SMS Lützow

SMS "Lützow" was a Derfflinger class battlecruiser of the Deutschen Kaiserliche Marine during World War I, and the second ship of her class. She was named in honor of the Prussian general Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow who fought in the Napoleonic Wars.

Construction

Built by Schichau-Werft in Danzig, her keel was laid down in May 1912, and she was launched on 29 November 1913.

"Lützow" was commissioned on 8 August 1915 for trials, but developed major problems with her turbines, which necessitated 6 months of repairs before she was able to enter service. She was finally fully commissioned in March 1916, just over 2 months before the Battle of Jutland.

On completion she displaced nearly 27,000 tons, with a main armament of 8 x 30.5 cm (12 in) guns, making her the largest and most powerful German battlecruiser at the time, along with her elder sister SMS "Derfflinger".

ervice

On 25 April 1916, "Lützow" led a raid on Lowestoft and Yarmouth, which resulted in the destruction of some 200 houses.

Jutland

Commanded by Capt. von Harder, "Lützow" was the flagship of Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper's Scouting Group I in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. Her accurate fire in the early battlecruiser action (beginning at 15:48) knocked out the 'Q' turret (13.5" (343 mm)) of HMS "Lion", Vice Admiral Beatty's lead battlecruiser, starting a catastrophic ammunition fire that, but for the quick-witted heroism of the turret's mortally injured commanding officer, would have subjected "Lion" to the same lethal magazine explosion that befell three other British battlecruisers that day.

As lead ship in the German battlecruiser formation, "Lützow" took heavy punishment from her British counterparts as the main battle was joined in the early evening on 31 May, though her own fire remained deadly: the British armored cruiser HMS "Defence", rushing to finish off the foundering light cruiser SMS "Wiesbaden" between the opposing fleets, was hammered by "Lützow" and many of the leading German battleships, disintegrating spectacularly at 18:20.

At about this moment, however, "Lützow" and "Derfflinger" came within range of a freshly arrived squadron of British battlecruisers led by Rear-Admiral Hood in HMS "Invincible", the first of all battlecruisers. Two 12 inch (305 mm) shells from "Invincible" struck "Lützow" below the water line near her underwater torpedo tubes, leading to severe flooding. "Invincible" was able to cap the "T" and hit the "Lützow" eight times in total. However at about 18:30, the very moment the Grand Fleet first "crossed the T" of the High Seas Fleet, "Invincible" suddenly appeared before "Lützow" and "Derfflinger" as a perfect target, only 5 miles (8 km) away. Three 30.5 cm (12 inch) salvos later, "Invincible" blew up and sank with all but 6 of her 1,032 crew, including Admiral Hood. "Lützow" took several more large caliber hits, and steadily fell behind the main fleet as flooding worsened, forcing Hipper to transfer his flag to destroyer "G39" at around 19:00.

In the following hour, "Lützow" continued to sustain damage, taking a total of 24 heavy-calibre shells from 12 inch, 13.5 inch, and 15 inch guns. The two 12 inch (305 mm) hits below the waterline from "Invincible" were to prove fatal. After the night action of 31 May/1 June, "Lützow" tried to make her way home. However, her forward pumps had been put out of action and by now she had shipped some 8,000 tons of water and was settling deeper at the bow, which would have made it difficult for her to clear the sand bank in front of the Kiel Canal. When the water was up to the level of the barbette of her 'B' turret and her screws and rudder were above water, she was abandoned by her 1,150 surviving crew and scuttled by one of her escorts, the torpedo boat "G38", her escape from the battle area being reckoned hopeless. She could probably have been saved had she made it to German controlled waters.

The "Lützow" was the only modern capital ship lost by the Imperial German Navy during the First World War. She was considered their most serious loss, being one of the newest and best battlecruisers they possessed, and because her loss was a greater proportion of the smaller High Seas Fleet than the British Grand Fleet.

Present location

Her wreck rests on a sandy bottom, under 45 meters of water, mainly upside-down. The "Lützow" is nearly intact, with one 12" twin turret detached and resting on the sand near her hull, also upside-down. German law protects her as a war grave.

"Lützow's" gunnery officer, von Paschen, who sank HMS "Invincible" and perhaps also HMS "Defense" was later murdered by the Nazis for admitting to a pair of Danes that Germany would probably lose the Second World War.

References

*Robert Gardiner, ed., "Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906 - 1922" (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1979)
*"Naval Battles of the First World War", Geoffrey Bennett, B. T. Batsford Ltd, London (1968)
*http://www.german-navy.de/hochseeflotte/ships/battlecruiser/lutzow/index.html

See also

*List of ship launches in 1913
*SMS Derfflinger
*SMS Hindenburg