SMS Derfflinger
Encyclopedia : S : SM : SMS : SMS Derfflinger
| |
| Career | 
|
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | January 1912 |
| Launched: | June 14 1913/ July 12 1913 |
| Commissioned: | October 1914 |
| Fate: | scuttled |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 26,180 tons standard; 30,700 tons full load |
| Length: | 690 feet 3 inches(210.4m) |
| Beam: | 95 feet 2 inches(29m) |
| Draft: | 27 feet 3 inches |
| Propulsion: | 4 shaft Parsons turbines; 18 boiler; 63,000 shp |
| Speed: | 26.5 knots |
| Complement: | 44 officers and 1068 men |
| Armament: | 8 x 12in SKL/50 (4 x 2), 12 x 5.9in (12 x 1), 4 x 3.45in (4 x 1), 4 x 19.7in TT |
She was to be launched 14 June 1913, but due to a mishap the ship got stuck after only a few centimeters. A second attempt was successful on 12 July 1913.
In World War I she was part of the 1st Scouting Group commanded by Vice Admiral Franz Hipper and took part in the bombardment of Scarborough, Yorkshire on 14 December 1914. Subsequently, she fought at the Battle of Dogger Bank (1915) in 1915 where she was hit by 3 shells. At the Battle of Jutland she sank the British battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary on 31 May 1916, but was herself heavily damaged by 21 heavy shell hits, with the repairs taking 4 months.
After the end of WWI, she was interned at Scapa Flow where her crew scuttled her on 21 June 1919. The wreck was raised for scrapping 1934.
External link
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.