Mackensen class battlecruiser
- Mackensen class battlecruiser
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 "Mackensen"s 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 "Mackensen"s, 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".
hips
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. [Gröner, Eric, "German Warships 1815-1945, Volume One: Major Warships", pub Conways, 1990, iSBN0-85177-533-0]
*"Fürst Bismarck" (Ersatz A) named after Otto von Bismarck was laid down 3 November 1915 at Wilhelmshaven and broken up on slip in 1922.
References
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