Admiral Hipper

Admiral Hipper-Class Heavy Cruisers were built for Germany's Kriegsmarine during the years of 1935 to 1939. Of the 5 originally planned, only 3 made it to completion.

Admiral Hipper-Class Cruisers served between the years of 1939–1945

Admiral Hipper-Class Cruisers Admiral Hipper, Blücher, Prinz Eugen all saw service in World War II, while the remaining Lützow was sold to Russia incomplete in 1940, and Seydlitz though almost completed began conversion to become a Light Aircraft Carrier which would have been named Weser. 

Admiral Hipper and Blücher took part in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway in April 1940. Blücher was sunk by Norwegian coastal defenses outside Oslo only 3 days after being released from her initial sea trials while Admiral Hipper led the attack on Trondheim. She then conducted sorties into the Atlantic to attack Allied merchant shipping. In 1942, she was deployed to northern Norway to attack shipping to the Soviet Union, culminating in the Battle of the Barents Sea in December 1942, where she was damaged by British cruisers. 

Prinz Eugen saw her first action during Operation Rheinübung with the battleship Bismarck. She eventually returned to Germany during the Channel Dash in 1942, after which she too went to Norway. After being torpedoed by a British submarine, she returned to Germany for repairs. Admiral Hipper while decommissioned after returning to Germany in early 1943, was partially repaired and recommissioned in the fall of 1944 for a refugee transport mission in 1945. Only Prinz Eugen continued to serve in full commission and stayed in the Baltic until the end of the war.