German cruiser Lützow (1939)

German cruiser Lützow (1939)

Lützow in Soviet service
History
Nazi Germany
Name:	Lützow
Builder:	Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau, Bremen
Laid down:	2 August 1937
Launched:	1 July 1939
Fate:	Sold to the Soviet Navy, 11 February 1940
Soviet Union
Name:	Petropavlovsk
Acquired:	Towed to Leningrad, 15 April 1940
Renamed:	Tallinn (from 1 September 1944) Dniepr (1953)
Fate:	Broken up 1960
General characteristics
Class and type:	Admiral Hipper-class cruiser
Displacement:	Design: 17,600 t (17,300 long tons; 19,400 short tons) Full load: 20,100 t (19,800 long tons; 22,200 short tons)
Length:	210 m (689 ft 0 in) overall
Beam:	21.80 m (71 ft 6 in)
Draft:	Full load: 7.90 m (25.9 ft)
Propulsion:	3 × Blohm & Voss steam turbines 3 × three-blade propellers 100,000 hp (75 MW)
Speed:	32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Complement:	42 officers 1,340 enlisted
Armament:	8 × 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns 12 × 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns 12 × 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns 8 × 2 cm (0.79 in) guns (20 × 1) 6 × 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 70 to 80 mm (2.8 to 3.1 in) Armor deck: 20 to 50 mm (0.79 to 1.97 in) Turret faces: 105 mm (4.1 in)
Aircraft carried:	3 aircraft
Aviation facilities:	1 catapult

Lützow was a heavy cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, the fifth and final member of the Admiral Hipper class, but was never completed. The ship was laid down in August 1937 and launched in July 1939, after which the Soviet Union requested to purchase the ship. The Kriegsmarine agreed to the sale in February 1940, and the transfer was completed on 15 April. The vessel was still incomplete when sold to the Soviet Union, with only half of her main battery of eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns installed and much of the superstructure missing.

Renamed Petropavlovsk in September 1940, work on the ship was delayed by poor German-Soviet co-operation in crew training and provision of technical literature to enable completion of the ship, which was being carried out in the Leningrad shipyards. Still unfinished when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the ship briefly took part in the defense of Leningrad by providing artillery support to the Soviet defenders. She was heavily damaged by German artillery in September 1941, sunk in April 1942, and raised in September 1942. After repairs were effected, the ship was renamed Tallinn and used in the Soviet counter-offensive that relieved Leningrad in 1944. After the end of the war, the ship was used as a stationary training platform and as a floating barracks before being broken up for scrap sometime between 1953 and 1960.

Lützow was ordered by the Kriegsmarine from the Deschimag shipyard in Bremen.Lützow was originally designed as a light cruiser version of the Admiral Hipper class heavy cruisers, armed with twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) guns instead of the Admiral Hipper's eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns. The Kriegsmarine decided, however, to complete the ship identically to Admiral Hipper on 14 November 1936. Her keel was laid on 2 August 1937, under construction number 941. The ship was launched on 1 July 1939, but was not completed.