Loved the video, especially Aces High March for the music. Great job!!

I love Iron Dog! What to cruise the universe in the lovely lady and make peace!

Derfflinger... I can't say anymore.. What a time to be alive.. I really wish I was born in 1876 rather than 1976.. At least the world was still an adventure in the making. Nowadays it's a prison

SMS Derfflinger... we never forget your brave role in Battle of Jutland (Skagerrakschlacht).

Derfflinger was salvaged in 1939 and couldn't be broken up before the outbreak of WW2 so spent the entire war floating upside down in Scapa Flow with a care and maintenance party looking after the ship and tending the air compressors. She was finally towed to Faslane for breaking up in 1947 and thus spent more of her life floating upside down than she did floating the right way up.

Derfflinger was an outstanding WW1 Battlecruiser. Better than anything Britain had

Weird. I just watched The Battle of Britain on Netflix for the first time ever and then randomly stumbled upon this video and recognized the music instantly.

One of the best of it's day

7.15pm 31st May 1916 my grandfather's gun crew put a 12" shell into her forward port superstructure, splitting the decks, knocking out 2 x 6" guns and destroying a sick bay. You can see a sailor standing in the gap looking out with upended baths behind him. Prince Albert was sitting on top of 'A' turret when Derfflinger straddled HMS Collingwood with two salvoes @ 8500 yards. Later P. A. made cocoa for his gun crew, including my grandfather. They were reunited outside Belfast City Hall in 1937.

the battlecruisers on both sides have always fascinated me from WW1 , i guess because they saw so much action. battles of heligoland 1 and 2 , the falklands , gallipoli , the dogger bank , the raids on the british seaside towns and jutland. almost forgot the goeben :)

Superb pictures, thanks for posting.

What a well made video... The public omment section is also very good (with one silly exception) and was a pleasure to read through - a lot of very good information here.

@hmscollingwood Hi Collingwood, During WW II while us two kids were seeking shelter in our basement in Cologne during an airraid, our grandfather would tell us of his adventures in China in the year of 1910 as a crewmember of SMS Tsingtau. My grandfather had a buddy also one who served in China and those two swapped yarns. To bad we didn't think of writing the stories down. Grandfather was killed in 1944 on the way to an airraid shelter just two days before he was to leave Cologne. RIP Opa

0:59 Seydlitz with burning aft reloadings, Able Seaman Wilhelm Heidkamp just saving the ship by opening sea water valves. A lesson to be learned before engaging Jutland battle!

@hmscollingwood Hi, my grandfather also served during the Battle of Jutland, but I don't know which German ship. Prior to WW I he served on the SMS Tsingtau based in Kioutchou, China, and even earlier he was part of the Allied expeditionary corps that came to the aid of the westerners in Beyjing. He regaled us kids with stories of his service.

Thanks.

The best ship of WW1.

Thanks elswick, the battlecruiser Derfflinger IMHO was the one of the finest ship of Imperal German Navy during WWI, and definitevely my favourite.

My Grandfather was a gunners mate on Derfflinger and was involved in the Battle of Jutland. I'd like to find a website of German Navel personnel service records from WW1, but have failed to find anything like that yet.

SMS Derfflinger was a solid fighting ship. Bit rough on old Beatty there, though. I think he did as well as any commander could have under the circumstances. The High Seas Fleet was turned back by this action (Jutland), the Brits were stronger than before in a month or so afterward, and the surface threat to England was essentially nullified. I think Beatty ran a top notch outfit, and our (U.S.) BBs picked up valuable experience serving under him as they did for a time.

nice thing about German war ships, they sank very well and with dignity

5 years of glory

Admiral Craddock was a great admirer of the Kaiser, having a portrait on his quarters wall at the Kiel Regatta in 1914, according to Franz Von Papen. (A 'diplomatic' bomb sabateur in the USA and Canada in WW1, foreign ambassador of Herr Hitler in WW2. Entered diplomatic service in December 1913 as a military attaché to the German ambassador in the United States. Accredited to Mexico in early 1914 and observed the Mexican Revolution, returning to Washington, D.C. on the outbreak of World War I).

Chuck. My Grandfather served in the Austro-Hungarian Kaisersmarineampt the K-u-k navy onboard the SMS Viribus Unitius as a turret Commander in Turret number two forward and was a comrad of your Grossvater in the great war.

my 3rd fav battlecruiser after Seydlitz,Renown,great ship

Georg von Derfflinger. Field Marshal in Prussian army under Friedrich Wihelm von Brandenburg. Conducted a victorious battle against Sweden 1675.

This is how bad Beatty was,4 of his battlecruisers had 13.5" guns with a range of 24000yds longer than any of the German BC,S,told by Captain Chatfield that German gunnery was deadly inside 16000yds,he closed the range to 16000yds.

.. as he pushed open the rear turret door. The 5000 degrees fireball from the Collingwood's 12" H.E. shell split the German's decks and set her on fire and she pulled out of line, probably to clear the smoke. Prince Albert was disappointed that the Collingwood, didn't have a scratch on her after the battle,,! My grandfather and he got together again outside Belfast City Hall when King George VI visited during his Coronation tour, 1937.. They talked for 5 minutes in front of a crowd of 150,000.

Beatty was no Jellicoe either. Damn twit blew every engagement he was in.

@Yamato980, each has a cetain personality, since each was built individually. In WWII, mass production made the ships more alike the others for sure.

@elswick1542 Thank you kind sir. My gunner grandfather later went on to serve in her until 1922 as a gunnery instructer when shewas demoted to a training ship until the fateful1922 Washington Naval Arms Limitation Treaty when so many of our faithful dreadnoughts were scrapped, including the Collingwood who's last voyage was to the Isle of Wight where she was scrapped at Newport in March 1923. She fired 84 heavies at Jutland with 2 hits on Derfflinger, so I believe, according to Prince Albert,,,

@elswick1542 You were right as always. Derfflinger capsized while sinking and was brought to dry dock upside down. Hull was raised 1939, then works were interrupted by war, in 1946 hull was taken to breakers. Breaking was done in Clyde, Scotland. Interesting- the turrets did not fall off like it happened to Bismarck.

I have to tuck in now as it's after 2:00 hours here zulu time. There is a 6ft model I believe, transferred from HMS Collingwood, land base, now in the gunnery school at, HMS Excellent, Whale Island, as I was advised when a couple of years ago I visited on an open day. As yet I haven't set eyes on this fabled model. There are quite a few in the Science Museum, London, with HMS Vanguard among others.

Interesting shot of the ship after it was raised with the portable dry dock while still inverted. The main turrets are still mounted. When Bismark capsized as he was sinking the turrets feel free since they were only held on by gravity.

To był wspaniały okręt. Szkoda, że musiał zostać zatopiony, ale nie można było pozwolić żeby dżemojady przejęły Flotę Cesarską. Chwała Bohaterom !

@elswick1542 You possibly could try to make a video of Thetis and the poor guys trying to escape. This was a very dramatic story! Also interesting a video of submarine accidents in general, many photos available!

@hmscollingwood I imagine they no longer make models of the Collingwood etc, but maybe you could make a simple one. As a youngster I made Grand Fleet ships out of balsa wood at a scale of 1 inch to 100 feet and used pins for cannons and masts. Painted the decks with varnish and the hulls dark grey. i think I had one of that class, but that was 50 years ago that I last saw them.

Extremely handsome ships. Even more so with pole mast.

@westlock Its the Luftwaffa theme from the film,part of the soundtrack.

Hello Collingwood, thank you for the fascinating stories about grand paw. Please write these stories down so they will be preserved within your family. That is what I have done. Chloe 7829 (Chloe is our cat)

The music is Aces High from the Battle of Britain soundtrack

@elswick The first Holland class! I have a photo showing Holland entering his boat with hat and suit, this is such a funny picture. Indeed, only Hunley stayed longer under water!

@hmscollingwood Thank you for your very ample and interesting information on that event!! I saw some ships that looked like members of the Collingwood's class and wonder if it might have been her, although the Bellerophons looked very similar. You have a fascinating amount of knowledge about that stupendous occasion. Would you have a model of the Collingwood? My regards and friendship!

@hmscollingwood Wow! Quite an experience! Old sailors and their memories. Interesting to note that George V as Duke of York had been a naval officer as was Duke of York, later George VI . Previously King William IV had been a navy man also.

@elswick1542 Good idea, not sure. Handling of charges was easy, shells were locked by a big screw which had to be removed to install bottom fuse, another screw had to be removed to install nose fuse (if required). It´s said they fired 3 rounds in 48 seconds which would require a separate working room below firing area. Will have to look. Interesting question, really.

@robinhood48 Good engineering and exact balance,

I think the 15" hit on X barbette was the thickest plate penetrated by either side 280mm.

Egal ob Tommis oder Deutsche, mir tun die armen Matrosen noch heute leid, das war grausames Töten. Bitte nie wieder Krieg.

@jeanmaxkortex no you are right music is the Luftwaffe theme from the 1969 film The battle of Britain.

@elswick1542 Tiesenhausen, the Barham killer? Agree to that underwater sonar thing, a problem could be the limited horizontal range. But they will find something, that´s for sure.

@scottduncan44 Bismarck's guns were designed by Krupp they used a sliding breach with a main charge in a brass case,fore charge silk bag,Shell was 800kg 1764lb Mv 820mps. Littorio used interrupted screw breech all charges in 6 silk bags.Shell 1,951 lbs. (885 kg)Mv 2,789 fps (850 mps) The Italian gun was the most powerful 15" ever made with the longest range of any BB gun.

The USS Texas was one of the ships that served under Beatty's command, and is (albeit barely) still afloat in Galveston, TX as the world's oldest remaining dreadnought. Also one of a few remaining, I believe, to have seen service in both WWs.

Thanks for posting. The music is beautiful. What is it? As a reminder for those like me who are not so knowledgeable: SMS = Seiner Majestät Schiff - his majesty's ship

@hmscollingwood Actually, the Texas is in Houston, which is just off a river mouth leading to the Gulf of Mexico. It was in the 6th Battle Squadron (US battleships) of the Grand Fleet towards the end of the war, as you said, and in WW II fought in both the Atlantic and Pacific! I found it most interesting that you still have HMS Caroline from WW I in Belfast. Thanks for that information. Your grandfather was in the Grand Fleet: Marvelous! What a privilege. Did he tell you anything?

@elswick1542 After some turret jams they used ball bearings for the heavy 38 cm artillery instead of roller bearings. Since then the turrets were held in position by own weight. Not sure about König class.

My favourite would be Hindenburg, certainly these three ships were very fine indeed, they did get a battering though she fired 298 12inch shells with 16 hits, she was hit 21 times hits from Indomitable damaged the torpedo nets, had to stop for 2 minutes 15 inch from Revenge penetrated German thick armour X barbette at end 3350 tons of flood water aboard repairs at Kiel only completed 15th October had the weather been rough, wilhelmshaven further away, more daylight for the battle, etc- the end

@elswick1542 Depends. If you sail with Italian cruise follow the captain and crew to find the boats.

@Robinhood48 I live about 65 miles from the Scottish boarder,in the mid seventies a reservoir was built at a place called Kielder at the time it was the largest in Western Europe and surrounded by the largest man made forest but by know there are probably bigger,some years ago the first RN submarine was found,it sunk under tow to a scrap yard early 20th century and was raised and preserved ,only diff is the scale.

@elswick1542 The Bismarck movie, where they showed the loading procedure using a film of loading drill on HMS Vanguard? Hope I recall correctly. Anyway, you should be totally right. The characters SK mean Schnelladekanone (Fast loading gun), because the loading drill went similar to the description you just gave. The actually did not need a big stowage inside turret because they only stowed the fuses of the shells, charges were in silk bags anyway.

@robinhood48 Might be thinking of the 11" turret.Seen some film of I think this gun being loaded.Shells delivered to the side of the gun tipped over onto a tray then power rammed,main charge and fore charge delivered to side of gun again tipped and rammed,very simple and fast with only the fore charge exposed to flash for a short time.Its hard to id the type as normally only pictures of the outside are seen.

@elswick1542 Bismark's guns were a design by Ansaldo (Italy) used on the Littorio class battleships which were not only as good or better than the Bismark but actually had a useful service

Very good report, indeed! Thank you very much! Out of Kiel ("International Kiel- Chanel, Kiel- Week, Kieler Woche"), Greetings to you!...:-D...

Historically Beatty got what he deserved although it took about 85 years until his tactics were compared to his fire control capability scientifically,turns out he simply did not have the remotest idea of the capability of his ships ,almost every manoeuvre he ordered messed up his fire control or caused smoke interference.

@chloe7829 SMS Tsingtao was apparently a river gunboat, so it may have been left behind at the outbreak of war, or possibly scuttled (a fine old German tradition), at the outbreak of WW1. It was not mentioned in the Pacific Fleet commanded by Von Spee which came to grief at the Falklands after being chased down by a Royal Navy twin battlecruiser task force, sent by Churchill after the defeat of the antiquated force at Coronel under Admiral Craddock.

In company he also had 4 Qe class BB,S 15" guns 13" armour 24.5 k speed,but as he wished for Glory he stationed them 5 miles to the north an signalled enemy in sight with flags! blamed ADM Thomas post war,but if it was not for his 4 ships Beatty would have been dead.

"Aces high" one of the all time great marches and theme song of the Battle of Britain

@hmscollingwood SMS Tsingtau. Vaterland Class (2 ships). 280 tons. Length: 50.1 metres. Beam 8 metres. Draught: 0.94 metres. SMS Vaterland: Launched: 26/08/1903. Captured by the Chinese, 20/03/1917. Apparently still lives as Batavia (?) but heavily converted up to 350 tons. Spent some time as lodgings for yacht club in 1950s. SMS Tsingtau: Launched 18/04/1904. Transported to China and re-assembled at Hong Kong. Operated on West River.

@robinhood48 Exactly it never ends.I see the U-212,s are made from none magnetic steel,future Barracuda torpedoes and with silent fuel cell,noise coatings that's some combination! take a long time to find a detection method.Maybe in future active sonar will return.

@chloe7829 At least in Dallas Texas you have the last remaining true 'dreadnought', USS Texas, well restored and in good fettle. More than can be said for a navy which had 1000 ships at the beginning of WW1 and 3000 by the end. Only HMS Caroline, a light cruiser in dry dock, Belfast, N Ireland, remains as our reminder of Jutland - still used as a training ship. My grandfather would have known the Texas when she was at Scapa Flow and patrolling with the Grand Fleet, under Beatty by then.

@robinhood48 Some pictures are hard to date,I think the most of the RN ships had the nets removed before J/S but artists often show the ships with them,IIR Derfflinger,s net fowled a prop during the battle,ot was it Von der tan.

@jonewer He carried around a Chinese rifle bullet in his left lung for the rest of his life. Beatty, I believe, helped rescue him during the operation.

@elswick1542 Also interesting rate of fire! Possible that twin turrets enable the crew to provide higher loading speed? Also important is loading angle.

@norton996 15" turrets on one of the German BB,S probably Byern also dropped out when scuttled in 1919 they are still at Scapa.

@matamuelas Nice to have you here!

1:20 It is the SMS "König" herself. She still lies on the bottom of Scapa Flow. Being no Sea Grave she could be raised and restored.

@elswick1542 That's true. The Dogger Bank hits were lethal too.

Best Battlecruiser of WW1

@jers59 As a matter of fact Belfast was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe during WW2 as it had Harland & Wolff which was the biggest shipyard in the world at the time. During that period hundreds were killed. H & W built many battleships, cruisers, destroyers, etc. during WW2 and beside it was Short and Harland which was building, among other craft, the Short Flying Boat. Which just about sums up the typical level of international knowledge of the average American - most don't have a passport.

Lion survived about 18 hits,Tiger about 17,Queen Mary exploded.

@chloe7829 Thats interesting. Jellicoe aslo took part and was wounded in the Boxer Rebellion.

Derflinger's turrets held in place not by their weight alone....neat.

@robinhood48 History seems to show that stealth will be made obsolete by some sort of new sensor tech.Every time something is made hard to find an invention follows that finds it.

Im looking all those ships from ww1, Seydlitz, Derfflinger, Dreadnought, Iron Duke, Warspite, Invincible...And i cant say which one of them is more interesting of another.

@robinhood48 Very true,seems to be more than the usual number of small wars around the world at the moment,just have to hope they don't spread.

@elswick1542 While a visit of Maginot line I was given the opportunity (after I successfully started an old diesel engine) to operate one of the turrets. It was amazing how simply and easily this huge machinery can be moved without using any electricity!

@robinhood48 Very true,few submarines are remembered,have tried to compile a vid of HMS Upholder but found about 6 photographs.

should make that Seydlitz Renown Derfflinger.

It is a sad fact that up to immediately before the British declaration of war against Germany, due to the UK alliance with Belgium, the Royal Navy and Kreigsmarine were the best of friends, engaging in sports events with each other at naval gatherings, even to the point of exchanging friendly flags after departure from the Keil Regatta when war seemed inevitable. Now, more sensibly, we are on the same side. May it always remain so. Ultimately, Germany won its 'place in the sun' with car exports.

@elswick1542 Absolutely possible if not inevitable. In addition I can say that the WW I war turrets, also the 38cm, have nothing to do with the turrets of Bismarck- and (never installed) Scharnhorst class. Maybe the desire for higher elevation and usage of reduced charges for plunging fire requested a totally new construction. And, when a vessel capsized nobody cared about the turrets anymore!

@FRAGIORGIO1 According to 'P.A' or Mr Johnson' also referred to, in 'The King's Speech' as another pseudonym, he wrote to an aunt saying that he was sitting on top of 'A' turret roof watching the germans running into the Grand Fleet's guns and the Collingwood was straddled by the Derfflinger at 8,500 yards the Collingwood replied and tore a hole in her fo'rd port superstructure, at 7.15pm. Presumably afteer being drenched and spotted he was ordered to get down, knocking over a stout Lt ..

Why the photo of the canon tower is from english battlecruiser Lion after Skagerrak battle????

@robinhood48 Yes Bismarck's guns were a new design but you just can not tell some people.

The finest class of warship ever fielded by Germany. Better than all the British B.C.'s except tiger. Much better balance than Renown, Repiulse and Hood. Along with the Kongo's the Finest battlecruiser class ever built. Showed their worth at Jutland. Only the arrival of the Queen Elizebaths saved Beatty's battlecruisers at Jutland. Also an elegant and balanced design.

What a choice though!

@robinhood48 Read an article a few years ago. When Goodall the Naval construction director for most of WW2 was shown around U-570 he could not understand why the frames were so light but the hull was so thick IIR the designers used a calculation developed for high pressure boilers. Think 800m possible 600m no problem,think it was U-331 that dived to 300m, Back in the 60,s Leander class frigates had a sonar that could be lowered below the cold layers maybe time for a comeback.

@FRAGIORGIO1 I am sorry I don't have a model of the Collingwood. She was the second of the St Vincent class which was the 3rd generation after Dreadnought. Each stage slightly bigger and better, culminating in the huge Queen Elizabeths. My grandfrather was a gunnery instructer until she was scrapped in March 1923, at St Peter Port, Isle of Wight. She came to Brighton in July 1914 on her way to the Spithead Review, with the 1st Battle Squadron, 8500 sailors feted for 3 days, where I now live.

@robinhood48 Close look at a 11" gun diagram,this time I think I have an answer.Definitely has a loading chamber that revolves with the gun house inside the fixed mount,the cylindrical hoist is attached at the bottom to the lower platform deck,think it rotates with the loading chamber on a bearing so its not just gravity that holds it in.11"/12" are probably light enough that this holds the turret in inverted.

@FRAGIORGIO1 Luftwaffa theme from the film Battle of Britain don,t remember but may have been Ron Goodwin.

Yes I also forgot the Goben(Yavus)stated that Renown was the last Battlecruiser,even though I knew the Yavus was not scraped until 1972,rapidly put right.

@robinhood48 Picture of this turret type shows no working chamber,charges lifted by tube hoist and shells direct to guns,possible the turret is attached direct to the mounting not working chamber to mounting making for a stronger structure?