Built and commissioned in the early 1930s, the Deutschland was the second of three Deutschland class "Pocket Battleships built for the German Navy in the later years of the Weimar Republic. Armed with 6 11inch cannons in 2 triple turrets, the Deutschland class was designed to "outgun everything it can catch, and outrun everything it can't kill". This philosophy resulted in the ships being neither heavy cruisers (with their guns and armor outsizing even the largest heavy cruisers of the time) nor battlecruisers (being far too small). This gave the world the rather interesting trio of ships that served Germany for over a decade before the end of the war.

  In the late 1930s, the Deutschland participated in various neutrality patrols off the coast of Spain during the Spanish civil war without much action until 1937, when she was bombed by Republican SB-2 bombers. Bombers continued to Harass the ship until it's arrival in Gibraltar a few days later. The ship would spend the remainder of the inter-war period taking part in Goodwill visits to foreign ports.

In 1939, Deutschland began a campaign against allied shipping in the North Atlantic with limited success, sinking and capturing a number of freighters. Her commerce raiding would be cut short in November due to poor weather, and she returned to port for refit and repair. Deutschland was then renamed Lutzow on order from Hitler, having realized the propaganda value of losing a ship named after the country it served and set off to take part in the Invasion of Norway.

  During the early hours of the Invasion, the Oscarborg fortress near the landings opened fire on the German invasion fleet, sinking the Heavy cruiser Blucher and damaging Deutschland. On her return journey, she would be torpedoed by the submarine HMS Spearfish, with the hit collapsing the aft of the ship. After extensive repairs the ship would take part in various failed convoy hunts before moving to the Baltic to act as a support battery for German troops, sinking in the Piast Canal in 1945 after intense bombing by RAF bombers.

  Deutschland has been built as she appeared in 1935 during her long-distance training voyage in the Atlantic. Enjoy!