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Blücher Class. The last German armoured cruiser and often considered a mid step to a battlecruiser. The turret layout for the main guns mirrored that of the early German Dreadnought battleships with the hexagonal layout necessitated by the space taken up the the reciprocating machinery. The two forward wing turrets lacked magazines below them and had to be supplied from magazines near the aft wing turrets which was a weakness in the design. |
SMS Blücher
Built Kiel Navy Dockyard, laid down February 1907, completed October 1909, cost 28,532,000 Marks.
Size:
Length 528 feet 6 inches waterline 530 feet 10 inches overall, beam 80 feet 3 inches, draught 26 feet 3 inches, displacement
15,590
load 15,250 tons deep load.
Propulsion:
3 shaft Triple expansion engines, 32,000 ihp, 24.5 knots
Trials: 38,323 shp = 25.8 knots
Armour:
7-2.5in belt, 7in turret faces, 3-2in decks
Armament:
12 x 8.2in 45cal (6 x 2), 8 x 5.9in 45cal (8 x 1), 16 x 3.45in 35cal (16 x 1), 4 x 17.7in TT
Comments:
An enlarged developemnt of the Scharnhorst class with a much heavier and better laid out armament more speed and
better protection. Crew 853.
World War 1 Service:
Blücher
I Scouting Group Group.
3 November 1914 took part in the bombardment of Yarmouth.
16 December 1914 involved in the bombardment of Hartlepool. Hit by coastal batteries.
24 January 1915 sunk at the Battle of Dogger Bank.
| SMS Blücher. Although a powerful ship she was overshadowed by the British introduction of the battlecruiser, Blücher being to far advanced to either cancel or be modified. In 1913 she was fitted with a tripod mast, the first on a German ship. |
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