LARGE CRUISERS OF THE GERMAN IMPERIAL NAVY

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.