Linienschiffe 1919:
The New German Ships, Part Two
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
January 2026

Jutland: Linienschiffe 1919 is an expansion for Great War at Sea: Jutland, all about the drawing-board battleships, battle cruisers, and cruisers drawn up for the German High Seas Fleet, but never actually constructed. We looked at the new German battleships and some of the battle cruisers in Part One. Here are the rest of the battle cruisers, plus the armored cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers:

A New Kind of Great Cruiser
At the Battle of Jutland, the German battle cruisers had suffered from a perceived lack of speed. Much of that stemmed from the poor-quality coal in their bunkers; the naval staff in Berlin either was not aware of this or chose not to be aware, and lobbied for a new class of great cruiser with greater speed.

This new ship would carry bigger guns as well, to out-range the British 15-inch Mark I, and armor sufficient to defeat 15-inch shells. The designs were not presented until early 1918, when Germany had no hope of laying down and completing new capital ships. These fantasy ships would be huge, the largest warships ever built in Germany up to that time, with eight 420mm (16.5-inch) guns in four turrets. Outwardly they resembled faster versions of the L20e battleship design, but the two alternative battle cruiser designs presented were completely new drafts and not based on L20e.

The Navy had been authorized three new battle cruisers in the summer of 1916 and hoped to squeeze out a fourth; we included four examples of GK4541 (the official design designation) in Linienschiffe 1919. They are very potent ships, as one might imagine of a vessel that existed only on paper.

Fast Armored Cruisers

While great cruisers grew ever greater, Admiral Georg Hebbinghaus of the General Department (in charge of training, organization, and readiness) pushed for a fast armored cruiser. Hebbinghaus had commanded the Second Scouting Group at Dogger Bank and before the war had overseen plans for war with the United States. Such a ship would both strengthen the scouting groups and be well-suited for commerce raiding in the North Atlantic.

Hebbinghaus suggested a mixed main armament of 210mm and 150mm guns in turrets, on a 14,000-ton hull derived from the Derfflinger design. The committee convened by Tirpitz to study design proposals suggested choosing one or the other, and so we went with six of each in Linienschiffe 1919, providing a version with 210mm guns and one with 150mm guns (in quadruple turrets). Both designs are formidable combat units when facing British light cruisers; they won’t last long against true battle cruisers.

More Small Cruisers

German practice looked at their light cruisers (“small cruisers” as the German Navy called them, distinct from “great cruisers”) as multi-purpose vessels. Interchangeably, they could scout for the High Seas Fleet, undertake independent missions (like high-speed minelaying), serve as station ships at German colonies, and show the flag around the globe. As a result, the war took a heavy toll on them: by the conclusion of the Battle of Jutland, sixteen of them had been lost to various causes.

The Cöln class of 10 small cruisers, laid down in 1915 and 1916, were intended to replace some of those losses. They followed a design very similar to that of previous small cruisers, though they carried to standard armament of eight 150mm guns from the start. Like other German small cruisers, they could also lay mines.

Only two of them would be completed before the end of the war; bother were scuttled at Scapa Flow in 1919. They appear in Jutland, along with the five ships launched but not completed. Three more would be laid down in 1916 but never reached the launching stage; these three ships appear in Linienschiffe 1919.

A Heavy-Armed Light Cruiser

To follow the Cöln class, the German Admiralty looked at splitting the type by function: a smaller fleet cruiser to work with the battle fleet, and a larger, longer-range ship for colonial presence, showing the flag, and commerce destruction.

That bigger ship would carry bigger guns. The admirals looked at proposals for a ship with 170mm (6.7-inch) guns, but the existing German 170mm naval gun had been a failure and a new weapon would have to be developed. The 210mm SK L/45, however, was an outstanding weapon and already in service. The proposed cruiser would have four such guns, in shielded single mounts along the centerline, a high speed (31 or 32 knots) but little protection. She would be as long as an armored cruiser, and a very expensive ship. That would doom the project, but we have five of them in Linienschiffe 1919, to give the Scouting Forces some considerable bite.

The Super-Destroyer

As part of the effort to establish “superiority of type” over the British, the German Admiralty also demanded a super-destroyer. The Type 1916 torpedo boat would be the size of a small cruiser, weighing in at 2,345 tons (compared to 975 tons for the Type 1913 standard fleet destroyer). She would carry a cruiser’s armament: four 150mm guns and four torpedo tubes. At 34 knots, she would be much faster than previous destroyers as well.

All of that went against Tirpitz’s thoughts on torpedo craft. The Grand Admiral had preferred to keep them small, so that they had correspondingly smaller crews that could be commanded by just one officer. The new boat needed more than twice as many men, and therefore at least one more officer, stretching the Navy’s manpower.

In theory, the bigger guns would give the big torpedo boat a significant range advantage over British destroyers. Since only two of the twelve ordered would be completed before the war, that was never tested in combat, but each served for two decades in the French and Italian navies after the war. We included seven of them in Jutland, and the remaining five are present in Linienschiffe 1919.

Merely Large Destroyers

Along with the big destroyers to provide gunnery support, the High Seas Fleet would replace its small torpedo boats with much bigger, faster, and better-armed standard fleet destroyers to match British practice. The Type 1918Mob would be much bigger than previous German torpedo boats (or most British boats) at 1,500 tons’ displacement, and carry four 105mm (4.1-inch) guns with six torpedo tubes. She would also be very fast.

The German Navy ordered 53 boats, none of which were completed as warships (four incomplete hulls would be converted into merchant ships after the war). We included ten pieces for them in Linienschiffe 1919, each representing up to three boats.

Order Linienschiffe 1919 Here.
Please allow an extra six weeks for delivery.

Sign up for our newsletter right here. Your info will never be sold or transferred; we'll just use it to update you on new games and new offers.

Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and three children.

Daily Content includes no AI-generated content or third-party ads. We work hard to keep it that way, and that’s a lot of work. You can help us keep things that way with your gift through this link right here.