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The only class of capital ships allowed to be kept after
World War I, Schleswig-Holstein was remodelled many times between
the war. Although already obsolete in 1939, the ship fired the firsts of
World War II at the port of Danzig. |
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Originally named Deutschland, Lützow
is the first capital ship built by post World War I Germany. In spite of restrictions
by the Versailles Treaty, the ship was designed to "outrun anything it didn't
outgun, and outgun anything it couldn't outrun." |
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The second of the pocket battleships following
Lützow, Admiral Scheer was remodelled as a heavy cruiser
in later years. She was the most successful of the three Panzerschiffe
(pocket battleships) and engaged in many battles. |
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The third and last of the pocket battleships,
Admiral Graf Spee is definitely the most famous of them all. She had
participated in numerous naval shows and at the beginning of the war sunk
more than 50,000 tons of shipping without killing a man. |
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Scharnhorst was a major step from the
restricted pocket battleships. A product of the Anglo-German Naval Treaty,
the ship was a powerful ship with heavy armor but high speed, though the main
guns were of a small (11") caliber. |
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Gneisenau was the sister ship of
Scharnhorst. Together the "ugly sisters," as the pair came to be known
in England, caused havoc in Allied shipping routes. The two ships even
sank the British carrier Glorious in 1940. |
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Bismarck was the first true battleship
built by the Third Reich. Having all the most advanced features available, the
ledendary ship had, however, a life of the butterflies. It was sunk
by British ships after sinking HMS Hood in 8 minutes. |
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Tirpitz was kept in protective Norwegian fiords
after its sister ship Bismarck was sunk. Hitler's fear of losing
another ship prevented her from seeing actions except a shelling against the
English coast. She was sunk after being hit by super-heavy bombs. |
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The "H-class" battleships were the real giants in
Hitler's ambitious Z-Plan for the Kriegsmarine. These ships were designed
to have so much protection and armament that no British ships would be able
to stop them. None of these were completed. |