GROßE KREUZER

Finally able to get around the Kaiser's fondness for the 11" gun and recognizing the need to match the heavier armaments mounted on British capital ships, designers for the German Navy (the K-RMA) took the Derfflinger design and modified it slightly in width and length to accommodate the newly developed 380mm/45 caliber twin turret. In a throw-backback to the Von der Tann, the rudders were placed in the more commonplace side-by-side, or dual, configuration.

Armor protection was again heavier than her British contemporaries, but Mackensen still would have made 28 knots using 90,000 horsepower. To compensate for the additional topside weight of the larger turrets, the casement guns were placed one deck lower than on Derfflinger.

Though Mackensen and Graf Spee were launched, little or no work was done on any of the ships after 1917 due to a lack of material and manpower. The Allies, not knowing this, listed Mackensen as one of the ships to be interned on November 21, 1918. In its place the SMS Baden, the fleet flagship, was sent in its place and was lost with the rest of the fleet at Scapa Flow. In 1920 Prinz Eitel Friedrich was launched to clear the building ways. All the ships were quickly scrapped after the war.

The Mackensen class was originally set to be seven strong, but the last three ships were redesigned prior to being laid down and are commonly considered the Ersatz Yorck class.