8.8 cm/45 (3.46") Flak L/45 (88 mm) guns
3,200 rounds total; 400 rounds per gun
Torpedo tubes
4 × 50 cm (19.7 inch) underwater torpedo tubes
Derfflinger (1916 refit)
Primary Armament
8 × 30.5 cm/50 (12") SK L/50) (305 mm) main guns
720 rounds total; 180 rounds per turret; 90 rounds per gun
Secondary Armament
12 × 15 cm/45 (5.9") SK L/45 (150 mm) casemate guns
1,920 Rounds total; 160 rounds per gun
AA Armament
4 x 8.8 cm/45 (3.46") Flak L/45 (88 mm) guns
800 Rounds total; 400 rounds per gun
Torpedo tubes
4 × 50 cm (19.7 inch) underwater torpedo tubes
Lützow (1916 refit)
Primary Armament
8 × 30.5 cm/50 (12") SK L/50) (305mm) main guns
720 rounds total; 180 rounds per turret; 90 rounds per gun
Secondary Armament
14 × 15 cm/45 (5.9") SK L/45 (150mm) casemate guns
2,240 rounds total; 160 rounds per gun
AA Armament
4 x 8.8 cm/45 (3.46") Flak L/45 (88mm) guns
1,600 rounds total; 400 rounds per gun
Torpedo tubes
4 × 60 cm (23.6 inch) underwater torpedo tubes
Hindenburg (As built)
Primary Armament
8 × 30.5 cm/50 (12") SK L/50) (305mm) main guns
720 rounds total; 180 rounds per turret; 90 rounds per gun
Secondary Armament
14 × 15 cm/45 (5.9") SK L/45 (150mm) casemate guns
2,240 rounds total; 160 rounds per gun
AA Armament
4 x 8.8 cm/45 (3.46") Flak L/45 (88mm) guns
1,600 rounds total; 400 rounds per gun
Torpedo tubes
4 × 60 cm (23.6 inch) underwater torpedo tubes
Armor
belt: 300mm - 100mm
bulkheads: 250mm - 100mm
deck: 80mm
turrets: 270mm - 80mm
barbettes: 260mm - 30mm
casemates: 150mm
CT: 350mm - 80mm
torpedo bulkhead: 45mm
Sources
Spoiler
Derfflinger-class battlecruiser - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Lützow
Germany 30.5 cm/50 (12") SK L/50 - NavWeaps
Germany 15 cm/45 (5.9") SK L/45 - NavWeaps
Image Sources
Spoiler
Category:Derfflinger class battlecruisers - Wikimedia Commons
Imperial German Navy in World War I - Photos of the SMS Derfflinger
Imperial German Navy in World War I - Photos of the SMS Lützow
Imperial German Navy in World War I - Photos of the SMS Hindenburg (sms-navy.com)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/dqr144/gaijin_please_sms_defflinger_derfflingerclass/