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About this City Journal

Created by Dreadnought & AP -- this is dedicated to the discussion of the evolution, as a ship type, of the Battlecruiser in the Imperial German Navy.

Entries in this City Journal

Dreadnought
Turret “Albert” of SMS Helgoland. Even though the Helgoland Class mounted 12-inch rifles, this picture gives you a good idea of the size of a main battery turret compared to the seaman standing at left. The turret is massive and squat, with heavy and menacing guns. Just beneath the gun barrels, you can see the skylights opening above the crew quarters in the forecastle. The armored covers are raised to the vertical position, while the hinged glass lids are opened to allow air to circulate. IMPERIAL...
Dreadnought
Palmer’s Shipbuilding & Iron Company, Ltd. -- Jarrow, Scotland – circa 1905. It is difficult to see much through the smoke, and steam, and early morning gloom. But this would have been a common sight along the River Tyne (“Tyneside”) in the early decades of the 20th Century. Highly visible are the unmistakable funnels and tripod masts of a pre-dreadnought battleship. Note the “spotting tops” on both masts. Just one of many British shipyards. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 14:...
Dreadnought
HMS Lion (flagship 1st Battlecruiser Squadron) On her way to a fateful rendezvous north of Dogger Bank, 23 January 1915. Note a screening destroyer in foreground. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 13: DEATH OF A HYBRID Panzerkreuzer of 1st Scouting Group at sea. The ship on the left is SMS Derfflinger. Note the rough seas and the heavy clouds of funnel smoke that would be visible for miles. In early January 1915, German light forces patrolling the Dogger Bank discovered...
Dreadnought
British light cruisers and destroyers putting to sea. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 12: PULLING THE LION’S TAIL The staff of “Room 40” in the early days of the Great War. Hard to believe they could cause the Imperial Navy so much trouble, isn’t it? On 13 December 1914, the British code-breakers in “Room 40” of the Admiralty began to notice an increase in German wireless traffic in Wilhelmshaven. Unbeknownst to the Germans, the British Naval Intelligence Services had...
Dreadnought
SMS Blucher – circa 1908. Though good photographs of her are scarce, this is a fairly good starboard quarter view. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 11: THE HYBRID CRUISER "Hy-brid”: Etymology -- Known in English since 1601, but rare before 1850’s. From the Latin hybrida, a variant of hibrida. (biology) Offspring resulting from cross-breeding different entities, e.g. two different species or two purebred parent strains. (non-biologic) Something of mixed origin or...
Dreadnought
SMS Deutschland riding at anchor in the Kieler Hafen – circa 1910 – 13,191 tons – 19.1 knots – 4x11-inch guns – 14x6.7-inch guns – 22x3.5-inch guns – 6x17.7-inch torpedo tubes – belt armor 9.4 inches. This was the last class of pre-dreadnought battleships commissioned into the Kaiserliche Marine. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 10: NEITHER FISH NOR FOWL With the appearance of HMS Dreadnought in 1906, the entire face of naval architecture changed over night. Admiral...
Dreadnought
SMS Scharnhorst, flagship, Imperial East Asiatic Squadron – moored to a buoy off Tsingtao, China – circa 1911. Note the old freighter at a pier to left, and notice the deployed boat booms on either side of the cruiser. The signal halyards are “dressed” for some “occasion” – but it’s impossible to make out the message. You can also see the shutters on the torpedo boat defense guns, in the bow casemates, are partially open to circulate air up forward. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP ...
Dreadnought
Italian pre-dreadnought battleship Regina Elena – a 4 ship class -- 13,807 tons – 22 knots – 2x12-inch guns – 12x8-inch guns – belt armor 9.8 inches. They were the fastest battleships in the world when launched, and are sometimes referred to as the precursor of the battlecruiser concept. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 08: THE ITALIAN, THE FIRST LORD, DREADNOUGHT, & THE UNEXPECTED. Vittorio Cuniberti – 1854 - 1913. A Naval Engineer in the Regina Marina (Italian Navy)....
Dreadnought
SMS Scharnhorst - 1908 – Photographed during her speed trials. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 07: THE LAST OF THE ARMORED CRUISERS Once the Oberkommando der Marine faced the fact that Admiral Tirpitz (Secretary Of State for the Navy) was building a fleet to be used against Great Britain, the whole course of strategic thinking changed. The design for the next class of armored cruisers was well under way, when the naval architects received a directive in mid-1904. The...
Dreadnought
SMS Roon and SMS Yorck riding at anchor in the Kieler Hafen – circa 1907. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 06: EVOLUTION OF THE ARMORED CRUISER As the construction years 1902-1903 approached, the Reichsmarineamt continued to negotiate with the Reichstag over building funds in the forlorn...
Dreadnought
SMS Friedrich Carl – circa 1905 – Leading a squadron of Wittelsbach Class pre-dreadnoughts on training exercises off Heligoland Island. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 05: "AN ILL-FATED LOT...” While the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office) played politics with the Reichstag, and their naval architects experimented with Furst Bismarck and Prinz Heinrich, the clock was ticking. The German Naval Command knew other powers would begin building their own armored cruisers...
Dreadnought
SMS Prinz Heinrich – circa 1902 – Moored alongside a fitting-out wharf in Kiel. The big tripod seen behind the aft pole mast is a pair of heavy lifting “sheers” used instead of an expensive cantilever crane. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 04: INNOVATION ON A BUDGET Though an excellent warship, SMS Furst Bismarck, the first German armored cruiser, had its’ faults -- chiefly, the cost. The naval constructors of the Kaiserliche Marine were careful men, and not known...
Dreadnought
The French armored cruiser Dupuy de Lome in the early stages of construction at the Brest Arsenal Shipyard – circa 1888. She was not a large vessel by modern standards, but she would make a big impact on world-wide naval policy. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 03: THE ADVENT OF THE ARMORED CRUISER French cruiser Dupuy de Lome seen after fitting out – circa 1891. BIRTH OF A CONCEPT At the same time the German construction plans were mired in indecision, the French were...
Dreadnought
SMS Hansa – Victoria Louise Class – a lithograph circa 1900. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 02: PROTECTED CRUISERS: A BRIEF EXPERIMENT Beginning in the 1860’s, the navies of the world transitioned from wooden-hulled warships to ironclads, then again to steel hulls. All the basic rules of naval construction were suddenly in constant flux. And not only ship’s hulls were changing. The cannon arming the ships began to change more in two decades than they had in the...
Dreadnought
Introduction: After a two-year-hiatus, the IMPERIAL DOCKYARD series has returned with a new map and harbor named “CUXHAVEN”. This is a continuation of my City Journal dealing with battleships and the era in which they flourished. The plan is to publish a new chapter every two weeks. “Cuxhaven” will, primarily, highlight the battlecruisers of the Imperial German Navy – how they came to be – their evolution – and their operational history. The Imperial battlecruisers were brilliant in their conception,...
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