Mackensen class battlecruiser
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 Mackensen class battlecruiser[1] |
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Mackensen |
| Builders: | Blohm + Voss Schichau Seebeckwerft Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven |
| Operators: | Kaiserliche Marine |
| Planned: | 7 |
| Completed: | Mackensen Graf Spee Prinz Eitel Friedrich Fürst Bismarck |
| Active: | 0 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Battlecruiser |
| Displacement: | 30,000 tons (standard), 35,000 tons (full load) |
| Length: | 223 m (732 ft) |
| Beam: | 30.4 m, (99.5 feet) |
| Draught: | 8.4 m (27.5 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 4 shaft geared steam turbines, 32 boilers, 90,000 hp |
| Speed: | 28 kt |
| Range: | 8,000 nm |
| Complement: | 1,186 |
| Armament: | 8 × 350 mm (13.8 inch) 12 × 150 mm (5.9 inch) 8 × 88 mm 6 × 600 mm torpedo tubes |
| Armour: | Main belt: 300 - 100 mm (12-4 in) Turrets: 320-110 mm (12.8 -4.3 in). |
| Aircraft carried: | 3 |
The Mackensen class was the last class of battlecruisers to be built by Germany in World War I. None of them were ever completed as shipbuilding priorities were concentrated on U-boats and destroyers. They were broken up in the early 1920s.
The design of the Mackensens was a much improved version of the previous Derfflinger class. They featured a new 350 mm (13.8-inch) gun. A further three ships of the Mackensen class were originally planned. However, these three ships were later reprogrammed as larger ships, incorporating 380 mm (15-inch) main-battery guns, as a response to the Royal Navy's Renown class. These last three ships are generally known as the Ersatz Yorck class, as the first ship of the class was designed to replace the armored cruiser Yorck, which had struck German mines early in the war and sunk. However, very little construction progress was made on these ships.
In response to the Mackensens, the British laid down the Admiral class battlecruisers for the Royal Navy, all but one of which would be cancelled later, the sole survivor (completed after the war) being HMS Hood.
[edit] Ships
There were supposed to be four ships in the class:
- Mackensen - (named after Field Marshal August von Mackensen) was laid down 30 January 1915 by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg. She was launched on 21 April 1917, but never completed and eventually broken up in 1923-1924.
- Graf Spee - (named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee) was laid down 30 November 1915 in the Schichau yards in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). She was launched on 15 September 1917. Construction stopped on 17 November 1918, over a year before completion, and she was broken up in 1921-1923.
- Prinz Eitel Friedrich (Ersatz Freya) named for one of Kaiser Wilhelm II's sons, Eitel Friedrich, was laid down 1 May 1915 by Blohm & Voss. Hamburg dockyard workers launched her to clear the slip on 13 March 1920. She was broken up at Hamburg in 1921.[2]
- Fürst Bismarck (Ersatz A) named after Otto von Bismarck was laid down 3 November 1915 at Wilhelmshaven and broken up on slip in 1922.
[edit] References
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| Dreadnought battleships | Pre-dreadnought battleships |
| Nassau | Helgoland | Kaiser | König | Bayern | Brandenburg | Kaiser Friedrich III | Wittelsbach | Braunschweig | Deutschland |
| Battlecruisers | Armored cruisers |
| Von der Tann | Moltke | Seydlitz | Derfflinger | Mackensen | Ersatz Yorck | Victoria Louise | Fürst Bismarck | Prinz Heinrich | Prinz Adalbert | Roon | Scharnhorst | Blücher |
| Light cruisers | U-boats |
| Gazelle | Bremen | Königsberg | Dresden | Kolberg | Magdeburg | Karlsruhe | Graudenz | Pillau | Wiesbaden | Königsberg | Brummer |Köln | U 1 | U 2 | U 3 | U 5 | U 9 | U 13 | U 16 | U 17 | U 19 | U 23 | U 27 | U 31 | U 43 | U 51 | U 57 | U 63 | U 66 | Mittel U | U 139 | U 142 | U 151 | UA | UB I | UB II | UB III | UC I | UC II | UC III | UE 1 | UE 2 |
