 Deutschland in 1935 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
  Germany | |
| Name | Deutschland |
| Builder | Deutsche Werke,Kiel |
| Laid down | 5 February 1929 |
| Launched | 19 May 1931 |
| Commissioned | 1 April 1933 |
| Renamed | January 1940,Lützow |
| Fate | Sunk as target 22 July 1947 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Deutschland-classcruiser |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 186 m (610 ft 3 in) |
| Beam | 20.69 m (67 ft 11 in) |
| Draft | 7.25 m (23 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power | 54,000 PS (53,260 shp; 39,720 kW) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
| Range | 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Sensors & processing systems |
|
| Armament |
|
| Armor | |
| Aircraft carried |
|
| Aviation facilities | Onecatapult |
Deutschland was thelead ship ofher class ofheavy cruisers (often termed pocket battleships) which served with theKriegsmarine ofNazi Germany duringWorld War II. Ordered by theWeimar government for theReichsmarine, she was laid down at theDeutsche Werke shipyard inKiel in February 1929 and completed by April 1933. Originally classified as an armored ship (Panzerschiff) by theReichsmarine, in February 1940 the Germans reclassified the remaining two ships of this class as heavy cruisers.[a] In 1940, she was renamedLützow, after the unfinishedAdmiral Hipper-class heavy cruiserLützow was sold to the Soviet Union the previous year.
The ship saw significant action with theKriegsmarine, including severalnon-intervention patrols in the Spanish Civil War, during which she was attacked by Republican bombers in theDeutschland incident. At the outbreak of World War II, she was cruising the North Atlantic, prepared to attackAllied merchant traffic. Bad weather hampered her efforts, and she sank or captured only a handful of vessels before returning to Germany. She then participated inOperation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway. Damaged at theBattle of Drøbak Sound, she was recalled to Germany for repairs. While en route, she was torpedoed and seriously damaged by a British submarine.
Repairs were completed by March 1941, and in June she left Germany for a commerce raiding operation in the Atlantic. Before reaching the Atlantic, she was torpedoed by a British aircraft and had to return. After repairs,Lützow returned to Norway to join the forces arrayed againstAllied shipping to the Soviet Union. She ran aground duringOperation Rösselsprung, a planned attack onConvoy PQ 17, and returned to Germany for repairs. She next saw action at theBattle of the Barents Sea with the heavy cruiserAdmiral Hipper, which ended with a failure to destroyConvoy JW 51B. Engine problems forced a series of repairs culminating in a complete overhaul at the end of 1943, after which the ship remained in theBaltic as a training ship. In October 1944Lützow re-entered front line service withTask Force Thiele, participating in shore bombardments of Russian positions in support of the German army. Sunk in shallow waters in theKaiserfahrt in April 1945 byRoyal Air Force (RAF) bombers,Lützow was used as a stationary gun battery until 4 May 1945, when she was disabled by her crew. Raised by the Soviet Navy in 1947, she was subsequently sunk as a target in the Baltic.
Deutschland was 186 meters (610 ft)long overall and had abeam of 20.69 m (67 ft 11 in) and a maximumdraft of 7.25 m (23 ft 9 in). The ship had a designdisplacement of 12,630 t (12,430 long tons; 13,920 short tons) and afull load displacement of 14,290 long tons (14,520 t),[1] though the ship was officially stated to be within the 10,000-long-ton (10,160 t) limit of theTreaty of Versailles.[2]Deutschland was powered by four sets ofMAN 9-cylinder double-acting two-strokediesel engines. The ship's top speed was 28knots (52 km/h; 32 mph), at 54,000 PS (53,260 shp; 39,720 kW). At a cruising speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), the ship could steam for 10,000nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi).[1]
Since the Treaty of Versailles limited the total strength of theReichsmarine to 10,000 men,Deutschland could not take on a full complement. Only 33 officers, 595 enlisted men and 15 civilians could be taken aboard, 474 of them came from the light cruiserEmden, which was temporarily decommissioned to provide men forDeutschland.[3] After 1935, whenAdolf Hitler renounced the Treaty of Versailles and concluded theAnglo-German Naval Agreement these restrictions were lifted andDeutschland received a full complement of 43 officers, 943 sailors and 14 civilians.[1][4] WhenDeutschland prepared for war patrols, more officers and crew were taken aboard in order to establishprize crews for captured merchant ships.[5]
Deutschland'sprimary armament was six28 cm (11 in) SK C/28 guns mounted in two triplegun turrets, one forward and one aft of thesuperstructure. The ship carried asecondary battery of eight15 cm (5.9 in) SK C/28 guns in single turrets groupedamidships. Her anti-aircraft battery originally consisted of three 8.8 cm (3.5 in) L/45 guns, though in 1935 these were replaced with six8.8 cm L/78 guns. TwoSL-2 stabilized anti-aircraft director posts were also installed for these guns, one above the signals bridge and one abaft the funnel.[6] In 1940, the 8.8 cm guns were removed, and six 10.5 cm (4.1 in) L/65 guns, four 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns, and ten 2 cm (0.79 in) guns were installed in their place. By the end of the war, her anti-aircraft battery had again been reorganized, consisting of six4 cm (1.6 in) L/60 guns, ten 3.7 cm guns, and twenty-eight 2 cm guns.[1][7]
The ship also carried a pair of quadruple 53.3 cm (21 in) deck-mountedtorpedo tubes placed on her stern. The ship was initially not equipped with seaplanes but became in 1935 the first German warship to install acatapult, seaplane handling cranes and aHeinkel He 60 floatplane.[8]Deutschland'sarmored belt was 60 to 80 mm (2.4 to 3.1 in) thick; her upper deck was 17 mm (0.67 in) thick while the main armored deck was 17 to 45 mm (0.67 to 1.77 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 140 mm (5.5 in) thick faces and 80 mm thick sides.[1] In Autumn 1937 aFMG G(gO) "Seetakt" setradar operating on aWavelength of 80 cm was installed;[9] in 1942, a FuMO 26 set was added.[10][b]
Deutschland was ordered by theReichsmarine from theDeutsche Werke shipyard inKiel asErsatz Preussen, a replacement for the oldpre-dreadnought battleshipPreussen.[1] Her keel was laid on 5 February 1929,[11] under construction number 219.[1] The ship was launched on 19 May 1931; at her launching, the ship accidentally started sliding down the slipway while German ChancellorHeinrich Brüning.was giving the christening speech and before German PresidentPaul von Hindenburg could christen the ship with the traditional bottle ofSekt.[12][13] After the completion offitting out work, initialsea trials began in November 1932.[14] The ship was commissioned into theReichsmarine on 1 April 1933.[10]
Deutschland spent the majority of 1933 and 1934 conducting training maneuvers; early speed trials in May 1933 indicated that a top speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) was preferable, but the ship comfortably reached 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) on speed trials in June. Trials were completed by December 1933, and the ship was ready for active service with the fleet.[14] The ship also made a series of goodwill visits to foreign ports, including visits toGothenburg, Sweden, and in October 1934, a formal state visit toEdinburgh, Scotland. In April 1934, Adolf Hitler visited the ship; he reportedly toured the ship alone, speaking informally with crewmen.[15]
The ship conducted a series of long-distance training voyages into the Atlantic in 1935. In March 1935, she sailed as far as theCaribbean and South American waters. After returning to Germany, she went into dock for routine maintenance work, as well as installation of additional equipment. She had her aircraft catapult installed in this period, and was provided with a He 60 floatplane.[15] The first He 60 was damaged during the tests with a new helping device for landing and recovering floatplanes, and a replacement He 60 was flown in.[16]Deutschland participated in fleet maneuvers in German waters in early 1936. She was joined by her newly commissionedsister shipAdmiral Scheer for a cruise into the mid-Atlantic, which included a stop inMadeira.[17]
Following the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War in 1936,Deutschland andAdmiral Scheer were deployed to the Spanish coast on 23 July 1936 to cover the evacuation of diplomatic personnel and civilians from Spanish ports. At the end of August, she assisted in the evacuation ofSan Sebastián,Bilbao,Santander,Gijón andA Coruña on the Atlantic coast, followed in July byCádiz,Almería,Ceuta,Málaga,Alicante,Valencia andBarcelona. During the deployment, her gun turrets were painted with large black, white, and red bands to aid in identification from the air and indicate her neutral status. By end October, the German navy had evacuated 15,317 people, amongst them many foreigners. On 31 August,Deutschland was back in Wilhelmshaven.[18]
On 1 October,Deutschland left Germany for Spain on her first non-intervention patrol off theRepublican-held coast of Spain. Her duties during the deployment included evacuating refugees fleeing from the fighting, protecting German ships carrying supplies forFrancisco Franco'sNationalists, and gathering intelligence for the Nationalists.[17] On 21 November, the ship was back in Germany but left from Kiel for her third patrol on 31 January 1937. On this patrol, her main duty was to control Spanish ships in theMediterranean Sea and verify if a Non-Intervention Committee observer was aboard in order to avoid the transport of arms orinternational volunteers trying to join the Republican side. In April,Deutschland returned to Germany but on 10 May the ship embarked upon her fourth patrol. By this time the Non-Intervention Committee had divided the Spanish coast in four sectors and Germany was allocated the coast between Portugal and Valencia.Deutschland made a visit to the British base inGibraltar and participated in exercises together with a British and an Italian cruiser.[18]
On 24 May 1937, the ship was docked in the port ofPalma on the island ofMajorca, along with several other neutral warships, including vessels from the British and Italian navies. The port was attacked by Republican aircraft, though anti-aircraft fire from the warships drove them off. Thetorpedo boatsSeeadler andAlbatross escortedDeutschland to the island ofIbiza on 26 May. While moored in port there, she was again attacked on 29 May by Republican bombers;[17] a pair of Soviet-builtSB-2 bombers, secretly flown by Soviet Air Force pilots, bombed the ship.[19] At the same time four Republican destroyers shelled the port with inaccurate fire. Two bombs struck the ship; the first penetrated the upper deck near the bridge and exploded above the main armored deck while the second hit near the third starboard 15 cm gun. Splinters from this hit perforated the seaplane fuel tanks and set it on fire, the burning fuel igniting the munitions for the starboard 15 cm guns. The first hit caused serious fires below decks.[20][17] The attack killed 31 German sailors and wounded 74.[19]
Deutschland quickly weighed anchor and left port. She rendezvoused withAdmiral Scheer to take on additional doctors before proceeding to Gibraltar where the dead were buried with full military honors. Ten days later, however, Hitler ordered the men be exhumed and returned for burial in Germany. The ship's wounded men were also evacuated in Gibraltar for treatment. Hitler, furious over the attack, orderedAdmiral Scheer to bombard the port of Almería in retaliation for the so-called "Deutschland incident".[17] Stalin subsequently issued orders that further attacks on German and Italian warships were strictly prohibited.[19] On 15 June,Deutschland was back in Wilhelmshaven where the 31 deceased sailors were buried. Repairs of the bomb damage took ten days.[21] On 1 October,KzSPaul Wenneker took command ofDeutschland. His first assignment was taking the ship once more to patrol off Spain to protect merchant shipping. During this patrol she was replenished in Italian ports. In February 1938 she was back in Germany. By now the ship had sailed over 130,000 nautical miles and her motor room was in need of an extensive overhaul. Especially the diesel engine mountings proved to be too fragile and suffered from cracking.[22]
Rising tensions with France and the UK during the Sudeten crisis in September 1938 led to war preparations: on 20 SeptemberDeutschland left Germany to take up a position in the Mid-Atlantic in order to wage commerce raiding on the shipping lanes toSouth America andCape of Good Hope. Thereplenishment oilerSamland was also sent into the Atlantic to supportDeutschland during her operations, butDeutschland first replenished from the tankerAugust Schultze in the Spanish portVigo. There she made the first operational use of her Seetakt radar to slip out of Vigo in dense fog, and escaped her British shadowers. With theMunich Agreement on 29 September, a war was avoided.Deutschland continued her patrol for training purposes. She simulated war operations together with the U-boatsU-27 andU-30. It proved to be too difficult to direct U-boats operating independently from a ship at sea, and as a result, therudeltaktik advocated byKarl Dönitz became more prominent.Deutschland paid a visit toTangier and Gibraltar before returning to Germany. Between 6 and 26 February the ship was again in Spanish waters, for gunnery exercises and visits to Palma,Tenerife andFerrol.[23]
On 23 March 1939 Hitler boardedDeutschland inSwinemünde to lead the ship toMemel which was then part ofLithuania, and which he wantedHeim ins Reich. Faced with the arrival ofDeutschland, its two sister shipsAdmiral Scheer andAdmiral Graf Spee, thelight cruisersKöln,Leipzig, andNürnberg, and severaldestroyers, torpedo boats andmine sweepers, the Lithuanian government accepted theGerman ultimatum to Lithuania and ceded theMemel region to Germany.[24]
On 17 AprilDeutschland left for the Atlantic under the command of theBefehlshaber der PanzerschiffeWilhelm Marschall. During the sortie a new type of commerce raiding was exercised: thePanzerschiffe should operate in a task force together with reconnaissance forces and the newDithmarschen-class replenishment tankers. In the absence of the not yet operationalGraf Zeppelin or the yet-to-buildSpähkreuzers, three destroyers operated as support forDeutschland. After the conclusion of the exercises the German force paid an official visit to Malaga following the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War 1939. Together with the ships stationed in the Mediterranean during their now-concluded Spain patrols, and the new battleshipGneisenau coming from Germany, the German forces started a major fleet exercise. At the core of the exercise were some twenty U-boats directed by Dönitz from thesubmarine tenderErwin Wassner, simulatingrudeltaktik attacks on a convoy, whilst the surface ships focused on the diversion of the enemy forces.[25][26]
On 24 August 1939, a week before theGerman invasion of Poland,Deutschland set sail from Wilhelmshaven, bound for a position south ofGreenland. Here, she would be ready to attackAllied merchant traffic in the event of a general war following the attack on Poland. The supply shipWesterwald was assigned to supportDeutschland during the operation.[27] Just two days before leaving Wilhelmshaven, her obsolete He 60 biplane floatplane was replaced by a modern Ar 196 with closed cockpit. After reaching the Atlantic through theDenmark Strait,Deutschland received the first replenishment fromWesterwald on 30 August close to Greenland.[28]Deutschland was ordered to strictly observe prize rules, which required raiders to stop and search ships forcontraband before sinking them, and to ensure that their crews are safely evacuated. The ship was also ordered to avoid combat with even inferior naval forces, as commerce disruption was the primary objective.[29] Hitler hoped to secure a negotiated peace with Britain and France after he overran Poland, and he therefore did not authorizeDeutschland to begin her raiding mission against British and French shipping until 26 September.[30] By this time,Deutschland had moved south to hunt in theBermuda-Azores sea lane.[27]
On 5 October, she found and sank the 5,044 gross register tons (GRT) British transport shipStonegate,[31] though not before the freighter was able to send a distress signal informing vessels in the area ofDeutschland's presence. She then turned north to theHalifax route, where on 9 October, she encountered the American shipCity of Flint.[26] The 4,963 GRT freighter was found to be carrying contraband, and so was seized.[32] A prize crew was dispatched to the ship; they took the ship with the original crew held prisoner to Germany viaMurmansk. The ship was seized by Norway when she anchored inHaugesund, however, and control of the ship was returned to the original crew. Meanwhile, on 14 October,Deutschland encountered and sank the Norwegian transportLorentz W Hansen,[26] of some 1,918 GRT.[32] The same day, she stopped the neutral Danish steamerKongsdal, though when it became apparent that she was headed for a neutral port, the prisoners fromLorentz W Hansen were placed aboard her and she was allowed to proceed.Kongsdal later reported the encounter to the BritishRoyal Navy and confirmedDeutschland as the raider operating in the North Atlantic.[26]
Severe weather in the North Atlantic hamperedDeutschland's raiding mission, though she did tie down several British warships assigned to track her down.[26] The FrenchForce de Raid, centered on the battleshipDunkerque, was occupied with protecting convoys around Britain to prevent them from being attacked byDeutschland.[33] In early November, the Naval High Command recalledDeutschland; she passed through the Denmark Strait on 15 November and anchored inGotenhafen on the 17th.[34] In the course of her raiding mission, she sank only two vessels and captured a third.[35]
Immediately after her arrival in Germany,Deutschland was re-rated as a heavy cruiser and renamedLützow.[35] Hitler himself made the decision to rename the ship, recognizing that the sinking of a warship, always possible, was a propaganda disaster if it bore the name of its country.[36] AdmiralErich Raeder, the commander in chief of theKriegsmarine, also hoped that renaming the ship would confuse Allied intelligence; theAdmiral Hipper-class cruiserLützow was designated for sale to theSoviet Navy, and it was hoped that the use of her name forDeutschland would hide the transaction.[37] SinceDeutschland had returned undetected to Germany, the renaming would also fool the British into believingDeutschland was still operating in the Atlantic and commit its forces into searching her there. BeforeLützow went into harbor for refit, she participated in the fleet operations in the North Sea in support of the attack of the German battleshipsScharnhorst andGneisenau on the Northern Patrol. On 24 and 25 November,Lützow operated together with the light cruisersKöln andLeipzig in theSkagerrak against merchant traffic and as a decoy for the battleships operations.[38][39]
In early December 1939, the ship underwent a big overhaul, during which a rakedclipper bow was installed to improve her sea-keeping qualities.[40][41] In February 1940 Wenneker was promoted toKonteradmiral and was replaced byKzSAugust Thiele.[40] The refit was completed in March 1940, after which it was intended to send the ship on another commerce-raiding operation into the South Atlantic.[35][37] In April she was assigned to forces participating in the invasion of Norway.[35]
The Germans planned to start the invasion of Norway with landings by six naval forces inNarvik,Trondheim,Bergen,Kristiansand,Oslo andEgersund.Lützow was initially assigned to Group2 together with the heavy cruiserAdmiral Hipper, tasked to occupy Trondheim. After the landings at Trondheim,Lützow was to break out to the Atlantic for commerce-raiding. But on 4 April cracks were discovered in the diesel engine mountings which reduced the top speed of the cruiser to 21 knots and mandated further repairs in Germany. As a consequence, the Atlantic sortie was cancelled andLützow was re-assigned to Group 5,[42][43] alongside the new heavy cruiserBlücher, the light cruiserEmden and the torpedo boatsAlbatros,Kondor andMöwe under the command ofKonteradmiralOskar Kummetz. Kummetz flew his flag inBlücher. Group 5 was tasked with capturing Oslo, the capital of Norway, and transported a force of 2,000 mountain troops from theWehrmacht.[44]Lützow embarked over 400 of the soldiers for the voyage to Norway. After the negative experiences during the Atlantic sortie in 1939 with the single Ar 196 floatplane often breaking down,Lützow received a spare Ar 196 which was stored behind thestack. The force left Germany on 8 April and passed through theKattegat. While en route, several submarine alarms were given.Lützow fired abroadside with the secondary artillery in the direction of a detectedperiscope, only resulting in blast damage to the seaplane on the catapult which was disabled.[45] In the evening the British submarineHMS Triton[c] attacked the flotilla; identifyingLützow as the main threat,Triton fired a full spread of ten torpedoes at her but missed asLützow was turning away at the right time on a zigzag course.[45] The German torpedo boats drove the submarine off.[48]
Shortly before midnight on the night of 8 April, Group 5, withBlücher in the lead, passed the outer ring of Norwegian coastal batteries.Lützow followed directly behind the flagship, withEmden astern. Heavy fog and neutrality requirements, which required the Norwegians to fire warning shots, permitted the Germans to avoid damage. The Norwegians, including those manning the guns at theOscarsborg Fortress were on alert, however. Steaming into theOslofjord at a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), the Germans came into range of the Norwegian guns; the 28 cm, 15 cm and 57 mm guns opened fire on the invaders. During the ensuingBattle of Drøbak Sound,Blücher was hit by many shells and two torpedoes. She quickly capsized and sank with the loss of approximately 1,000 sailors and soldiers.[49][50]Lützow was hit three times by 15 cm shells from Oscarsborg's Kopås battery, causing significant damage.[51]
Lützow's forward gun turret was hit by one of the 15 cm rounds, which disabled the center gun and damaged the right barrel. Four men were wounded. A second shell struck the ship's deck and penetrated the upper and main armored decks; starting a fire in the cruiser's hospital and operating theater, killing two soldiers and severely wounding six others. A third struck her superstructure behind the port-side aircraft crane. The spare aircraft stored behind the stack was severely damaged, and four gunners were killed by the third shell.[51] The ship was only able to fire her secondary battery in return. The heavy damage forcedLützow and the rest of the squadron to reverse course and exit the fjord. She eventually landed her troop complement inVerle Bay, after which she used her operational 28 cm guns to provide fire support. By the afternoon of 9 April, most of the Norwegian fortresses had been captured and the commander of the remaining Norwegian forces opened negotiations for surrender.[48] The delay had, however, allowed enough time for the Norwegian government and royal family to flee Oslo.[50]
The damageLützow sustained prompted theKriegsmarine to order her to return to Germany for repairs,[52] the rest of Group 5 remained in Norway.[53] Despite the danger of submarines, which had attacked and sunk many ships during operation Weserübung, Thiele ordered his available escorts, the torpedo boatsMöwe andKondor to stay back to assist the damagedAlbatros and relied onLützow's top speed of 24 knots to avoid submarines.[54] Nevertheless, the British submarineHMS Spearfish attacked the ship on 11 April and scored a serious hit. The torpedo destroyedLützow's stern, causing it to collapse and nearly fall off, and blew off her steering gear. Unable to steer, she was towed back to port and decommissioned for repairs, which lasted for nearly a year. During the attack on Norway, the ship suffered nineteen dead, and another fifteen were killed by the torpedo strike.[52] Despite the setback, Thiele was awarded theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his actions during the Battle of Drøbak Sound, during which he took command of the task force after the loss ofBlücher.[55]
During her time in drydock and on the dockside in Kiel,Lützow was often attacked by British bombers. Only during the night of 8 July the bombers managed to score a hit on the forecastle, but the bomb failed to explode.[56] The cruiser was recommissioned for service on 31 March 1941 under a new commander, KzS Leo Kreisch. TheKriegsmarine initially planned to send the ship on the commerce raiding operation planned the previous year. Her sister shipAdmiral Scheer had successfully concluded such an operation in March 1941 and was to joinLützow for the operation in July. Despite the loss of the battleshipBismarck and Hitler's instruction not to take risks with the big ships, on 12 JuneLützow departed forOperation Sommerreise, escorted by the destroyersZ10 Hans Lody,Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt,Z20 Karl Galster,Z23 andZ24.[57] The destroyers were to provide escort until Norway, for escort and scouting in the Denmark Strait the U-boatsU-79 andU-559 were detached from their Atlantic operations.[58][59] A single BritishBristol Beaufort torpedo bomber foundLützow off Egersund during the night. The bomber held off its attack until the Germans were deceived into thinking it was a German patrol aircraft and then scored a hit that disabled her electrical system and rendered the ship motionless. Only three sailors were wounded, butLützow took on a severe list to port and the port shaft was damaged. The smokescreen generator was activated by the torpedo hit which caused a second attacking torpedo bomber to miss the ship.[60][61] The crew effected emergency repairs that allowed her to return to Germany; repair work in Kiel took six months. By 10 May 1942, the ship was finally pronounced ready for action.[62][63]
InOperation WaltzertraumLützow left Swinemünde on 15 May 1942 for Norway to join forces intended to disruptAllied shipping to the Soviet Union. She was escorted by the destroyersZ4 Richard Beitzen,Z10 Hans Lody,Z27 andZ29 and theescortF1. At the same time the damaged heavy cruiserPrinz Eugen returned following makeshift repairs from Trondheim to Germany. There was heavy British air and submarine activity against the two forces; whilstPrinz Eugen was able to break through to Germany,Lützow sought shelter in Kristiansand on 17 May. Between 18 and 20 MayLützow was moving in stages to Trondheim with her four destroyers and the torpedo boatT1.[64] By 25 May she had joinedAdmiral Scheer inBogen Bay. She was made the flagship of the nowVizeadmiral Kummetz, the commander ofKampfgruppe 2. Fuel shortages restricted operations, althoughLützow andAdmiral Scheer were able to conduct limited battle training exercises. In July fuel stocks were sufficient to allow operations with capital ships and the Germans intended to attack the nextconvoy PQ 17 with the complete surface fleet inOperation Rösselsprung.[65] On 1 July the convoy was located by theB-Dienst and detected by U-boats. The next day, the first stage of Operation Rösselsprung was set in motion when German forces concentrated inAltafjord from where they could sortie against the convoy.[66]
On 2 July, the battleshipTirpitz, the heavy cruiserAdmiral Hipper, the destroyersZ6 Theodor Riedel,Z10 Hans Lody,Z14 Friedrich Ihn andZ20 Karl Galster, and the torpedo boatsT7 andT15 left Trondheim for Altafjord, followed on 3 July by the cruisersLützow andAdmiral Scheer and the destroyersZ24,Z27,Z28,Z29,Z30 andZ4 Richard Beitzen coming from Narvik.[66] In order to avoid British reconnaissance, the German fleet did not steer into open waters but remained close to the coast and between islands. In fogLützow ran aground in the narrowTjeldsundet, and the destroyersZ6 Theodor Riedel,Z10 Hans Lody andZ20 Karl Galster struck uncharted rocks at Grimsöy in Vestfjorden and all these ships fell out for the operation.[67][68] Swedish intelligence had meanwhile reported the German departures to theBritish Admiralty, which ordered the convoy to disperse in the evening of 4 July. In the morning of 5 July the Germans became aware that the escorts were withdrawing and the merchants were continuing independently. The second stage of Operation Rösselsprung was initiated at 11:37 and the German fleet minusLützow left Altafjord to attack the convoy. During the evening it became clear that they had been detected and the Germans aborted the operation. U-boats andLuftwaffe sank 21 of the 34 fleeing transports.[69][70]
The grounding at Tjeldsundet had damaged the outer hull over a length of 80 meter. The bottom was bent 30 centimeter inwards at some places and seven fuel cells were leaking oil, but the ship remained operational. On 9 JulyLützow moved to the Lofjord close to Trondheim, escorted by the destroyersZ24 andZ14 Friedrich Ihn, and the torpedo boatsT7 andT15.[71] On 9 August,Lützow left for Germany in Operation Eiche, escorted by two torpedo boats. She arrived in Kiel on 20 August for repairs,[72] which took until the end of October. On 9 November she moved to the Baltic Sea for see trials and artillery drill. On 8 DecemberLützow returned to Norway inOperation Prometheus, escorted by the destroyersZ6 Theodor Riedel,Z20 Karl Galster andZ31,[73] arriving in Narvik on the 12th.[68][74] Five days laterLützow moved further North: inOperation Rudelsburg, escorted by the destroyersZ6 Theodor Riedel andZ31 she left for theKåfjord joining there the cruisersAdmiral Hipper,Nurnberg andKöln. The Allies had paused the sailings of Arctic convoys in August. From October some merchants sailed independently to and from Murmansk and against this traffic Operation Aurora was planned: a sortie ofLützow into the Arctic. But in December the Arctic convoys resumed and the operation was not carried out.[75]
On 30 December,Lützow,Admiral Hipper, and six destroyers left Narvik for Operation Regenbogen, an attack on convoyJW 51B, which was reported by German intelligence to be lightly escorted.[68] Kummetz's plan was to divide his force in half; he would takeAdmiral Hipper and three destroyers north of the convoy to attack it and draw away the escorts.Lützow and the remaining three destroyers would then attack the undefended convoy from the south. At 09:15 on the 31st, the British destroyerObdurate spotted the three destroyers screening forAdmiral Hipper; the Germans opened fire first. Three of the other four destroyers escorting the convoy rushed to join the fight, whileAchates laid a smoke screen to cover the convoy. Kummetz then turned back north to draw the destroyers away. CaptainRobert Sherbrooke, the British escort commander, split his force: two destroyers were to stay with the convoy while he took the other two to pursueAdmiral Hipper.[76][77] Between 09:41 and 11:30 the cruiser attacked the escorts in several runs, sinkingAchates and the minesweeperBramble and heavily damaging the destroyerOnslow.[78]
Lützow meanwhile steamed toward the convoy from the south, and at 09:22 she saw some ships. Not able to identify the ships in the snow squalls and bad light at this latitude, she did not open fire until 11:42.[79] The harsh conditions made accurate fire difficult; she ceased shooting by 12:03 without any hits.[80] Only the freighterCalobre was damaged by splinters.[81] Rear AdmiralRobert Burnett's Force R, centered on the cruisersSheffield andJamaica, standing by in distant support of the Allied convoy,[82] raced to the scene. At 11:30 the cruisers engagedAdmiral Hipper, which had been firing to port at the destroyerObedient. Burnett's ships approached fromAdmiral Hipper's starboard side and achieved complete surprise.[83] The British cruisers scored three hits onAdmiral Hipper and sank the destroyerZ16 Friedrich Eckoldt. Following his orders not to risk the big ships even against inferior opponents, Kummetz ordered all ships to withdraw.[80][81]Lützow inadvertently came alongsideSheffield andJamaica, and after identifying them as hostile, engaged them, though her fire remained inaccurate. The British cruisers turned towardLützow and came under fire from both German cruisers. Burnett quickly decided to withdraw in the face of superior German firepower; his ships were armed with 6 in (152 mm) guns, whileAdmiral Hipper carried 20.3 cm (8 in) guns, andLützow had 28 cm guns.[84]
Hitler was furious over the failure to destroy the convoy, and ordered that all remaining German major warships be broken up for scrap. In protest, Raeder resigned; Hitler replaced him with Admiral Karl Dönitz, who persuaded Hitler to rescind the order to dismantle the surface ships of theKriegsmarine.Lützow remained in Kafjord until 8 March, and moved to Bogen Bay on 9 March, where she was joined in March by the battleshipsTirpitz andScharnhorst.[85] All these ships moved to Altafjord on 22 March,[86] where they were well positioned to attack Arctic convoys. This concentration of the German fleet prompted the Allies to again pause the Arctic convoys.[87] The Germans now consideredOperation Husar, (a repeat ofOperation Wunderland) a sortie into theKara Sea byLützow. This operation relied heavily on air reconnaissance and since experience had shown that its single Ar 196 was not sufficient, during July 1943Lützow trained refueling long-range reconnaissanceBV 138 flying boats at sea in theLangfjorden. The operation was postponed on 14 July because of the simultaneous breakdown of all four diesel generators and was finally cancelled in August when a BV 138 operating out of a secret temporary base on the Northeast coast ofNovaya Zemlya reported no traffic and heavy ice.[88][89]
On 6 September the Germans launchedOperation Zitronella: a raid by the German surface fleet onSvalbard butLützow was left behind in Norway as her top speed was insufficient to cooperate with the other big ships. On 22 September the British executedOperation Source, in which they planned to attackTirpitz,Scharnhorst, andLützow with ground mines laid by sixX-classmidget submarines. The attack onLützow failed as its allocated attacking submarine was lost in transfer from the UK to the Norwegian coast. In the end onlyTirpitz was heavily damaged by the ground mines of two submarines.[90][91]
On 23 September, inOperation HermelinLützow left Altafjord for the Baltic escorted by the destroyersZ5 Paul Jacobi,Z14 Friedrich Ihn,Z15 Erich Steinbrinck andZ27. When the German force was detected on 26 September, the British tried to attack with amotor torpedo boat flotilla and thirty-nineBristol Beaufighters andGrumman Tarpon torpedo bombers of832 Naval Air Squadron. But because of bad weather and an unexpected course reversal ofLützow, the Germans were able to evade all attacks. When passing KristiansandZ14 Friedrich Ihn ran out of fuel and was replaced byZ38. The cruiser arrived on 1 October inGotenhafen,[91] where on 9 October she survived a daylight attack by theEighth Air Force without damage.Lützow underwent an overhaul inLibau,[92] after which she remained in the Baltic Sea. In March 1944Lützow became a training ship forSeekadetten.[80] On 28 JuneLützow was moved to the port ofUtö in preparation ofOperation Tanne West, a planned invasion of theÅland isles in case of aFinnish surrender, but the operation was cancelled on 8 July.[93] In order to avoid heavy Russian air attacks,Lützow returned to Germany, but in September she returned to the entrance of theGulf of Finland, covering the evacuation of troops and refugees over sea from Finland and Tallinn to the Baltic islands. To counter the threat of the Russian armoredIlyushin Il-2, the light anti-aircraft guns were reinforced with six 4 cm Bofors.[94][95]
In October the first Russian troops reached the Baltic in theBattle of Memel, as part of theirBaltic offensive. On 11 OctoberLützow, the heavy cruiserPrinz Eugen, the destroyersZ25,Z35 andZ36, and the torpedo boatsT13,T16,T20 andT21[96] bombarded Memel in support of the German defense of the port.Lützow hit twenty targets with four hundred 28 cm and two hundred and forty-five 15 cm shells whilePrinz Eugen fired six hundred and seventy-three 20 cm shells. Three days later the operation was repeated. Returning from the operation,Prinz Eugen collided withLeipzig and had to be repaired so onlyLützow was available for a third operation on 22 October. During the Memel operations, the Ar 196 fromLützow and the two Ar 196 fromPrinz Eugen were operated from the seaplane tenderHans Albricht Wedel. The three Ar 196s were continuously in the air and it was too risky for the cruisers to stop to recover the floatplanes, since Russian submarines were operating in the area. The Ar 196s were used for artillery direction, spotting the fall of shot, anti-submarine patrol and even engaged Russian fighters and bombers.[97] The Russians had also executedlandings on the strategically important Baltic IslandÖsel. The German army was retreating towards the peninsula ofSworbe on the island. On 23 and 24 October,Lützow bombarded Russian positions at Sworbe and thwarted the final Russian attack.[98] The defenders held their bridgehead but one month later the Russians renewed their attacks.Lützow was called in again on 23 November but the German army evacuated the same day.[99][99]
On 18 DecemberLützow was in Gotenhafen whenNo. 5 Group RAF executed a raid with 236Avro Lancasters. Many ships were sunk in the harbor but although there were several near-missesLützow was not hit.[100][101] At the end of December the cruiser moved toPillau, where in January two hundred survivors of the sinking ofTirpitz were embarked to replace theseekadetten. In early FebruaryLützow was again in action with Task Force Thiele: on 8 February four targets inFrauenburg andElbing were bombarded in support of the German4th Army against the advance made by the Russian3rd Army and48th Army.[102] As the Soviet army advanced along the Baltic coast,Lützow evacuated on 6 March to Swinemünde. The cruiser did not enter the harbor but took up a position in theKaiserfahrt. There on 12 March she escaped a heavy daylight attack on the port ofSwinemünde. On 23 March, the RussianEast Pomeranian offensive reached the Baltic coast inZoppot between Gotenhafen and Danzig. Between 23 March and 4 April,Lützow was continuously in action in theGdańsk Bay, shelling Russian positions and warding off air attacks. A 17 cm Russian shell hit the conning tower but caused only minimal damage. On 3 April, the cruiser covered the evacuation of troops and refugees from Gotenhafen toHela inOperation Walpurgisnacht,[103][104]
On 13 April 1945, thirty-four Lancaster bombers from617 ("Dambusters") squadron andNo. 9 Squadron RAF launched an attack onLützow andPrinz Eugen inSwinemünde. Some Lancasters carried 1000-pound bombs, others carried the super-heavyTallboy bomb with which they had sunkTirpitz in November 1944. The raid had to be aborted because of cloud cover over the targets. A second raid by twenty Lancasters of 617 squadron two days later failed again because of cloud cover.[105] On 16 April, eighteen Lancasters from 617 squadron were more successful.[106][107] Three 1000-pound bombs hit the ship. One bomb hit the bow and another fell close to the aft turret, but both were duds. Another bomb destroyed the range finder and all platforms on the battle mast. Seven Tallboys were dropped, one of which exploded between the ship and the shore and tore a one-by-ten meter hole in hull.Lützow was prevented from capsizing by her superstructure hitting the shore. Most of the lower decks were flooded but power could be partially restored and the list eliminated. The aft turret fell out but the fore turret could be made operational.[108] Despite sinking, the water was shallow enough that her main deck was still 2 m (6 ft 7 in) above water, permitting her use as a stationary gun battery against advancing Soviet forces. She continued in this role until 4 May, by which time she had expended her main battery ammunition.[10] Her crew rigged scuttling charges to destroy the hull but a fire caused the explosives to detonate prematurely.[109][110]
The fate ofLützow was long unclear, as with most of the ships seized by the Soviet Navy. According to the historiansErich Gröner andM. J. Whitley, the Soviet Navy raised the ship in September 1947 and broke her up for scrap in 1948–1949.[10][111] The historians Hildebrand, Röhr and Steinmetz, in their bookDie Deutschen Kriegsschiffe, state that she instead sank offKolberg, claiming that theLützow broken up in the late 1940s was instead theAdmiral Hipper-classLützow that had been sold to the Soviet Union in 1940.[112] The historian Hans Georg Prager examined the Soviet archives in the early 2000s and discovered thatLützow had been sunk in weapons tests, in the Baltic Sea off Świnoujście in Poland (under German control and namedSwinemünde during the war), on 22 July 1947.[113][114]
In October 2020 an unexploded Tallboy bomb from the attack onLützow was found in the Piast Canal (Kaiserfahrt during the war). After evacuating approximately 750 people who lived nearby, an attempt was undertaken todeflagrate it with a remote-controlled device, but it exploded without casualties.[115]
