In the 1920s, Germany began a modest program to rebuild its fleet, now renamed the Reichsmarine. These ships could be replaced when they reached twenty years of age, and the cruisers were limited to a displacement of 6,000 metric tons (5,900 long tons 6,600 short tons). Only six old pre-dreadnought battleships and six old light cruisers could be kept on active duty. The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to surrender most of its remaining vessels. Many were sunk in the course of the war, and the majority of the remainder were either seized as war prizes by the victorious Allies, scuttled by their crews in Scapa Flow in 1919, or broken up for scrap. Their service ranged from commerce raiding patrols on the open ocean to the fleet engagements in the North Sea such as the Battle of Jutland. Most of the armored and light cruisers saw action in World War I, in all of the major theaters of the conflict. The protected and unprotected cruisers had been withdrawn from active service by the 1910s, though some continued in secondary roles. The armored cruisers in turn led to the first German battlecruiser, SMS Von der Tann. They were built to fill a variety of roles, including scouts for the main battle fleet and colonial cruisers for Germany's overseas empire. After several iterations of each type, these cruisers were developed into armored and light cruisers, respectively, over the following decade. The first designs- protected and unprotected-were ordered to replace aging sail and steam-powered frigates and corvettes that were of minimal combat value. Starting in the 1880s, the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) began building a series of cruisers. Kaiserin Augusta and Seeadler, two of Germany's earliest cruisers, in New York in 1893
0 kommentar(er)
