German cruiser Blucher

[Robert9670]

German cruiser Blucher

 

Career

 

Name:  Blucher

 

Namesake:  Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher

 

Laid Down:  August 15, 1936

 

Launched:  June 8, 1937

 

Commissioned:  September 20, 1939

 

Fate:  Sunk in the Battle of Drobak Sound, April 9, 1940

 

General characteristics

 

Class and type:  Admiral Hipper - class heavy cruiser

 

Displacement:  Design:

16,170 tonnes (15,910 long tons, 17,820 short tons)

 

Full Load:  18,200 long tons (18,500 t)

 

Length:  203.2m (666 ft 8 in) overall

 

Beam:  22 m (72 ft 2in)

 

Draft:  Full Load:  7.2 m (24 ft)

 

Propulsion:  3 x Blohm & Voss steam turbines, 3 x three-blade propellers 132,000 shp (98 MW)

 

Speed:  32 knots (59 km/h, 37 mph)

 

Complement:  42 officers, 1,340 enlisted

 

Armament:  8 x 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns

   12 x 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns

12 x 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns

8 x 2 cm (0.79 in) guns (20 x 1)

6 x 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes

 

Armor:  Belt  70 to 80mm (2.8 to 3.1 in)

Armor deck:  20 to 50mm (0.79 to 2.0 in)

Turret faces:  105 mm (4.1 in)

 

Aircraft carried:  3 aircraft

 

Aviation facilities: 1 catapult

 

For further reading here is the Wikipedia article on the German cruiser Blucher

http://en.wikipedia....cruiser_Blücher

[anonym_auUiRfWCi1jI]

Nice addition. I'm out of +'s, I'll drop one on your OP tomorrow.  :Smile_great:

[Robert9670]

Blucher steaming to Norway, as seen from the German light cruiser Emden

[Robert9670]

Blucher sinking in the Drobak Sound

[JeeWeeJ]

It's just a copy-paste from wikipedia...

[Crag_r]

Interesting battle the Battle of Drøbak Sound, it is what happens when you underestimate a substantial shore battery, resulting in the loss of the Blucher and crippling another heavy curiser

[NGTM_1R]

It's less than that.

 

This is the one that blundered into the land-based torpedo tube and got sunk, isn't it?

[Robert9670]

Yes it is, and yes I did use the information from Wikipedia, but I mainly wanted to post the characteristics and career of the ship, if you want to read the rest of the story about the ship, go to Wikipedia.

[Crag_r]

NGTM_1R, on 06 January 2013 - 08:54 PM, said:

It's less than that.

This is the one that blundered into the land-based torpedo tube and got sunk, isn't it?

Sort of, it was the first round to hit it, a 28 cm round that started an uncontrollable fire near the aft magazine in oil storage, it was later that same fire set off the 10.5cm AA ammunition store blasting holes in the side of the ship and destroying bulkheads inside creating further fires and flooding.

[Robert9670]

JeeWeeJ, on 06 January 2013 - 08:52 PM, said:

It's just a copy-paste from wikipedia...

True, but I didn't see a thread for this ship, so I thought I would make one.

[Robert9670]

For those of you here that would like to read about the Battle of Drobak Sound on Wikipedia, here's the link

http://en.wikipedia....of_Drøbak_Sound

[Sampsonite]

This is a perfect example of why I brought up Shore based guns in my other post. Thanks for the post!!

[Capcon]

The other cruiser called Blucher:

 

http://www.militaryi..._blucher_01.jpg

 

so an extra 100,000 hp gets you 7 knots in top speed . . . and for game purposes not all that much else really, except AA I suppose.

 

 

Class & type: Armored cruiser

Displacement:

15,842 t (15,592 long tons) (designed)

17,500 t (17,200 long tons) (full load)

Length: 161.8 m (530 ft 10 in) overall

Beam: 24.5 m (80 ft 5 in)

Draft: 8.84 m (29 ft 0 in)

Installed power: 32,000 ihp (24,000 kW)

Propulsion:

3 × 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines

18 × marine-type boilers

3 × screws

Speed: 25.4 kn (47.0 km/h; 29.2 mph)

Range:

6,600 nmi (12,200 km; 7,600 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)

3,350 nmi (6,200 km; 3,860 mi) at 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph)

Complement:

41 officers

812 sailors

1026 at Dogger Bank

Armament:

12 × 21 cm (8.3 in) SK L/45 guns (6x2)

8 × 150 mm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns

16 × 8.8 cm (3.46 in) SK L/45 guns

4 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes

Armor:

6–18 cm (2.4–7.1 in) belt

14 cm (5.5 in) battery

18 cm (7 in) barbettes

6–18 cm (2.4–7.1 in) turret

8–25 cm (3.1–9.8 in) conning tower

[Gohibniu]

That one went down rather ingloriously as well!

[Haguro]

For the WWII Blucher, it should have been a avoidable loss.  To risk such a high value ship in confined waters when the shore battery was known to exist was an unfortuate blunder.  It seems the Germans could have landed or parachuted a group of commandos to have neutralized the shore battery before the ships were due to pass.  But, as the rest of the German Norwegian operations were a success they would count the loss of Blucher as minor in comparison to what they gained.