(Note that not all navies have use prefixes with their ship names, such "USS" for United States Navy ships and "HMS" for British Royal Navy ships. Prominent among such navies during WWII were both Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine and the Japanese Imperial Navy. In the case of the former, some postwar authors have subsequently adopted "DKM" - for "Deutsche Kriegsmarine" - in their accounts of the naval aspects of the war. Because of the limited number of characters allowed in the Subject lines to ebay listings, we have used this unofficial prefix for Deutschland there but have omitted the prefix for her and the other German ships identified in this descriptive narrative.)

Deutschland was the first of the three-ship Deutschland Class of near-sisters - Deutschland, Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee (often referred to simply as "Graf Spee"). Although these ships were similar in size, armor and armament, they differed significantly from each other in the layout and configuration of their superstructures - variations in their forward fire control towers, funnels and funnel caps and the placement of their masts, aircraft catapults and recovery cranes being the most apparent.

An interesting feature of the three ships, particularly in light of their relatively heavy displacement at full load of 14,520 tons, was that they were diesel powered. Each of their powerplants consisted of 8 MAN 9-cylinder double-acting two-stroke diesel engines arranged in 4 sets of two engines each. Two of the sets delivered 52,260 shaft horsepower to each of the ships' twin screws for a maximum speed of 28 knots.

For any aficionados who might be interested in the comparisons, our fourth through ninth pictures accompanying this listing show shots of the respective DeAgostini models of the thee ships viewed at an angle off the bow and then in profile. These are shown in both of the sets of three pictures in the order in which they entered service  - Deutschland, Scheer and Graf Spee.

From the time they were built the ships bore the designation Panzerschiff (Armored Ship) and were given the nickname "pocket battleship", a term coined by the British because the ships were essentially equal to cruisers of the day but heavily outgunned such vessels - this was borne out by their heavy armament of six 12 inch guns in two three-gun turrets. These were mounted fore and aft on relatively small, lightly armored hulls, the light armor being a compromise to enable the ships to reach the 28 knot top speed available from engines.

As explained below, the designation for the type was changed to Heavy Cruiser in early 1940 but by them the Graf Spee had been sunk and only Deutschland, which had now been renamed Lutzow, and Admiral Scheer were reclassified.

In the years immediately following her commissioning, Deutschland conducted training maneuvers and speed trials and then undertook goodwill visits to a number of foreign ports. In early 1935 a series of long distance training voyages took her as far as the Caribbean and South American waters. Upon her return to Germany, she was docked for routine maintenance work as well as for installation of new equipment, including the addition of a float plane catapult and an aircraft handling crane. (Since installation of a raked clipper bow to improve her sea-keeping qualities occurred 5 years later, the catapult on the model but its lack of the clipper bow led to our concluding that the model replicates Deutschland as she appeared between 1935 and 1940 as we've stated above.)

Even prior to WWII Deutschland saw significant service with the Kriegsmarine, including several non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War. In May 1937, while deployed off the Mediterranean coast of Spanish territory held by Republican forces, an attack by two Republican bombers, secretly flown by Soviet pilots, killed 31 of her crew and wounded 101 others.

At the onset of World War II, she was cruising the North Atlantic, prepared to attack Allied merchant traffic, but bad weather hampered her efforts and she sank or captured only a handful of vessels before returning to Germany. The major refit that installed the raked clipper bow mentioned above lasted for January through March 1940. During this time she was renamed Lutzow and reclassified as a heavy cruiser.

This renaming was entirely due to Hitler. Recognizing the propaganda value of sinking a ship that bore the name of its country, he personally made the decision to change Deutschland's name to Lutzow.  In turn Admiral Erich Raeder, Commander in Chief of the Kriegsmarine, also hoped that renaming the ship would confuse Allied intelligence -  with peace still prevailing between Germany and the Soviet Union under their Non-Aggression Pact of August 23, 1939, the fifth Admiral Hipper-Class heavy cruiser Lutzow had been designated for sale to the Soviet Navy and it was hoped that assigning the name Lutzow to Deutschland would disguise the transaction.

(To complete the record regarding the Admiral Hipper-Class Lutzow, the fifth ship of the class was the Seydlitz, construction of which stopped when it was 95 % complete with the intention of converting her to an aircraft carrier, but the plan never materialized due to Germany losing the war.)

Following completion of this refit, the ship, now as Lutzow, was to be sent on another commerce raiding operation into the South Atlantic. However, in April she was assigned to participate in Operation Weserubung, the invasion of Norway. Lutzow along with the heavy cruiser Blucher, as the flagship, the light cruiser Emden, three torpedo boats and eight minesweepers made up Group 5 which was tasked with capturing the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

The ships passed the outer ring of coastal batteries protecting the entrance to Oslofjord, at the head of which Oslo was located, shortly before midnight on the night April 8. Blucher was in the lead, followed by Lutzow and Emden and then the smaller vessels. There was a heavy fog and in compliance with neutrality requirements, the Norwegians fired warning shots, which the German ships ignored.

However, soon after noon that day the Polish submarine Orzel, operating as part of the Royal Navy, had sunk the clandestine German troopship Rio de Janeiro off Norway's coast. The last minute news of the sinking reached the Norwegians defending Oslo in time to put them on the alert, including those manning the guns and underwater torpedo tubes at Oscarsborg Fortress overlooking the fjord at Drobak Narrows.

The three German warships steamed into Oslofjord at 12 knots but as soon as they came into range the fortresses guns opened fire, the largest of which were 11 inches in diameter. During the ensuing Battle of Drobak Sound, Blucher was hit by many shells and two torpedoes, quickly capsizing and sinking to the bottom (where to this day she still rests on her side on the bottom in 210 feet of water). Lutzow sustained considerable damage by hits from three 6 inch shells. The action forced Lutzow, Emden and the smaller vessel with them to reverse course and exit the fjord.

The extent of Lutzow's damage prompted the Kreigsmarine to order her back to Germany for repairs. Even though she was cruising at high speed to avoid submarines, the British submarine HMS Spearfish attacked the ship on April 11, hitting her starboard side aft with one torpedo,on the starboard side aft - causing her stern to collapse and almost fall off, and destroying her steering gear. Unable to steer, Lutzow had to be towed to port for repairs. Her damage was so extensive that she was taken out service while the dockyard.

After finally being recommissioned on March 31, 1941, Lutzow was already out of action again that June 12 when she was attacked by British torpedo bombers off the southwestern tip of Norway. A hit from a single torpedo disabled her electrical system, damaged her port shaft and caused her to take on enough water to list severely to port. Damage control efforts by the crew righted the ship but she was not fully repaired and ready for service until May 10,1942.

She left Germany that May 15th for operations with Admiral Scheer off Norway and a force of destroyers. Fuel shortages restricted operations but the two large ships were able to conduct some battle training exercises. At anchor awaiting orders to attack an Allied supply convoy heading for the Soviet Union, Lutzow and three destroyers with got underway on July 3 in a fog, only to run around and suffer significant damage. This time she was undergoing repairs until the end of October 1942. 

In company with the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, she was then involved in an unsuccessful attack on another convoy heading to the Soviet Union that December 30. Hitler was so furious with the failure that he demanded that all major warships be broken up for scrap. Admiral Raeder resigned in protest, being replaced by Admiral Karl Donitz, who persuaded Hitler to rescind the order to dismantle the Kriegsmarine's surface fleet.

During the spring of 1943 while still in Norway, Lutzow began experiencing problems with her diesel engines. Her propulsion system became so unreliable that repairs in Germany were necessary. In September she entered a yard at Kiel for a complete overhaul which took until January 1944, after which she remained in the Baltic Sea to conduct training cruises for new naval personnel.

Finally on April 16, !945, while moored close to shore off the Kaiserfahrt (the German term for the mouth of the Piast Canal connecting the Oder Lagoon with the Baltic Sea), several RAF Lancaster bombers scored a hit and several near missed on Lutzow with Tallboy bombs, causing her sink. But the water was so shallow that after settling on the bottom, her main deck was still almost 7 feet above water, allowing her to be used as stationary gun battery against advancing Soviet forces. She continued in this role until May 4, by which time she had expended all of her main battery ammunition.

To keep the ship from being of any use to the Soviets, her crew attempted to destroy her hull with scuttling charges, but the effort failed and she remained in place, relatively in tact. As with most German ships failing into Soviet hands at the end of the war, her final fate long remained unclear. 

One account indicated that the Soviets raised the ship in 1947 and broke her up for scrap in 1948-49. But this has only relatively recently been proven untrue and some sources claim that the ship broken up in 1948-49 was the original Admiral-Hipper Class Lutzow which Germany had sold to the Soviet Navy in 1940. However, although the dates are in dispute, accounts on that ship state she was scrapped in 1953, 1958-59 or 1960. 

The actual fate of the Deutschland / Lutzow was discovered by an historian named Hans Georg Prager in the early 2000s. Researching the Soviet archives, he determined that the ship had been made sufficiently seaworthy again by the Soviets following the end of the war to eventually be sunk in weapons tests on July 22, 1947 in the Baltic Sea off Swinoujscie, Poland (formerly the German port and missile test facility of Swinemunde.

For a more complete account of Deutschland / Lutzow see the Wikipedia article entitled "German cruiser Deutschland" or Google other relevant sites on the Internet.

This group of models are full-hull pieces with the complete underwater portion, including screws and rudders. Very nicely detailed with generally well-defined mask lines between the different colors of paint used to add to their authenticity.

The model comes mounted on a black resin base and is securely packed inside a formed flexible outer plastic "case" mounted on a backing card. It is recommended that care be taken when removing the model from its packaging to avoid bending or breaking masts or other fragile parts. Once unpacked, the ship's masts, yards and radars might require slight 'tweaking' to properly straighten or align them.

When originally sold as a subscription piece, the model was accompanied by a 16 page 8 1/2'' by 11" color brochure with German text. However, the a brochure is not included with the model offered under this listing.

Diecast and plastic model. DeAgostini #DAKS09.

MIB. However, as suggested above, the nature of these models is such that small parts including masts, antenna, bridge deck levels, turrets and gun barrels can be misaligned. These conditions are generally only noticeable at close inspection and often can be carefully "tweaked' into proper alignment. Although the models in this series that we sell are all factory-new, we cannot make any representations that all their features are perfectly straight and correctly positioned.

FOR ANYONE NOT FAMILIAR WITH HOW TO INTERPRET A MODEL'S SCALE, THE MODEL IS 5 3/4 INCHES LONG. THIS IS EQUIVALENT TO DIVIDING THE LENGTH OF THE REAL SHIP IN INCHES BY 1250.