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Admiral Hipper class cruiser

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Admiral Hipper in Norwegian waters, circa 1942.
General Characteristics Kriegsmarine Jack
Displacement: 18,600 tons full load
Length: 210 metres
Beam: 21.8 m
Draught: 7.9 m
Propulsion: steam turbines: 100,000 shp
cruising diesel: 16.5 bhp
Speed: 32.5 knots
Range: 8,000 miles at 20 knots
Complement: 1,600
Armament: 8 x 8 in (203 mm)
12 x 4.1 in (105 mm)
6 x 40 mm guns
12 x 37 mm guns
8 x 20 mm guns
12 x 21-in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
160 mines
Protection: sides: 80 mm
deck: 60 mm
turrets: 160 mm
Aircraft: 3
Ships in class Admiral Hipper
Blücher
Prinz Eugen
Lützow (sold to USSR, 1939)
Seydlitz (converted to aircraft carrier in 1942, not completed)

The Admiral Hipper class was a series of five heavy cruisers of which three served with the Kriegsmarine of Germany in World War II, one was sold unfinished to the Soviet Union in 1939, and one was converted to an aircraft carrier but never completed.

Contents
  • 3 See also
  • 4 External references

    • Description

    Designed as a treaty cruiser, Germany nonetheless gave little consideration to the treaty limit of 10,000 tons displacement. The design for the Hipper class began at 12,500 tons and increased steadily during development. To some degree, the ships were a German response to the French Algérie class, armed with 8 inch guns. Several calibers were considered, but finally a battery of eight 8-inch guns was selected for the Hipper. This gave them comparable firepower to a British County class cruiser, despite being considerably larger. Troublesome propulsion limited cruising range to 5,000 miles at 15 knots -- far less than the original design goal of 6,500 miles at 17 knots. After construction of Hipper and Blücher, the design was slightly enlarged, although major features remained similar. Of this new design, only one saw completion, Prinz Eugen. The Admiral Hipper class ships, while comparable to heavy cruisers of other navies and considered beautiful ships, suffered from problems and were thus less suited for the circumstances of World War II. Designed as part of a larger Kriegsmarine, they were required to perform either as support for ground forces or as commerce raiders. As ground support (artillery fire and evacuation), they were effective although expensive and suffered the loss of the Blücher at Oslo in 1940 and collision damage to the Prinz Eugen in the Baltic in 1944. As commerce raiders, their range was rather short, lacking the cruising diesel engines of the Gneisenau class battlecruiser and the pocket battleships. Additionally, their power plants were quite unreliable. Admiral Hipper was affected by machinery breakdowns off Scandinavia and in the Atlantic, restricting its effectiveness. Prinz Eugen suffered engine problems after separating from Bismarck, forcing her to terminate her anti-commerce cruise.

    Ships in class

    Admiral Hipper in 1942
    Enlarge
    Admiral Hipper in 1942

    Blücher
    Enlarge
    Blücher

    See also

    External references

     

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    All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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