After the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, Prussia unified Germany and dramatically changed the political landscape of Europe. However, Germany is located between the continent and the sea, facing the outflanking of the maritime power Britain and the land power**, and strategically needs to pay attention to both land and sea directions. In order for Germany to gain more overseas interests, it will inevitably challenge the sea power of the British Empire, so it needs to vigorously develop its navy while maintaining the strongest army in Europe. Constrained by national strength, it is difficult for the German Navy to reach the scale of the British Royal Navy, and can only work on the quality of warships, and make up for the quantitative gap through quality, and the German Navy "Blucher" armored cruiser in World War I is one of the manifestations of this idea.
First, the development background.
The booming industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries made Germany's scarce natural resources unsustainable, so Germany had to look for industrial raw materials around the world, but at that time, the world's huge industrial raw material production area had already been carved up by Britain, France, and Spain. Seeing the Spanish-American War in which the United States seized a large number of overseas colonies from Spain, the former maritime hegemon, irritated Germany even more, and Germany decided to also resort to military means to gain its own overseas interests. Germany chose Britain as the target because it had the largest overseas colonies at the time.
In order to compete with Britain for global colonies, Germany vigorously developed its naval strength, benchmarking the British Royal Navy, and the German Navy successively built many types of former dreadnoughts. In the field of loading and cruise, the Germans also caught up, designed the "York" class and "Scharnhorst" class armored cruisers, and planned to benchmark the British Royal Navy's new armored cruisers with more powerful armor cruisers. At this time, in order to maintain military leadership and effectively suppress the new armored cruisers of various countries, the British Royal Navy was also planning a new type of **. The new ** will have the armor of an armored cruiser, and at the same time have the main guns of a battleship, this is the battlecruiser.
Unfortunately, the intelligence system of the Germans was not working, and what was learned was the misinformation that the British Royal Navy was designing a new type of armored cruiser, more powerful than the "Milotaau" class armored cruisers, and it was planned to be equipped with 10 234 mm guns. In response to the British Navy, the German ** immediately allocated 8.35 million marks to the German Navy (the actual cost was later much higher than this budget), and decided to build a more powerful armored cruiser to cope with the British new armored cruiser program, and the armored cruiser "Blucher" was a product of this era.
At the finalization stage of the scheme design, the Germans finally got the correct information that the British Royal Navy planned to equip a new armored cruiser - the "Invincible" class, which is equipped with 8 305 mm caliber guns, a maximum speed of 25 knots, and a full load displacement of more than 20,000 tons! In 1912, in order to distinguish this new type of battleship, it was redefined as a battle cruiser. Due to the long delay in the design time, the Germans at this time had no patience to adjust the plan, and only changed the construction plan to only one "Blucher" as a test ship.
2. Performance data.
The main performance of the armored cruiser "Blucher": captain 1618 meters, width 245 meters, draft 88 meters, the frontal armor of the main turret is 180 mm thick, the conning tower armor is 250 mm thick, the broadside armor belt is 180 mm thick, the deck armor is 50 70 mm thick, the standard displacement is 15800 tons, the full load displacement is 17500 tons, the crew is 853 people. It is powered by 3 upright three-expansion reciprocating steam engines, 32,000 horsepower, 3 axles, 25 knots, and a cruising range of 3,520 nautical miles for 18 knots and 6,600 nautical miles for 12 knots. The coal tank capacity is 900 tons, and the maximum capacity is 2510 tons.
Equipped with 12 210 mm 45x diameter guns, 6 twin mounts, one main turret in the bow and stern, two main turrets on each side, hexagonal layout. 8 x 150mm 45x secondary guns, 16 x 88mm 45x CR rapid-fire guns. 4 x 450 mm torpedo tubes (arranged under the bow and stern and the two port A turrets).
The Blücher's hull consists of intertwined transverse and longitudinal steel structures, with 13 elaborate watertight compartments dividing the hull into separate zones. This design idea of German scientific and technological personnel made it possible for the ship to maintain normal navigation and combat capability even if part of the compartment was flooded when it was attacked by the enemy. Judging from the many naval battles in the First World War, this design can indeed greatly improve the survivability of the ship, and the capital ship of the German Navy has been severely damaged by the British fleet many times, and can still return to port safely.
3. Comparative situation.
At that time, the world's first-class armored cruisers were mainly the British "Milotaau" class armored cruisers, the Italian "San Giorgio" class armored cruisers, and the ** "Rurik" II armored cruisers (unfortunately there was only one).
First of all, the comparison of firepower, the main firepower of the "Milotaau" class is 4 234 mm naval guns + 10 190 mm naval guns, the main firepower of the "St. George" class is 4 254 mm naval guns + 8 190 mm naval guns, the main firepower of "Rurik" II is 4 254 mm naval guns + 8 203 mm naval guns, and the "Blucher" all-heavy gun still has a certain advantage in firepower.
This was followed by armor protection, with the frontal armor of the main turret of the "Milotaau" class 203 mm thick, the conning tower armor 254 mm thick, and the broadside armor belt 152 mm thick. The main turret of the "St. George" class was 200 mm thick in frontal armor, 254 mm in the conning tower and 200 mm thick in the broadside armor belt. Rurik II main turret armor is 203 mm thick on the front, 203 mm thick for the conning tower and 152 mm thick for the side armor belt. In contrast, the "Blucher" is no less impressive, and with its anti-sinking design, it has an advantage.
Comparing the maximum speed of the "Milotau" class is 23 knots, the maximum speed of the "St. George" class is also 23 knots, the maximum speed of the "Rurik" II is 21 knots, and the maximum speed of the "Blucher" is 25 knots, which has an advantage in speed. Through comparison, it can be seen that if the "Blucher" ranks second in terms of comprehensive performance, no one dares to say that it ranks first.
Fourth, the state of service.
Due to the repeated adjustments in the design process of the armored cruiser "Blucher", the construction began in February 1907, but the construction period was relatively fast, launched in April 1908, and commissioned in October 1909. Its presupposed opponent, the lead ship of the "Invincible" class battle cruiser, the "Invincible", had already been commissioned in March 1909, and the "Blucher" had just entered service.
The embarrassing "Blucher" in 1911-1914 could only serve as a training ship. After the outbreak of the First World War, in September 1914 the "Blucher" was deployed to the Baltic Sea against the Russian armored cruisers, but unfortunately there was no success. In November 1914 he was sent to the shores of England to carry out the bombardment of British ports. Although the "Blucher" had more combat power than any other armored cruiser in the world, as a super armored cruiser, it was never a match for the battle cruisers, and on January 24, 1915, at the Dogger sandbar in the North Sea, it was defeated by the Royal Navy.
1. The second battle cruiser detachment was sunk. "Blucher" was the pinnacle of armored cruisers, but alas, its construction and service were too late.