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The ''Deutschland'' class was a series of three ''Panzerschiffe'' ("armored ships"), a form of heavily armed cruiser, built by the ''Reichsmarine'' officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The class, which comprised the ships ''Deutschland'', ''Admiral Scheer'', and ''Admiral Graf Spee'', were all stated to displace in accordance with the Treaty, though they actually displaced at standard displacement. Despite violating the weight limitation, the design for the ships incorporated several radical innovations to save weight. They were the first major warships to use welding and all-diesel propulsion. Due to their heavy armament of six guns, the British began referring to the vessels as "pocket battleships". The ''Deutschland'' class ships were initially classified as ''Panzerschiffe'' or "armored ships", but the ''Kriegsmarine'' reclassified them as heavy cruisers in February 1940. The three ships were built between 1929 and 1936 by the Deutsche Werke and ''Reichsmarinewerft'' in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, respectively. They saw heavy service with the German Navy. All three vessels served on non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War. While on patrol, ''Deutschland'' was attacked by Republican bombers, and in response, ''Admiral Scheer'' bombarded the port of Almería. In 1937, ''Admiral Graf Spee'' represented Germany at the Coronation Review for Britain's King George VI. For the rest of their peacetime careers, the ships conducted a series of fleet maneuvers in the Atlantic and visited numerous foreign ports in goodwill tours. Before the outbreak of World War II, ''Deutschland'' and ''Admiral Graf Spee'' were deployed to the Atlantic to put them in position to attack Allied merchant traffic once war was declared. ''Admiral Scheer'' remained in port for periodic maintenance. ''Deutschland'' was not particularly successful on her raiding sortie, during which she sank or captured three ships. She then returned to Germany where she was renamed ''Lützow''. ''Admiral Graf Spee'' sank nine vessels in the South Atlantic before she was confronted by three British cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate. Although she damaged the British ships severely, she was herself damaged and her engines were in poor condition. Coupled with false reports of British reinforcements, the state of the ship convinced Hans Langsdorff, her commander, to scuttle the ship outside Montevideo. ''Lützow'' and ''Admiral Scheer'' were deployed to Norway in 1942 to join the attacks on Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. ''Admiral Scheer'' conducted Operation ''Wunderland'' in August 1942, a sortie into the Kara Sea to attack Soviet merchant shipping, though it ended without significant success. ''Lützow'' participated in the Battle of the Barents Sea in December 1942, a failed attempt to destroy a convoy. Both ships were damaged in the course of their deployment to Norway, and eventually returned to Germany for repairs. They ended their careers bombarding advancing Soviet forces on the Eastern Front; both ships were destroyed by British bombers in the final weeks of the war. ''Lützow'' was raised and sunk as a target by the Soviet Navy while ''Admiral Scheer'' was partially broken up in situ, with the remainder of the hulk buried beneath rubble. == Development == Following Germany's defeat in World War I, the size of the German Navy, renamed the ''Reichsmarine'', was limited by the Treaty of Versailles. The Navy was permitted a force of six pre-dreadnought battleships and six light cruisers; the ships could not be replaced until they were twenty years old. To replace the battleships, new vessels were to displace at most ; Germany's potential rivals were at this time limited to building vessels of by the Washington Naval Treaty and subsequent agreements. The gun caliber of any new ship was not regulated by the Treaty itself, though the Naval Inter-Allied Commission of Control (NIACC) created by the Treaty did have authority to regulate the armament of all new warships. The Allies assumed that with these limitations, only coastal defense ships similar to those operated by the Scandinavian navies could be built. The ''Reichsmarine''s oldest battleship, , was laid down in 1902 and could therefore be replaced legally in 1922. Design studies were considered starting in 1920, with two basic options: the Navy could build a heavily armored, slow, and small warship similar to a monitor or a large, fast, and lightly armored vessel similar to a cruiser. Actual design work on the new type of armored ship began in 1923, but the German economy collapsed in 1924, forcing a temporary halt to the work. Admiral Hans Zenker, the commander in chief of the ''Reichsmarine'', pushed hard for the navy to resume design work, and in 1925, three new proposals were drafted. In addition to two sketches prepared in 1923, this totaled five different designs. Of the first two designs, "I/10" was a cruiser armed with eight guns while "II/10" was a , heavily armored ship armed with four . The three designs prepared in 1925—"II/30", "IV/30", and "V/30"—were armed with six guns with varying levels of armor protection. The ''Reichsmarine'' eventually opted for guns to avoid provoking the Allies and to ease pressures on the design staff. The ''Reichsmarine'' held a conference to evaluate the designs in May 1925, though the results were inconclusive. Of particular importance was the continued French occupation of the Ruhr industrial area, which prevented Germany from quickly building large-caliber artillery. Nevertheless, the design staff prepared another set of designs, "I/35", a heavily armored ship with a single triple turret forward, and "VIII/30", a more lightly-armored ship with a pair of twin turrets. The ''Reichsmarine'' initially intended to lay down the first armored ship in 1926, but the design had not yet been finalized. The 1926 maneuvers informed the design staff that greater speed was desirable, and that year, a further two designs were submitted to Zenker. The initial design for ''Deutschland'', ordered as "''Panzerschiff'' A", was prepared in 1926 and finalized by 1928. Zenker announced on 11 June 1927 that the Navy had settled on one of several proposals for the new warships. The ''Reichsmarine'' had decided that the new ships would be armed with two triple turrets mounting 28 cm guns. Political opposition to the new ships was significant. The ''Reichsmarine'' therefore decided to delay ordering the ship until after the ''Reichstag'' elections in 1928. The question over whether to build the new ships was a major issue in elections, particularly with the Social Democrats, who strongly opposed the new ships and campaigned with the slogan "Food not ''Panzerkreuzer''." In May 1928, the elections were concluded and enough of a majority in favor of the new ships was elected; this included twelve seats won by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party. An October 1928 attempt of Communist Party of Germany to initiate a referendum against the construction failed. The first of the new ships was authorized in November 1928 When the particulars of the design became known by the Allies, they attempted to prevent Germany from building them. The ''Reichsmarine'' offered to halt construction on the first ship in exchange for admittance to the Washington Treaty with a ratio of to Britain's allotment of of capital ship tonnage. In doing so, this would effectively abrogate the clauses in the Treaty of Versailles that limited Germany's naval power. Britain and the United States favored making concessions to Germany, but France refused to allow any revisions to the Treaty of Versailles. Since the ships did not violate the terms of the Treaty, the Allies could not prevent Germany from building them after a negotiated settlement proved unattainable. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Deutschland-class cruiser」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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