Talk:General Discussion/@comment-42.60.10.154-20150315014322/@comment-207.98.198.84-20150403054014

The Deutschland-class didn't sacrifice range at all. They in fact had even longer range than Bismarck. They were indeed slower than most heavy cruisers, but that was specifically so they could achieve such long cruising range. The "panzerschiffe" designation came about because the Treaty of Versailles was supposed to limit Germany to just coast defense ships. It simply never occurred to the British and French that Germany would sacrifice defense of its own coastline in favor of commerce-raiding cruisers like the Deutschland-class. Nor did they account for Germany being willing to just flat-out lie about the Deutschland-class being some 50% heavier than they were allowed to be.