From a total of fifteen
Large Cruisers of the German Imperial Navy, six vessels were large cruisers
protected by an armored deck only, with other nine being armored cruisers. From
the latter category two prototypes were built, followed by three series of two
ships each, and by one final single vessel, that represented the zenith of this
type built for the Imperial Navy. Six oldest protected cruisers were removed from
the frontline service early in the WW I, but from nine armored cruisers six
were sunk during the war, with two best-known ? Scharnhorst and Gneisenau ?
being lost in the South Atlantic, and the newest armored cruiser ? Blücher ?
during a battle in the North Sea, also fighting against a more powerful
adversary, the battlecruisers.
The already well-known maritime author Zvonimir Freivogel is in this richly
illustrated book describing the development of the German and foreign armored
cruisers as well, the vessels that were having their zenith in the late 19th
and early 20th Century, to be made obsolete by the battlecruisers. In addition
to the overview of technical data of the German Large Cruisers (from Kaiserin
Augusta to Blücher), their less-known missions, as they also took part at
international Missions, and their training cruises on all World´s oceans before
the WW I are listed in detail, together with the operations executed during the
war and with their final fates.
Author: Zvonimir Freivogel
Pages: 186
Photographs: 221
Biding: softcover
Color: black and white/color
Dimensions: 23 x 28 cm
Year of publication: 2022.