| Seydlitz was a heavy cruiser of the German navy,
fourth in the Hipper class, but was never completed. The keel was laid on 29 December
1936 at Deschimag shipyards in Bremen, and the ship was launched on 19 January
1939. At the outbreak of WWII the cruiser was only two thirds completed. The Soviet
Union sought to buy her, along with her also unfinished sister Lutzow, but
the request was turned down. With the emphasis of the naval building program shifting
to submarines, work on the ship suffered lengthy delays. In August 1942 it was
decided to convert the ship, by then 90% completed, into an aircraft carrier.
This required substantial reconfiguration, and the increasing scarcity of materials
forced work to cease in January 1943. Seydlitz was towed to Konigsberg where
she was scuttled on 10 April 1945. Raised by the Soviets in 1946 and renamed Poltava,
she is believed to have been scrapped in the 1950's decade. |